Hello again Just for curiosity, your labs started swim when puppys? You have to teach them to swim? I want my future lab could swim in the river and go to the beach with me but I don't know if I have to teach him to swim or if he instinctively go swim.
Hi , Labs are usually excellent strong swimmers who do not need teaching , it comes naturally to them to swim . However , some don't take to water as quickly as others, my own boy was a proper wimp when he was a puppy , finally venturing in when he was about 10 months old , then I couldn't keep him out, he loved it , so let him do it in his own time
Solstice and Joy, both black labs from working stock started swimming at 6 months. Barley, yellow lab from show stock didn't start until she was 18 months but once she started she loved it. As Kate says, the important thing is to let them do it in their own time, Joy has fully webbed paws, Solstice's were semi webbed. Just built for swimming!
Agreed, most need no coaxing or teaching. Some swim as early as 8-9 weeks and some take longer. As mentioned already, if you have a more cautious puppy then let it take its time because if forced will take longer.
Ripple wouldn't swim at all, he appeared to be frightened of the water (or of getting wet ). So he had lessons at a hydrotherapy pool when he was 18 months old. Now he can swim well and really surprised me at gundog training when he fetched a dummy from a reservoir with no hesitation.
Some Labs love it, others are reluctant swimmers. Holly needed no lessons, One day she chased a tennis ball into a deep ditch and swam. Her predecessor, Cocoa, only swam twice and on both occasions it was unintentional. She was happy to wallow in water but not swim.
My pup has recently started swimming at the age of almost 6 months, and his predecessor also started around the same age. I think it is important for them to do it in their own time, and to take them to places where they can paddle, going in a little further when ready, as opposed to going to deep water with no shallow entry. I waited until the recent heat wave to introduce swimming in earnest. Caspar had been in water before but shown no inclination to go out of his depth. This time I waited until he had gone for a drink and threw a stick into the water, gradually increasing distance. When Labs swim the transition from running to swimming is almost invisible, a joy to behold. He had never experienced heat before so I wanted to cool him down.
We sometimes during summer picked Maxx up and put him in our pool with us. He swam naturally but wasn't fussed and always went to the steps and hopped out. We didn't push it. However at the beach he runs straight in and loves it! So as @SimoneB said it's easier if you introduce via shallow entry
We started both of our pups wading in shallow water when they were very young, probably 8-10 weeks. At 3 or 4 months we started them retrieving tennis balls in deeper water. Now they run to water and swim if they are near it.
