Well Foxy Might Not Be Splash Dog Material

[FoxgloveBC]

I took her to a pond today...she hated swimming! She was alright until she had to swim, she acted totally terrified of it. Then I tried her in the small hot tub part of my pool at the condos (they are not cleaning them right now so nobody cares) and she was even worse, she acted totally terrified of the whole ordeal and ran clear away from the water after she exited.... I have never tried to get a dog to like the water and to like swimming so I have no idea how to go about this. She is normally a high drive dog that doesnt get phased by much, but this really got to her.

[renegade]

My golden Zack fell in a pool when he was 10 weeks old and was petrified of water after that.

We did lots and lots of fetch in shallow water - no pressure on him to go further than he wanted too. He also had the extra incentive that our other dog was out swimming too.

The thing that eventually brought him around was when we were out swimming in a lake with friends and our other dog was out with us too - he finally took the plunge, swam, fetched and had fun. This happened when he was about 13 months old (so it took about a year). Since then it hasn't been a problem (jumping off the dock is still not our favorite thing - we prefer the exit ramp).

Lakes with gradual entries are going to be easier as you can have Foxy get deeper slowly vs it being a big drop off.

[Sassy Girl]

Question - how does she react when other dogs are in the water and she is not? As a BC owner and lover, I can tell you my boy Gunner was timid of the water at first, however each time we went back he grew more and more in love w/it, props definitely go to Sassy, our other dog who swam her heart out while Gunner whined on the side all those days and then took the plunge and now, well the damn dog wont stay out of the water!

[FoxgloveBC]

Question - how does she react when other dogs are in the water and she is not? As a BC owner and lover, I can tell you my boy Gunner was timid of the water at first, however each time we went back he grew more and more in love w/it, props definitely go to Sassy, our other dog who swam her heart out while Gunner whined on the side all those days and then took the plunge and now, well the damn dog wont stay out of the water!

I havent had her around other dogs swimming. I dont have a whole lot of friends with dogs and i really am even having a hard time finding somewhere close by that has a gradual depth change. The pond I took her to is not gradual at all and the local dog park does not have a pond. Everything is at least an hour away, and I since I work 7 days a week, I dont always have enough time to drive that far away. Of course I could take her to the beach, but I think the waves might put her off.

[ssejrnv]

I had similar problems with a couple of my dogs. The nice thing is that BC's tend to have lots of drive which will eventually win out over fear. Keep it simple and take it slow. With my one older dog (who was terrified of the water) I just did lots of on shore retrieves where he just had to get his feet wet. Gradually I would throw the ball out so he would have to swim (this took several weeks and lost too many tennis balls to count). I would encourage him but never forced him. He was so pathetic when he couldn't reach his ball but just kept trying. I am proud to say he is now almost 13 years old and not only swimming but still having fun jumping off the dock. Remember that these test are part of building a relationship with your dog and although they can be difficult the reward will be great. Have fun
JJ and crew

[FoxgloveBC]

I just need help finding a place with a gradual depth change. The pond I took her to has too much of an abrupt drop that she didnt take too kindly. She would just do the same thing over, wait till it floated back so she wouldnt have to get in.. apparently it didnt work over at that pond so I am trying to find somewhere that has gradual depth changes... no one tends to be too helpful in letting dogs swim in their ponds.... UGH lol

[FoxgloveBC]

I was able to find the pond that they use for training the gun dogs I work with for one of my jobs. It had a much friendlier depth change....aaaaaannd..we started swimming! We werent charging into the water or anything, but she did full retrieves where she had to swim. So I will continue taking her for the next couple weeks to get her really used to swimming and water... then I will try to get her to jump off a tiny bank at one part of the pond... then I might need to see if she will jump in a pool or off of something closer to a dock sort of thing. I am SO EXCITED that we took a huge step towards actually being able to try the Pearland event!