diez learnt to swim by chasing a rather tempting duck she jumped in and the rest is history,she goes to hydrotherapy every week now after a tplo and she is so strong the lady comments on it everyweek she swims in the river everynight in the summer(depending on weather)
delaney will leap in the river,will not go in our swimming pool and hates the hose he started hydrotherapy last week and boy did he panic flooded the place he will be attending hydrotherapy until he is a confident swimmer as you never know when they might need to swim
threw a stone into some unfamiliar water for delaney yesterday and he jumped in after it he actually swam for about 30 secs went to hydrotherapy again last night and he was in complete panic mode again nearly drowned bev the hydrotherapist

Shay came to us at six months old having never seen water (despite his previous family living 100 yards from a beach ). For a good few months he would only paddle but got really frustrated when he saw other dogs swimming and would run along the riverbank barking at them. One day we were playing fetch with him in a very shallow part of a stream and we were joined by 2 briards and 2 labs. All the other dogs were chasing each other in and out of the deeper water and Shay eventually got fed up of being left on the riverbank and joined in. He went from strength to strength after that

Lola is a Newfoundland so her instinct for water is totally innate. She was sitting in her water bowl from the day we brought her home and had her first swim the first time we took her to water (the same stream Shay had his first swim in) aged 13/14 weeks.

Keeping my two out of water is the problem

Ooohhh good thread (will read back through in a minute)

Roxy cant swim and is still terrifed of water. We are in the beginning stages of getting her to paddle without walking through a lake like she trys not to get any of her paws wet

I'm sure we'll get there. Were taking Max next time to tempt Roxy in on her own...

Bodhi's always liked splashing in water..

Took her to some small ponds and she was retrieving sticks, got out of her depth and did the "panic paddle" and figured, this isn't so bad!!

She LOVES swimming and water now. More than anything in the world!! Such a water baby. Got her jumping off jetties into the water now too!!

She will happily spend as long as possible jumping in and out of the water, and I love swimming with her, when I have the opportunity!

When Jonah was about 5 months old we took him for a walk around some nearby lakes. He saw a duck out in the middle of the lake and promptly dived in off a 2 foot bank and madly paddled out to get his prey! We were yelling at him to come back - he finally scrambled back up the bank covered in horrible green algae! He's never looked back since though - loves anything to do with water!

I have two breeds like LOVE water, or anything muddy that stinks

We do loads of walks around streams with a shallow parts, so Casper just paddled at first, and he has always loved his ball. So we just encouraged him further and further out when he was young. And he took it to it no probs. Jack was always more wary but would paddle in water, then one day when he was 18 weeks old, he was following the flattie along the bank when the flattie was swimming in a deep bit and he slipped and fell in He came up sputtering but then started to swim properly straight away. Since then he has loved it, and he even loves mud more now, especially if it has pony/cow muck in it

Don't know about Shaan and Luca as they were both adult dogs when I took them on.

Storm on the other hand learned the hard way. The first day I brought her home, she tore round the garden like a lunatic, and went straight into the pond we had. She came out looking like a little rat. I took her in, dried her off, and pt her onto the kitchen floor, only to watch her tear off round the garden and do exactly the same thing

Since that day, she won't go near any ponds or swimming pools, but she loves the beach

well, indie used to run through puddles, and sometimes go in one too deep and panic and run back out,
shes jumped in the river a couple of times and panicked and ive had to pull her out cos the bank was too high for her to get back.

we took her swimming at a hydrotherapy pool, and with a life jacket on, she got the hang of it, altho we only did 3 sessions cos it was expensive, and she was struggling a bit,

well, we took her to a lake a couple of weeks ago, and we threw the frisby in for her and she sank so she cant swim without a life jacket,lol. doh.

will have to go buy her one i think!

Aww bless, I didn't realise that sinking was an option for dogs!

ben fell in the brook when he was a pup. and wasnt too impressed. but he will go for a paddle in the sea,but wont swim.