When people first introduce a dog to water, they often throw something into water that is over the dogs head. To me this encourages the dog to enter the water with their head up looking for the object and feet straining to find the bottom. Followed by a little panic and a lot of excitement the dog never relaxes enough to level out and try a smooth paddle using both front and rear feet.
Rather then throw an object, I would
1. Walk in with the dog to a point that is not over the dogs head just walk up and down the shore, letting the dog get a feel for how the water gets deeper and the bottom seems to disappear.
2. Drag a bumper and let them catch up to it and have it. Do this a number of times. Eventually dragging to deeper water have the dog reach out and take it, once the dog has it they will likely head for shore, so if you have someone to help encourage the dog to return to shore ,then get the bumper and try again.
3. Having the dog follow another dog (with out throwing something in) into the water works well. This gets the dog concentrating on following the other dog, not looking to retrieve an object.
Butch Goodwin of Northern Flight Retrievers has a great article called Teaching puppies to swim that has some great tips for starting a puppy off on the track from the beginning.
Rather then throw an object, I would
1. Walk in with the dog to a point that is not over the dogs head just walk up and down the shore, letting the dog get a feel for how the water gets deeper and the bottom seems to disappear.
2. Drag a bumper and let them catch up to it and have it. Do this a number of times. Eventually dragging to deeper water have the dog reach out and take it, once the dog has it they will likely head for shore, so if you have someone to help encourage the dog to return to shore ,then get the bumper and try again.
3. Having the dog follow another dog (with out throwing something in) into the water works well. This gets the dog concentrating on following the other dog, not looking to retrieve an object.
Butch Goodwin of Northern Flight Retrievers has a great article called Teaching puppies to swim that has some great tips for starting a puppy off on the track from the beginning.
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