Honey HalfLab in her 3.5 years has never let her feet leave the bottom. She had no idea she could swim, until yesterday, and judging from the panic on her face, she doesn't like it. . Even with a PFD on.

Well, the water is still cold- ice on the banks, air temps below freezing at night.

We were doing a short float trip (two days, 11.5 hours on the water) in the Achilles inflatable before the rocks and skeeters came out too badly. I pulled into the bank behind a big rock for a whizz and told the dogs to stay in the boat. She snuck her front feet out onto the rock, with apparently no clue as to what often happens in such situation...

Unlike my first Lab 40 years ago who knew exactly what was going to happen when it got too late to get his front back in the canoe (His eyes just got bigger and bigger!), and stayed mad at me for two days for telling my wife about it, and laughing.

We were both expecting the 13 month old Dachshund, Choco, to go swimming. He likes to run the floats-gunnels - and had he been up there when we rock-bounced several times, he would have.

Everyone had PFDs on..

I need more expertise in avoiding rocks, especially in multiples. Only got hung up twice tho - and one of those neither of us saw. Stealth rock! Bounced maybe 6 times.

Did I say I was on the oars about 90% of the time? "Float"? HA! I have decided I am not too old for this crap - but I just got too smart for it. .

At least for a year....

We've had more than one dog like that. Feet leave the bottom they get panicky. Or even more fun, when they jump in after something and it's deeper than they thought right off the bank.

Hope Honey at least had fun the rest of the trip.

las.....I got to get up there.

Our first Dachs- DJ, aka "The Weasel", only went swimming once in his 11 years. I threw a stick in the Kenai for the Lab, and DJ went running out there at full speed. He could NOT walk on water, as he apparently thought. When he came up he was pointed back to the bank, swimming as hard as he could. He even walked around mud puddles for several years after that. The Kenai is glacial, so cold year around.

Choko has been swimming - my wife tossed a stick for Honey last fall into a local warm lake, and it was too far for Honey to get to without swimming. But Choko did.

I got me a water retriever!

A goose might be a little too much. Heck - even a teal!

I had a Cocker Spaniel that wouldn't even try. He'd just bounce on his butt at the bottom until we jumped in and rescued him.

Surprised that the Lab swimming genes are not as dominant as I would have thought...

You could toss the dachsy in and have gone retrieve him.

Years ago I had a rat terrier style mutt. If you picked her up anywhere near the pool she'd start air swimming. Not a water dog at all.

My nephew's dog is the opposite, just try to keep him out of a pool. He is a Golden Retriever, so I suppose it goes with the territory.

My last lab, if you picked up a water hose, she would run over and stand there, waiting to get sprayed. She would lay on the sprinklers if they were popped up out of the ground and bite the water. If it was raining, she would leave the covered patio to lay in the rain. We had a pool in AL, she thought it was for her, she was in that thing constantly, no matter the temp.

I have had 3 labs, and they all loved the water, period.

My labs loved the water, loved it.

Dad got his last lab in '95 or '96, a long and lanky lab that was an ungainly swimmer. His back end was always a little deep as he tried like the dickens to keep his head completely out of the water. He'd readily go swimming and/or go in the water to retrieve a bird, it was just awkward looking, slow, and kind of clumsy. My 1st English Cocker could swim laps around that lab.

Our 2nd lab HATED retrieving waterfowl. He'd do an aggressive retrieve on them. Charge into the water, swim hard to get them, swim hard back to shore, and promptly spit them out when he was on land. He'd stand on a wounded bird but wanted it out of his mouth ASAP. Shoot a pheasant over water or drop it into the wet part of a slough and he'd retrieve the wet bird to hand just like you'd expect. He musta not liked the taste of ducks, and, I can't say I blame him.

My last lab would chase sticks in the water until he was tired I thought a few times he was going to drown before he made it to the bank. He would crawl up on the bank and fall over.

my buddy Raul had two springers, you could throw their toy into the 8ft end of the pool and they'd swim to the bottom to get it.

We trained ours with chukar. And she was bird crazy thereafter... would Ron up and down the beach chasing seagulls until she was plumb tuckered out...

We had a lovely golden retriever female for about fourteen years as a family pet. She liked hunting quail and pheasant. But she hated ducks. We had a live drainage ditch through the property fed by warm water springs. Some winters it was the only open water for miles, and you could not see the water for the mallards swimming. My young teenage son and I would step up on the bank and shoot five or six as they vaulted off the water.

The dog absolutely loved to swim, and practicaly lived in that drain ditch during the summer. But she would swim out and take a sniff of the ducks, and come straight back to our side. No way was she putting one of those nasty things in her mouth.

Our late lab Cooper would dive feet underwater to retrieve a toy. We had a ski boat back then - he'd jump off anywhere, and at any speed to cool off and swim. But, I hunted him too, so he knew to love the water.

Our current dog, Stella the Wonder Doodle, is a house dog. She will go out of her way to not step in a puddle.

Both of my Labs will break ice to get in the water. She-dawg didn’t want to swim until she was 2.

I love these dog stories. I think we are on our last one now; she is close to 16. 3.5 lbs of chain lightning, with 250 lbs of attitude. no teeth left; she gets a raw food diet mixed with scrambled eggs and yogurt. My last big ole good dog is gone now for about 6 years.

I had an amazing GSP years ago that was trained by a prominent person in that field. She would tie a rope around that pups neck and drag him around behind her rowboat on a pond until he learned to swim, really swim.
That dog was unstoppable anywhere, water, ice, logs, flooded timber... If it was to be tracked or retrieved he never faltered and never gave up.

Osky

I had my Lab in a kiddie pool the day we brought him home at 8 wks. In another month, I had him in the small river behind my house. I put on waders and stood in a slow shallow part of the river and just kept calling for him until he walked out in the river until it was over his head and then he swam to me whining all the way. In short order it was hard to keep him out of the water. When we started with water retrieves with training dummies, it didn't take him long to learn to read the current and launch well in front of the the moving dummy to intercept it. He turned into one helluva hunting dog (pheasants, ducks & geese). I trained him myself and my proudest day was when I was on a guided Canada Goose hunt in Ontario and after finding a goose on a blind retrieve, that I directed him to via hand signals, the guide said; "He's obviously been professionally trained. Who trained him?"

Allow me one more story. On a pheasant hunt at my club's preserve, a buddy of mine hit a bird that glided down to the other end of a field where another hunter was working his GSP. He said, "My dog will get it.". I let him try. When his dog couldn't find it, he yelled back at me, "It musta run." My hunting buddy said, "Maybe I missed it" and wanted to continue hunting. I said, "Wait, let me send Sam." From where we were standing I gave him the "back" command and off he ran. We watched him run to the fall area, work the scent and then run over to an old stone fence. He stuck his nose under one of the stones and pulled out the wounded bird and delivered it to hand.

Cooper 57. Mornin. Bet that last retrieve made ya puff up yr chest, they sure can make ya proud !!! Next thing they'll embarrass the chit out of ya. My old Diggzz dog (GWP) dove for a duck the very first time out for ducks, went right under & came back up with the thing too many seconds later for me. Was ready to go in after him! He brought back a goose once, live! He was around the bend in a creek & I couldn't see but always thought he might have dove under the goose to come up under the dam thing. He was a fast swimmer but wholly. He once brok ice to retrieve a partridge. There is nothing better than hunting with yr best friend. Nothing. Bill out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

GWPguy, Cool story!

The only time my Lab, Sam, embarrassed me was when a hunter in another field at my club's preserve shot a bird over his dog and Sam saw the fall. He broke and took off and I couldn't stop him with a "No". He got that bird, which the hunter was not too happy about. I gave him his bird and apologized. Sam had tons of drive. I probably could have stopped him with a zap from his e-collar but I didn't want to take the chance of curbing his enthusiasm for retrieving.

I have a 10 yrs old half yellow lab half golden retriever, she avoids water like a plague. Won't even go down to the shoreline. We've had her since she was 8 weeks old and she's always been like this. I quite trying, she gets too freaked out!

She spent her first 18 months on a chain, with no stimulation to speak of. When I got her as a rescue dog she knew her name, come, and no.

I thought her to be not too smart, but that was just ignorance (X2!). She learns quick- when it is to her advantage.

House breaking, play growling, butt and belly rubs were all unkown to her. She has come a long way since!

We'll work on the swimming this summer.

Or it could be her whippet genes....

We went up to a lake one time with my last black Lab. There was a yellow Lab wading around in the shallows, sticking his head underwater looking for spawning rainbows.

You know what happened....