Teaching A Lab to Swim

Teaching a Lab to Swim 

Pictured below: Bo, Koda and Bear

Teaching a Lab to swim. No kidding… I had to teach my Lab to swim! First, her name is Koda (middle, right side of picture above). She is a five year old chocolate lab that has never learned to swim. I've owned Labs in the past and couldn't keep them out of the water! My beloved Yellow Lab named Bo (pictured above who has since passed away) couldn't resist a rain puddle! When we took Bo swimming… we had to tie rope to him to make sure he would come back… we were afraid he would just swim away (and one time he almost did)… anyway, back to Koda… We have taken her many times to the lake… she wades in, drinks the water and then backs out if she feels her feet start to float. We threw sticks, balls, her favorite toys but nothing worked.

We went camping this weekend down at West Point Lake (GA) and tried again. We went through the same antics but still could not get Koda to swim. Finally, I had a brainstorm (yikes)… I asked my husband to carry our 95 pound Lab out into the lake and then let her go… assuming of course that she would swim back to shore. After my husband shot me the look “you’ve got to be kidding me”, he quickly realized that I was not…

To our surprise, when she was released, she swam as quickly and as awkwardly as she could back to me standing on the shore. We did this a few times and even drew the attention of other campers who where shocked (understandably so) that we had to teach her to swim. Anyway, after about 6 times, she really started to get comfortable. She even retrieved our kid’s water toys we threw into the lake. It was like watching your child take their first steps!! (almost)

By the end of our camping weekend, my husband needed Tylenol, my kids needed new water toys (thanks to Koda chewing them after retrieving them) and I needed to get air fresheners for the tent… I don’t think the “wet dog smell” will ever come out!
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I wrote this article a few years back and just wanted to share it again. Enjoy!
(original post from July 2008)