Dog swimming classes?

We recently got some new neighbors and they are a very nice couple with two dogs. I met their beagle when I stopped to say hello and she was very a well behaved dog. My wife seen that the neighbor had the other dog out and decided to say hello from a distance and was told to come over and meet the dog. The dog was carrying on barking, crying and nudging my wife and this is a hundred pound dog! The neighbor put the dog back into the house and apologized about the behavior and said he was acting up because it was his nap time! She asked my wife when nap time was for our dog?
Does anyone really need to tell a dog to take a nap?
 
Well....I've actually(recently) seen a lab that doesnt(didnt) like water.....well..other than to drink......unbelievable....

Went on a hike with my lady friend and her dog....small trail right along running creek....that dog was scared to death to step into the 3" deep running water....first attempt was having to block his retreat from backing away from the water...next was physically pulling him into creek to stand in the water.....after a few more times he finally caught on to the idea that the water tasted well enough to drink...and cooled his feet during the walk........
Never seen this before..usually tough to get my past dogs out of the water......

....and saw a bunch of 'guys' passing joints around at another spot......where's a gun toter when needed.....
 
I'm sure some of this was meant to be funny, but there are a lot of folks that have NO clue how to train a dog to do anything and they can ruin a dog doing things wrong,
so I'll add a a little I learned over my life time with dogs!

As over my life time, I seen many dogs that didn;t like water or wouldn;t go in to the point they would float,
typically I think a lot of them were scared due to being introduced to water the wrong way
I have seen many folks THROW there puppy's into lakes and rivers pools and the likes, thinking it will TEACH them to swim, and ends result many times is a dog scared of water!
yes swimming of most dogs comes naturally , and that goes for most breeds of dogs IMO
but a bad experience can mentally deter a dog from wanting to swim again
I have known a lot of dog trainers and have always felt there are right and wrong ways to do most things in life!
and that knowledge is power, better to learn how to do something right the first time, than try and fix a screw up
not all folks are DOG SMART ! IMO, HAHA!

when I used to TEACH my dogs to swim, I found this to work well,
I would walk near small creek , letting the pup follow me, or lead, , most of my DOG's were also at this point able to be OFF leash, and able to be safe (a whole other training deal)
but I found allowing a dog to explore the edges of water on its own builds confidence, all the more so if very shallow and you can walk in it, as a puppy tends to want to follow the owner!
I found crossing the water to the other side, makes them want to follow, start shallow. (and it doesn't ALL have to happen the first time out, like all training, start slow and build confidence with them, it will pay off down the road! )
but just keep going deeper as dog gets comfortable,
eventually you get to where the dog starts to float, and typically mother nature kicks in, or again the desire to get to its owner over powers its fears, and before long they are swimming and didn;t even know they were!

another good way is having a puppy about a older dog that likes water, BUT make sure its a dog that has a tolerance and temperament of puppies, as a BIG dog running over a puppy isn;t all that much fun for a puppy!
having things be a GOOD memory, makes the difference in whether or not a dog ends up liking water or not IMO
and worse yet, could be fearing it if having a real bad first time experience!
 
I agree 100% mrbb. When I got my first hunting lab I didn't want her scared of water so I donned my chest waders and made my way into the lake and once I got belly deep I turned around to call and coax her into coming to me, well she was swimming right behind me! lol
And yes it's definitely easier to train correctly than to fix a screw up later once it's ingrained into them.
 
Last edited:
hey I'll add this to anyone with a lab that LIKES Water
get yourself a plastic kiddie pool, and a dozen minnow's, and let your lab catch them
my last Lab would spend a lot of time, chasing them till h got the all, a good way to burn energy and stay cool in the summer time for him LOL
and to those that don;t think its so kind to them minnow's Sorry

but my dog highly enjoyed them or until they stopped swimming any more
he bring me the broken ones to fix, but , you know that went , they make good fertilizer for the garden! or till some other critter takes them and eats them, so NEVER any waste in nature!


I would also imagine doing this it would motivate many dogs to get INTO the water! as most have a desire to hunt chase in them!
 
I like the minnow idea. Only problem would be is my lab likes to take everything to the extreme lol. He'd be in my shad tank the next time we were on Texoma lol.

I teach my dogs the same way I taught my boys to swim. I'd sit in 10" of water right off the shore and call them out to me. Then move out a little deeper and deeper till they were swimming.

For some reason I got funny looks from people when my 4yr old son would jump off the public boat dock without a life jacket, swim to the back of my boat, pull the swim ladder down, climb in the boat, then put his life jacket on. Thats not to say that i wasn't 6ft away the whole time ready to get wet. But i also wasn't in constant state of fear anytime my boys or dogs were around water back then. Watermen what can I say.
 
mrbb said:
I'm sure some of this was meant to be funny, but there are a lot of folks that have NO clue how to train a dog to do anything and they can ruin a dog doing things wrong,
so I'll add a a little I learned over my life time with dogs!

As over my life time, I seen many dogs that didn;t like water or wouldn;t go in to the point they would float,
typically I think a lot of them were scared due to being introduced to water the wrong way
I have seen many folks THROW there puppy's into lakes and rivers pools and the likes, thinking it will TEACH them to swim, and ends result many times is a dog scared of water!
yes swimming of most dogs comes naturally , and that goes for most breeds of dogs IMO
but a bad experience can mentally deter a dog from wanting to swim again
I have known a lot of dog trainers and have always felt there are right and wrong ways to do most things in life!
and that knowledge is power, better to learn how to do something right the first time, than try and fix a screw up
not all folks are DOG SMART ! IMO, HAHA!

when I used to TEACH my dogs to swim, I found this to work well,
I would walk near small creek , letting the pup follow me, or lead, , most of my DOG's were also at this point able to be OFF leash, and able to be safe (a whole other training deal)
but I found allowing a dog to explore the edges of water on its own builds confidence, all the more so if very shallow and you can walk in it, as a puppy tends to want to follow the owner!
I found crossing the water to the other side, makes them want to follow, start shallow. (and it doesn't ALL have to happen the first time out, like all training, start slow and build confidence with them, it will pay off down the road! )
but just keep going deeper as dog gets comfortable,
eventually you get to where the dog starts to float, and typically mother nature kicks in, or again the desire to get to its owner over powers its fears, and before long they are swimming and didn;t even know they were!

another good way is having a puppy about a older dog that likes water, BUT make sure its a dog that has a tolerance and temperament of puppies, as a BIG dog running over a puppy isn;t all that much fun for a p
having things be a GOOD memory, makes the difference in whether or not a dog ends up liking water or not IMO
and worse yet, could be fearing it if having a real bad first time experience!
Click to expand...
Excellent post. I used to train retrievers for field trials, and have been a practicing Veterinarian for 42 years. Some dogs are just naturally afraid of water, trying to swim out of the water, rather than swimming forward with their head down. Not even all Labs are natural swimmers, and the proper introduction is the key; a gradual slope w/ sandy bottom, and a friendly older dog that loves water is extremely helpful.
 
We had a pair of Labs (brother & sister) that when young, the leaner male had a hard time swimming until he got large enough to have some buoyancy. The female had absolutely no issues from the first time she saw water deep enough to swim in. Later on, our male would retrieve a dummy until you got tired of throwing it, while our female just wanted to swim. We miss them greatly.
 
My son had a lab that just would not get out of the water such he would get limp tail if he wasn't tied up or put inside when around water. He should have tried out for dock jumping! He realized all on his own if he hit warp speed on dock he could jump really far! All on his own! If anyone was swimming out off dock, he was ramping up the engine to try to jump out to them! He was my son's but he was my buddy! Dang! I miss him! He passed few years back from Addison's disease.
 

Similar threads

Ugly Dog
Dog insurance ????
Replies
10
Views
465
Varmint Hunter
Varmint Hunter
H
Hunting Dog
Replies
5
Views
408
30378wbymag
30378wbymag
K
New dog
Replies
9
Views
639
Orange Dust
Orange Dust
idcwby
Dog House’s
2
Replies
14
Views
2K
Varmint Hunter
Varmint Hunter
J
Prairie Dog
Replies
1
Views
1K
Joel Russo
Joel Russo

Recent Posts

Top