My lab won't swim??!!

[pants]

I have a 11 month old chocolate lab who is afraid to go into the deep water. She loves to go shallow and get her body and feet wet but when she makes her way to deeper water and it is time to swim she turns right around and goes back to shallow water. I have always let her go into the water on her own, never forcing her in. Once the water warms up I am going to try and go in myself and hope that she follows. That is all I can think of. Any other advice? Thanks.

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[irvingdog]

She's an "under-retriever".

Ba-dum-dum!

Thank you. G'night!

[superfish2]

I would think your two best bets are, getting in the water yourself, and getting another older dog and having that dog swim. Throw some dummies for the older dog and have your pup watch that dog fetch them.

[BLACKJACK]

First off, make sure the water is warm enough. Right now most water should be fine, but don't introduce them to water in early May or in Lake Superior. What I've always done is start throwing dummies along the edge of a pond or lake, let them splash and run along the shore, bringing the dummy back to you. Keep it fun and keep your excitement up. Eventually throw it out a little deeper, if they like dummmies, they'll go after it. You'll see that at first they don't want to swim, they'll 'bob', hitting the bottom of the pond with their hind feet. Go slow on this, do it over several sessions, make it so they love that retrieving along the edge, throw some up on land too. Also set it up so that the wind is in your face, you don't want that dummy (and dog) going out too deep because of the wind blowing the dummy out (I had that experience with my first lab pup about 15 years ago, I had to wade in and 'rescue' him before he had a bad experience) Also, use the upcoming hot weather to your advantage, on a hot day, take some hikes along a pond and let your dog learn to enjoy the water.

Good luck!

[jlm]

Good post Blackjack!

[92python]

Don't worry too much about that. The best hunting Lab I have owned looking pathetic when swimming out to get a dummy at 1 yr. when I adopted him. I was concerned too for a while but in the end he was a very good water dog.

I have a pool in my back yard and he didn't want any part of it. Shoot a gun off and let him see a duck drop and he would swim through anything.