Pearl who's just turned 9mths today, had her first dip in a river. My heart was a bit in my mouth as I watched her go in. But she did well. She has a paddle pool and has been to the beach in the sea(not deep), but this is the first time in the river...possibly actually swimming!
Well done Pearl, I bet she loved it! Maisy (10 months) has not been in a river yet, and when we get the chance I will be nervous too. She loves the beach and sea - and puddles! - but our local river has steep muddy banks so for the first time I don't feel it is safe enough. Maybe we worry too much. Try stopping Pearl now, she will want to go in every time!
Well done Pearl ! It took my late boy Sam until he was well over a year old to brave the river , but thereafter , we had a job on to keep him out ! I love to see them swimming , its such good but gentle exercise too x
Merlin started to swim when he was about 10 weeks old, and I have never been able to keep him out of water since!!! Good girl Pearl, there'll be no stopping you now...
Bailey has paddled in the sea and today she had a run around in the river. She doesn’t go in too deep but she loves the sound of the water. She’s 4 months old and growing in confidence everyday.
Those of us in the northern hemisphere may be holding off letting our furbabies too close to freezing, fast running rivers! We'll wait till Spring before checking whether Caspar can swim.
My late boy went to retrieve from a (deeper than it looked) saltwater pool when he was about 6 months old. We realised that he had transitioned from run to swim without any hesitation, which he always managed to do. He was a wonderful swimmer. Although it is assumed that all Labs swim I have met a few that will not go in the water at all, which the owners put down to the dog falling into water when young and being really frightened. Most of our walks are around water - canal, reservoir and sea as well as river - so I want to wait a bit. I don't trust Caspar not to chase a duck or goose into the canal and be unable to get out.
We started both our pups wading in shallow ponds or creeks, and then graduated to lakes. We got them swimming initially by tossing a ball in to the water for them to retrieve. All 3 three of our Labs have loved water and would go into it any time they had a chance, once they had their first full swimming experience. Our first Lab, Ginger, was a rescue, and while she loved to swim, she would not jump off anything to get into the water. She had to walk in. She would not even go off a semi submerged dock. When she went in the canoe with us, she would get her front feet in the water and we would lift her butt and dump her in. She was fine with it as soon as she was in the water, and could swim with our canoe for over a mile. Tilly and Cooper will jump off a dock or out of a boat with no problem, but Tilly wants to be back in the boat if it starts to move.
