[Joe]

Hi, I'm new to labs and have a question about how old He sould be when I bring him to the lake. Also I'm worried that if my wife takes him, well she cant swim.if he gets into any trouble in the water, he may be in real trouble. I have seen that pet stores have life jackets for dogs. would it be a good idea to have my pup in one of these jackets, or am I just being overely protective.
My pup is 3 mounths old.

Thanks for any advise

Joe

 

[lfairy]

Swimming

Hi there

We used to take Jess down to the River Tweed when she was 4 months old and she used to run into the shallows and chase me in to the water up to the top of her legs then run back out but she never tried to swim.

We thought that she was going to be a bit shy of water until i took her down to the small river across from our house last week and threw in a floating dummy used for gun dog training. She ran into the water full speed then started swimming across the current to get the dummy then swam back across the full length of the river. Shes now 10 months old and we cant keep her out of the water when we are near it.

I try to keep her away from fast water and just use the shallows where its just deep enough for her to swim that way if she does get in any trouble its fairly easy for her to get her feet on the river bed as she's only just learning to swim now.

Your lab will work out for itself how far she wants to go in and will take it a step at a time. It's amazing how quick they pick it up though and you can see they are at home in the water as much as on the land.

Hope this helps

Gordon