I have a 7 month old girl which I was hoping to get a JH on. I've trained some of her littermates for new families and they all swam and loved the water. She will wade at the edge when my children are in the water, but although she likes to retrieve bumpers on land, she won't swim out to get them in the water.

We had her in our speed boat yesterday. She did jump in of her own volition as we all were swimming and she swam a little, then went and "hugged" my 16 yo son who always likes to carry her.

I thought today she'd swim out to a bumper as she chose to swim yesterday, but no, she actually stayed on land with 2 of us playing in the water.

Ideas?

try taking another dog or two to the water and let them retrieve - she may become more competitive with other dogs involved

My one year old girl isn't to fond of the water. She wouldn't go after a ball or bumper when tossed in the water. So, I tried a empty water bottle with some stones in it. Shook it a number of times making silly noises to get her to pay attention, tossed it in the water and she loves it. I think sometimes you have to try different things to get them motivated. Don't give up, and good luck.

Also, you may want to go a little slower when taking her out in the boat. Just take her a little distance at a slow speed, as she gets used to it you can lengthen the time and speed in the boat. My girl jumped off a dock, she was ok, but, next time she slipped off the dock, she was a little gun shy about it. She had to be coaxed in the next few times. Pups are very similar to children, go slow. Don't assume because they are Labs they love water and love to retrieve.

Over the years, I have some pups are just slower to gain the confidence to retrieve in the water. Part of it will depend on when they were introduced to water and how much drive they have. My recent litter was introduced at about 5 months and the little girl instantly took to it, and was doing full retrieves (hand tossed) the same day. Her brother for the first three times acted just like your pup, very hesitant once the water got to a certain point in depth. Finally he did it, just a few inches, but it was a swim. He is a pro swimmer and retrieving fool now.

I will caution though, that when using other dogs to get him to retrieve, you have to be careful. If the others "dunk" him it could create very bad experience for him or worse. I know of someone who was doing the "gang bang" retrieves and lost a dog to drowning.

Just be patient, and slowly build confidence. In the end, when the dog is 5 years old, and has his JH it will not matter if his swimming turned on at 4 months or 12 months.

Thanks, Ann - I have a mother and daughter who don't like to swim also. I will try what you suggested with the water bottles.

My first girl, she also would not swim. She was pretty unsound and needed natural swimming along with PT - I ended up taking her into the pond, holding her by the belly, until she became confident and not afraid. She scratched the heck out of me in the process, but it was worth it as she did learn to swim and retrieve in deeper water. As a benefit, she taught my Dalmatian to retrieve bumpers in deep water also.

But the mother and daughter, they are larger and stronger, and I am a bit older, lol, so I hesitate to try the pond routine again.

I have a mother daughter team that won't swim. They are 7 and 4 years old now so it won't happen. Nothing bad happened to them that I know of. They just are fearful of not being able to touch bottom with their feet for some reason. They go in to their chest but thats it. I have a father son team and the father won't swim. The son and several grandsons are avid retrievers and all have JH titles.

If you want to give it another try with the older ones, get yourself a pair of waders and go out in the pond with treats just in front of the dog going parallel to the shore. If they're hungry enough, they'll soon find themselves floating and swimming to reach you. It'll just be a stroke or two in the beginning but usually once they get used to knowing they'll float, they love it.

There is a pro trainer who safely tucks his youngsters in his arms, takes them out a few yards from shore, points them in that direction and guides them to land. That works well, too. Hard to do with the big ones though.

My advise? Take your young dog out to swim with a kind older dog who is bumper crazy, but not a big splasher.

Take 3 or four bumpers out with you, and play with the older dog. Then put him or her on a leash, and get the youngster would on the bumpers, throw one bumper and see what happens. Then throw one in the water, if she goes half way out to get it, throw another about 2 feet further, and if she goes a bit further, throw another. You'll have 3-4 bumpers in the water, but sometimes, they just need that extra 'It's right there!!!' Excitement to get them in.

Here are two things that have worked for me. The first is simple but requires a special set-up. You will need a narrow, but really long piece of water like a wide ditch or long channel. Have someone hold the dog on one side and go around to the other side and call him. It works even better if you have your car with you! This worked for me to get two dogs into the water, swimming. Once they got in, they then retrieved multiple times out of the channel.

The other way requires a trained dog that is soft and will allow your puppy to take something away from them without a fight. Throw a bumper for the trained dog a number of times and allow the puppy to run the bank and wade out into the water and take the bumper away from the other dog as it returns to shore. The puppy should be really excited. Then throw a long retrieve for the other dog and as it is swimming out, throw a bumper for the puppy just far enough so that he has to swim to get it. This got my old Cara into the water again after a bad scare that she had as a 4 month old puppy. Cara eventually earned her WC and JH. Of course, the more avid a retriever your dog is, the better this one will work. I have to credit Pluis Davern with Cara's transformation, but I have used it myself since then.

We've started to try several of the suggestions given above and are slowly but surely making progress! We took her to a shallow river, had an older female along - pup's good friend. Pup and older dog waded and fetched together. Some areas were just a little too deep for pup to wade - she swam without realizing it.

Then we took them both to our usual boat launch. Pup was more hesitant here, but this is where she resisted in the past. We used the idea above to heel her parallel to the shore and give treats while slowly getting her out a little where she has to swim at heel. We did this at supper hour, so she was hungry and swam and ate treats quite willingly.

We then threw bumpers for both dogs, the older girll would swim to get them but the pup only went out where she could touch, she'd grab onto bumper with older girl and both would wade in to the shore.

However, she still wouldn't retrieve bumper out where she had to swim and she's nuts about them on land. So my 12 yo daughter took her out by the collar encouraging her all the way. She willingly swam along, got the bumper and returned to shore. Daughter and pup did this several times but pup still wouldn't go out on her own.

We ended the session with my daughter taking her out to swimming depth and me calling her to shore as she swam. I treated her every time she came. She'd then turn around, look excitedly at my daughter to be brought out again. Still not getting bumpers from the water, but definitely more happy being in and swimming. Slow but sure progress. Thanks, all! I'll let you know when we get that JH :)!