I started immediately the dog was able to go outside after having its second set of jabs and enough time for them tio take effect.
A young dog can become frightened of water if they are exposed to cold/deep or rapidly moving water.
The way I did it was I immediately tried to establish a routing of letting the pup off the lead in a park with other people around and plenty of potential distraction and interesting things.
I obviously made sure I was near any points of quick escape roads etc and there were not too many people in the immediate vicinity.
getting your pup used to being off the lead and following you in this way has been a good foundation for being able to control my labs off the lead from day one.
The water part comes in simply by putting your pup into puddles, shallow slow flowing streams, edge of ponds with shallow sides etc so they get their paws wet and even standing in the puddles/streams yourself. Throwing a stick in (or whatever else you are going to be training them with - sticks not recomended if you are going to be training them in filed wiork becasue you dont want them retrieving sticks for you when they should be retrieving foul/dummys etc)
If you establish this - picking your pup up and plonking it down in different environemtns, long grass, mud, water etc I have found they enjoy it and get comfortable with the idea.
Obviously the worse thing you can do is probably take your young dog to a beach and chuck it in the sea/edge of the sea or dump it into a lake - espcially if it is cold - that will just scare the ... out of it and might lead to a long term distrust of water. If this has happened to it in the past or its an older dog reluctasnt to swim the intial damge might have been done and you need to try another tack becasue the shallow water introduction wont make much difference.
IME there really is a bit of a leap of faith involved with swimm8ing and it goes hand in hand with being comfortable off the lead.
To my mind in the wild your pup would follow its mum around and although it would get into some sticky situations by and large the mother would see it alright, and it would copy the mother and other dogs behaviour.
If your pups experiences are all on the lead followed by frantic and overly neurotic off the lead experiences with you chasing after it all the time, calling and waving it frantically instead of letting it explore a bit, it is not going to get the idea that doing this is normal and learn how to behave off the lead in a way that is safe and acceptible to you.
Yes it is a bit scary when it is wandering about 15 feet from you and diappears in a bush once in a while or is approached rapidly by another dog, takes off after some strangers etc but fundamentally as long as you are prepared to react quickly and calmly youll come out of it very well with a happy confidant dog.
As the dog gets more confident you still have to be very careful esp with water because your dog can be diving into ponds and streams surfing the waves etc and you have to use your judgement in any given situation but more often than not your gdog will surprise and delight you with its growing ability and their own judgement as to what they can and cant do in the water.
You can train your dog to shake on command although I have not attempted this with any degree of serious commitment. Apparently hunters/fishermen were never too keen on their dogs climbing back in their boats and soaking them.
The other aspect I would imagine happens a lot to pet labs is the frequency with which they are exposed to swimming opportunities. You cant really expect a dog to take to swimming readily if it ses a decent bit of water once in a blue moon and you are usually trying to keep it out of the water bcasue its inconvenient for you to shower them off or they are going to mess up your car/the house etc.
If water and running around off the lead are common experiences for your dog they learn the skills and gain the experience they need to be comfortable a lot quicker and sooner than if they see a pond or a beach once in a blue moon.
with Ozzy I suspect it is the falling in that has made him reluctant to swim.
He might benefit from being chucked in a deep part of a lake within easy reach of the bank a few times or indeed you getting in with him (watch those claws). You could also try a long line - with the help of someone else and get him to swim to you. I am sure a few good experiences like this would build his confidence rapidly.
I know the chucking him in a lake bit seems a bit drastic and cruel but your dog can swim and he will swim and you can make the chucking him in pulling him/calling him to you accross a safe bodty of water fun even if it is a load of treats when he gets out/to the other side.
I used to chuck my previous lab off a small bridge into a lake (no more than 5 foot drop) and she would fully submerge before surfacing, racing back to you and barking to get you to do it again (I probably wouldnt make a habit of this now but good swimmers get hammered in moderately rough seas on the coldest of days and still go back for more)
Last edited by Thunderballs on Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:58 am; edited 3 times in total
Every breeder must live with the fact that a dog from his kennel may develop hip dysplasia. And every puppy buyer must accept that there is a risk of their dog developing dysplasia, regardless of the quality of the breeding or bloodlines.
Strange sig...is this a generic quote or yours I wonder?
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