Stanley absolutely loves the water, any sign of it he goes charging in head first, mouth snapping. But he'll only go in as far as he can stand. How do we get him to swim? We've thrown sticks & balls in for him, made a big fuss when he goes in but he gets to a certain point then turns round. Is there anything we can do or is it something he has to learn in his own time?
He's still only a baby, so I wouldn't worry too much. If there are other dogs you know that like to swim, that may encourage him to go in. My two learnt to swim at 9 months, after they fell in the Thames
Saba likes to keep his paws dry. He loves to play under a garden hose, but is not at all interested in either the sea, or the swimming pool in our garden despite intense encouragement from our grandchildren!
I would bet you that if you got in and swam, he'd swim out to follow you! We have a four foot deep pool and I carried Bessie into it carefully, and let her go. She swam beautifully from the start. I had a friend in with me so I felt a bit safer; I knew if she didn't start paddling, I'd pick her right back up.
Harley didn't like swimming until she was around 4/5 months old and fell into a duck pond! She quickly learned to swim and has been an avid swimmer ever since.
My boy wouldn't go in over his chest at first. Second try he swam a circle back to shallow water. Third try he swam for a toy and went under when he grabbed it. That was it for try 4, 5, and 6. We never forced him, let him go at his own pace. He was 12 weeks. On 7th try 2 weeks later at he couldn't be stopped. Now at 18 weeks he's chasing canoes and ducks in the cold Canadian rivers. They're labs. It will happen.
I took Tatze to swimming lessons at our local doggy swimming pool! Of course, she loved it - I went in with her and we both showered together afterwards. I know it sounds silly but all our walks are near water and I was worried about her getting in and not being able to swim - which makes me giggle now - all the other pups have been just fine finding out for themselves, of course! ...
Thanks everyone. Just going to have to keep taking him to the water and hopefully he'll eventually go in for a proper swim!
Axel actually bolted for the lake on our walk one day at 12 weeks old and he jumped right in and swam around. First time he had seen water and I couldn't hold him back lol. My cousins lab would only get his paws wet and that was it until 6 months old. They went for a hike on a warm day and came across a small lake and he ran straight in and swam around, to cool off they assume. On his own time he will jump right on in and then you won't be able to keep him out!
We used to take our labradoodle in the pool with us, and when he was tired of swimming we'd pull him onto an inflatable lounge/raft and he'd float around! Wish I'd gotten a pic of that!
This will be how Libby learns too...the Thames path is our local walk. Our Lab from my childhood, Ria, carried on running not realising grass had turned to reeds/algae stuff. Labs are waterdogs bred to help fishermen so they can swim really well but are such whoosypants before the instinct kicks in! Hope you're getting Stanley used to a bath and hairdryer
My two jumped onto a small wooden deck at the river's edge, which turned out to be a collection of driftwood which separated as soon as they hit it. Oops!
My OH was determined Pongo would learn, he was quite worried about what would happen if he fell into water and couldn't swim. (We sometime take Pongo down to visit my brother-in-law on the Somerset levels, lots of reens and deep water.) OH's approach was to throw him in to some water that would be nearly deep enough. That didn't work (not that Pongo seemed to mind very much, he just waded back out again looking bemused). Then we tried luring him in with treats. Nope, no great success there either. But then one day he just decided to lift his feet off the bottom and run, and from that moment on has been a great swimmer! I think they just take their own sweet time over it, they are natural swimmers when they decide to try so no teaching required.
PS can you take him to a stretch of water where one of you can be on the other side of it and call him over? (eg a pond)?
