Teaching your dog to swim????

OutCole'd said:

What the best way to introduce your dog to the water? We have a newer pup, that is not so much into the whole water thing. Put slowley bring her into the pool, try to not torture her, but she still isn't diggin it, any tips?

She's a Boston Terrier (and hate's the F out of Jordy).

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Being from Boston, she is probably afraid that the water is cold.

Went throughthis last October with my Doberman pup. The pool wasn't working for us either. Aparently, the pool steps were intimadating. We took my bro-in law's Aussie Sheppard (and dobie pup) to Senators Wash where they could walk in at their own pace. The Aussie was a seasoned water dog and the more the Aussie was in the water cooling off, the Dobie started getting in more and more. It wasn't 30 minutes and the pup was swimming around on it's own. From there, we brought her home and she wanted to get in the pool. She was 6 mos. old at the time. The key for us was having another dog around who was comfortable in the water. Just my thoughts.

When my dog was young he didnt like the water at all. As time went by I took him to the water more and more and I would get in first along a beach where there are no drop offs and coax him a little bit at a time. He would see that I was in the water and doing fine and then one day just went for it and has loved the water ever since.

Slowly, give her the chance to enter the water on her own. Than take baby steps and slowly put her in more and more, but over the time frame of weeks. Don't want to scare her out of getting comfortable. Also a life jacket might help.

I'd take it easy on her for a few days then put her in maybe twice a day for a while.

If you need pool service let me know. I know a great pool guy

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Reward the right behavior. Our dog came from the pound so she wasn't a pup, but what we did was hold her very tightly as we got in the water. Once she was wet (but I was still holding her) we would give her a treat and praise her. Then little by little I would gently let her go and swim a few paddles, then reward again. She's not a water dog and still is not a fan of it, but eventually we got to the point that we could stand waist deep while she was on shore, call to her, she jumps in and swims out to us, grabs her treat, then swims back to shore to eat it. Hamburgers work really well when you are BBQing at the lake....we break off little pieces of a plain hamburger patty and she goes crazy for them

I've had mostly Labs or Lab mixes....Problem is keeping them OUT of the water.

Our Sheltie on the other hand can swim just fine but hates the water. Some dogs just don't like water and won't go in willingly so there's nothing you can do. I had a Chow/Pit Bull mix that hated water and refused to get wet. Giving him a bath was a major ordeal. A neighbor's Lab sometimes came in the yard and my dog would kick his asse and chase him off. The Lab figured out one day if he could find a water filled ditch or pond, he just had to get in and he was safe as my dog would just stand on the shore and growl until he got bored and left.

just don't throw em in, from then on they'll relate water to that event and won't go near water when you're around. i always start out my pups with just giving them a bath every week to get em comfortable being wet and me being there. from that we just take em to the lake and coax them to come in and play, usually works. have a golden retriever pup right now i'm teaching to be my bird dog, so she's gonna be doin alot of swimming come duck seasondevil

IMPATIENT 1 said:

just don't throw em in, from then on they'll relate water to that event and won't go near water when you're around. i always start out my pups with just giving them a bath every week to get em comfortable being wet and me being there. from that we just take em to the lake and coax them to come in and play, usually works. have a golden retriever pup right now i'm teaching to be my bird dog, so she's gonna be doin alot of swimming come duck seasondevil

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We got a terrier from the pound 3-4 years ago, don't know what happened to him in the past, but he is/was terrified of water. Took 2 of us to give him a bath, he would completely freak out. Took the dogs to the river & he'd walk around in the shallows, but that was it. He's just now getting to where the wife can give him a bath without him going apeshit. sphss

Devilman said:

We got a terrier from the pound 3-4 years ago, don't know what happened to him in the past, but he is/was terrified of water. Took 2 of us to give him a bath, he would completely freak out. Took the dogs to the river & he'd walk around in the shallows, but that was it. He's just now getting to where the wife can give him a bath without him going apeshit. sphss

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someone prob sprayed it with a water hose or threw it in before. dogs are natural swimmers, but will have a adversion to it if they were abused by it. i've got a 1/2 lab, 1/2 chow female we gave away when she was 8months old to a old couple 20 miles to the west of us. not sure what they did to her but a wk later she showed back up at the house and she's skeered of water, can't even give her a bath.she's 3yrs old now.

OutCole'd said:

She's a Boston Terrier (and hate's the F out of Jordy).

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Why? Because I want to take her down to the boat and see what kind of fish would take a bite out of her??? Hell, probably have to use her to catch bait fish to catch REAL fish... sphss

Ya know Billy, even if you teach her to swim its always going to be a challenge for you to take her on the boat or ??? Either they have natural tendencies or they don't.
My dog loves swimming and is eager to jump off the boat....she however doesn't like the boat at speed all that much, LOL, she does the G.I.Joe crawl along the floor. Also, strangely she does not like swimming pools. Perhaps the water is too clear because lakes or mudholes she can hardly be held back out of 'em.

Oh how precious

What is he going to do to Jordy? make him laught to death?

please tell us that is your wife's dog...

OutCole'd said:

Great ideas, Thanks. I've heard Boston's aren't totally into the water, but I've see a few swim like Labs, so who knows.. I plan on just keep on trying and see how it goes. I like the thing about the steps being intimidating to them, that make a lot of sense. I'm bringing her to the lake for a week, next week, so we will ge a lot of beach time with her and see how she does.

P.S. Jordy, your days are numbered!

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I have a pit/lab/dalmation mix loved to play in the shallows but would not swim, when we got the pontoon boat she loved to go for rides so I bought her a life jacket, she was playing on the shore with other dogs while the lifejacket was still on and suddenly she was swimming, once she got the hang off it she didn't need the lifejacket anymore. All my dogs love the beach and swim now but none will go in a pool.

Spend a day down on our beach with her. Have Lisa go into the water just out of CJ's reach and call her. Just one person at a time. The more noise and excitement you create around her, the more nervous it's going to make her. Since she's most bonded to Lisa, she'll make her way to her. Just give her lots of calming praise when she does it. Have her go out a little further each time.

If you don't force her and let her wander in on her own to follow Lisa, she'll eventually "get it!"

(Too bad the yellows aren't going to be there to help teach her)hand

Islander Girl said:

Spend a day down on our beach with her. Have Lisa go into the water just out of CJ's reach and call her. Just one person at a time. The more noise and excitement you create around her, the more nervous it's going to make her. Since she's most bonded to Lisa, she'll make her way to her. Just give her lots of calming praise when she does it. Have her go out a little further each time.

If you don't force her and let her wander in on her own to follow Lisa, she'll eventually "get it!"

(Too bad the yellows aren't going to be there to help teach her)hand

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+1! That is how I do mine. Works great.

Pretty dog BTW! You don't see to many that color.