<p>At Christmas, we got our 16-year old son a 5-month old Black Lab. The puppy is now 11 months old and we’re spending weekends at a cottage on a lake. We had looked forward to watching boy and dog leaping off the dock together and enjoying the water in the summer heat, but our Lab immediately wants out of the water when we take her in. I’d built a ramp from the water over the seawall so she’d have no trouble walking in and out of the lake. She’s otherwise very confident and trusting of us - no fears or bashfulness on her part in any other setting.</p>
<p>We’ve been pretty gentle in introducing her to the water, and we even put a doggie life jacket on her so that swimming isn’t a concern. Is it time to just toss her in from the dock or do you think that’d be traumatic? Good heavens - this is a Retriever, for crying out loud!</p>
<p>We went through this with our retriever. We tried everything. Nothing worked. Then one day, we were touring and stopped to look at Lake Superior and the next thing we know is the dog is swimming almost out of sight. In Lake Superior! Now we couldn’t get him to swim in a small warm lake but he decided this lake was for him! Some dogs just mature slowly and 11 months is an age were dogs are very unsure of themselves (think pre teens). Some hot day will come and he will feel confident and those labrador genes will kick in. It may help if he sees another dog swimming too. Sometimes they follow the other dog in without thinking about the water and the next thing you know, they are swimming. Good luck and try and resist throwing him in.</p>
<p>Our late lab wasn’t a big fan of the water, either. This article may provide some tips for you in training the dog. The biggest thing they say is not to force your dog into water and not to throw your dog into the water. Dogs need to be taught just like people do!</p>
<p>I would not toss her in. We were once backpacking with our elkhound (granted, not a lab) and worried that she wasn’t drinking enough. (We were on the Devil’s Slide Trail near Idyllwild, CA; it was steep and hot.) Eventually we carried her into a creek and made her swim. I swear, she never forgave us and she never went in the water again.</p>
<p>BTW, do you really believe that you got your 16-year old son a lab?</p>
<p>our lab loved the water- when at the park catching tennis balls she would use her head to knock it in the water saying* oh look where it is now!* I better go get it.</p>
<p>But I agree exposure to other dogs swimming and time should be enough to get instinct to kick in.</p>
<p>I’ve met other labs that do not like the water, it happens. Whatever you do, do not toss her in. There are many other more gentle ways to try and, in the end, if she doesn’t like the water then she doesn’t like the water. You’ll just have to enjoy her on dry land.</p>
<p>Swimming will come…I would not rush it. (Maybe she does not know she is a lab?) But I might not do the life jacket thing. Maybe she does not like it? And when the time comes that she decides she likes the water…trust me, she is a lab…she can swim!
We had a Golden Retriever who LOVED to swim…and now have a little black terrier mutt who wants NOTHING to do with recreational water sports. Oh well!
Good luck! Sounds like you have a great dog!</p>
<p>We have a 13 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever who will only walk in the water, he will not swim. Now that we live in Florida with a pool in the back yard the upside is not having all that fur in the pool filter.</p>
<p>Our black lab refuses to jump off a dock. He’ll wade in merrily. But no jumping!</p>
<p>I can’t remember which came first…either he was playing fetch and just went straight in the reservior to get a ball, or he swam out “to rescue” my D when she floated too far for Batman’s liking. In any case, he likes to have a reason to get in the water. A purpose. He won’t go out just to swim around. </p>
<p>gadad, maybe if you made your lab “work” in the water she’ll catch on. Good luck!</p>
<p>Same as above–our half lab/half golden retriever likes the water when he has a purpose. He’ll swim out and retrieve our son. He grabs the boogy board rope and pulls him to shore.
He’ll swim to retrieve a floating object. Other than that, he couldn’t care less about going into the water. I seriously doubt our retriever mix would jump off a dock. He enjoys the bay where he can walk out/swim at whatever depth he chooses.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t put the life jacket on the dog. Give your dog a little time. Once your dog masters fetching and retrieving, try the game in the water. Stand on the shore, give your dog the command to fetch, and throw the floating object in the water. It takes some practice. Give the dog a purpose to be in the water.</p>
<p>Our late black lab was a horrible swimmer (his butt sank and he splashed a lot of water and would eat it). But he LOVED to swim. When he was around a pool he would jump in swim to the end get out, jump in swim to the end and get out, and keep going to where we would have to bring him home because he couldn’t relax. At the beach he loved riding the waves but would eat so much water he would throw up after.</p>
<p>Our first lab loved the water. We’d make sandballs and throw them for him- he’d dive right to the bottom and look for his ball. The second one would panic, even though we were right there with him. He didn’t quite get swimming was like running in the water and was always trying to “climb” out - if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>So? He hates swimming. Our goldens (we have/had) three. One loved water, two hated it. Actually, they all hated it…but the one who died refused to go into the water until she saw me holding my youngest who was getting used to the water and crying. She jumped in and swam to us…tried to grab (with a soft mouth) my youngest and me. </p>
<p>She got lots of love and cookies. Never went in again.</p>
<p>Our golden was about the age of your dog—maybe a couple months older.
We’d tried to introduce him a few times to water with no success. We even took him to a dog park that had a small lake and he watched all the other dogs go in, chasing after sticks, balls, etc. But our dog decided the best part of being there was rolling in the mud on the shore. Seriously rolling, like a pig. He even had mud in his eyes. But we had to hose him down to take him home because he refused to get into the water of the lake to get rinsed off.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the very next time we took him. Inexplicably, he took off into the water after a ball someone else had thrown. Swimming like he’d done it all his life. Never looked back and is now, at age 6, a water fanatic. Loves to swim in the coldest water he can find. He does seem to prefer to swim out to fetch something. However, we have to keep him close on a leash near any water now because he’ll just take off into it. We’ve never had the opportunity to see if he’d jump off a dock. We think he wouldn’t, just because he’s a major chicken in every way.</p>
<p>I think it’s possible your lab will warm up to the idea. Don’t give up on him yet!</p>
<p>Great responses everyone - thanks! I’m going to try the fetch instinct. She loves to chase tennis balls, which we no longer allow her to do because she enjoys tearing them into ingestible bits afterwards. Perhaps if the lake is the only place where she gets to chase tennis balls, it’ll lure her in.</p>
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<p>Well, our son is the world’s biggest dog-lover and I tried over the last couple years to appeal to his loyalty to our cats and hold off on all the responsibilities that come with dog ownership. But this Christmas, GaMom teamed up with him and advocated for the dog. I suspect that the pooch is partially his, partially her replacement child in anticipation of empty nesting, and partially an inducement to encourage him to go to college closer to home than his older sisters did. But I must admit - the dog’s a wonderful friend. And we’re not duck hunters, so the only thing we actually need her to retrieve are tennis balls. :)</p>
<p>Actually, gadad, we bought our dog a water fetch toy that we always use when we take him swimming in a large river near our home. It’s bright orange with a short rope hanging from it, very visible, larger than a tennis ball and floats high in the water…can be really important when the water is choppy and there are “waves”. Whenever we pick up that toy, he goes wild since he knows it means he gets to go swimming, truly by far his favorite activity.</p>
<p>Because he’s now become a swimming fool, we’ve learned the tennis balls don’t have a high enough float and he’ll swim endlessly looking for one, even when he’s not close to it. The glare off the water, distractions of ducks & geese, and the waves are a potent trio limiting his focus of keeping his eye on the prize. When he gets really tired, he doesn’t obey our commands to “come” very well and we worry he’ll just wear himself out in the middle of the river!</p>
<p>Yes, the right toy does make a difference. Batman loves his floating Kong. It floats high, like curiouser described, but it also has three 8" tails, like a kite. He can grab the Kong, or a tail to get a hold of it. :)</p>
<p>Here’s an update, 8 weeks later. Stella just had her first birthday and surprised my wife and me a week ago by walking down her ramp and swimming out to be with us in the water. We were delighted, thinking that her devotion to us was the key. Then, last weekend, she ran into the water half a dozen times whether we were there or not, and whether we were ready for her to be wet or not. It appears that the key is having temperatures in excess of 100 degrees. But whatever the inspiration, the pooch is now swimming!</p>
<p>Growing up we spent a lot of weekends water skiing. Our large half-standard poodle/half airedale loved the water. My sister and I were on a large float pulled by the boat. When we stopped at one point the dog jumped out of the boat, swam to the float and climbed on. She loved to ride with us and caused a lot of people to stare and clap.</p>
<p>We built a pool when our half-golden mutt was about 3. We had steps built so he could get in an out. The first time one of the boys got in pool the dog jumped in with him, then freaked out. I had to pull the dog out and he never got near the pool again. My neighbor’s dog loves to swim in the pool, but that never convinced ours to join in.</p>
I better go get it.</p>
But whatever the inspiration, the pooch is now swimming!</p>