Fear of water...?

 Hehe. You would think since he has Lab in him water would just come natural to him.

Cheyanne my dalmation/lab mix is 7 1/2. This summer she finally realized the water hose is a great thing on hot days. Only took 7 1/2 years!!!

As for swimming maybe if he sees other dogs swimming he'll want to try it? I know Karen mom to Bugsy just got him to swim a couple months ago. I think he's 3.

He **loves** the water hose.....but standing water? No way!

He's a goof with the water hose, he plays and jumps and acts silly. If you stop pressing the little button on the nosle, he barks. It's so funny.

 Maze is a two year old Lab/BC mix who HATES all water.. Refuses to go swimming when our friend and I take all 3 dogs to the beach.. Maze just stands on shore, running along the shore line..

So if you figure out how to make him swim, let me know. Lol

I think it just may not be his thing, but I'd like to take him to the beach and he actually enjoy it. I'm not sure if he would thou.....he'd like to chase the birds for sure.

 We managed to get our dogs to like swimming by swimming with them.  My sister and I took off swimming away from shore for the fun of it and next thing I know the dogs were all following!  And they'd never willingly swam to us before.  Part of it is just that they don't know they can swim yet I think.  Just keep trying when it's warm enough and it will come eventually.

Only one of our dogs is a natural swimmer.  The rest were encouraged to swim with me, & have learned to love it.

 My dogs also took encouragement. I take them out, regularly, with other dogs who swim. It's no fun being left on shore! Now, they'll both swim just because.

Heidi finally got the courage to get in the pool after watching our neighbor's BC get in.  She didn't do it that day, but the next day I got in the pool and persuaded her to get in.  I stood really close to her an lured her out using her ball as bait.  She gently came in, grabbed her ball and turned right around and got out using the steps.  NOW, she is a pool fiend.  She'll jump in like she's been doing it all her life.  Funny!

I would recommend you wait until next summer.  The water needs to be warm and now that the temp's are getting cooler I doubt he will want to swim if he has already shown he dislikes getting in the water.  Many people assume retrievers love the water but it's not true.  Some do some don't.  Introduction is the key sometimes and maybe Sam had a bad experience in his previous life. I can't remember if you have had him from a pup. 

When you do want to try and get him in the lake, try the following method.  Play fetch or any game he loves to get him heated up.  If at all possible start out with you wading a few feet out in the water and splashing around and just having a great old time. If you have been playing fetch you can toss the ball or whatever up and catch it. Don't call him or try and corece him to join you.  Just stay out there and keep playing, don't splash water towards him.  If he ventures out a little ways then you go out a little farther.  Hopefully he will continue to follow you and before he knows it he will be swimming.  Now you praise and tell him what a brave dog he is.  If none of this gets him in the water try to have a friend with a dog that swims go with you and all of you get in the water.  If none of this works then Sam probably has his own reason that you will never know why he doesn't want to swim.  Never let someone throw him in or drag him in, this will only make his fear a thousand times worse.

JackieG

Never let someone throw him in or drag him in, this will only make his fear a thousand times worse.

I often wonder about this though....  with our dogs, we used to have a boat and while they would wade in the water along the shore, they never jumped in or swam much.  With the boat, we'd put lifejackets on them and if we stopped near shore, we'd put them in the water and let them swim to shore and play along the shore for a while.  When we were ready to go, we'd swim to shore and call them and swim with them back to the boat then help them in.  After a few times of being placed in the water, Tasha began to just launch herself on her own.  The others also were prepared to go by themselves and soon began to jump off on their own.

My friend had a pond at her old place and she threw/tossed/placed her dog in the pond off the end of the dock because Xen would not swim on her own.  After doing that a couple times, Xen now swims on her own and readily.  I wonder if it depends on the temperment of the dog and if they step in the water at all?

It makes me wonder if they just don't realize that they CAN swim, ya know?

What you did by placing your dogs in the water was not a rough drag into the water or being thrown in as your friend did with her dog.  Of course it depends on the dog but if a dog shows a fear of water I would never recommend forcing it in if I could get it to swim willingly.  Lots of people do really strange and even bizarre things to get dogs to do all sorts of behaviors and when it works they firmly believe it will work on all dogs.  I used to hear about a pointer trainer who would spit tobacco juice in the eye of dogs who weren't steady on point.  Apparently this worked on one or two dogs and he was convinced this was a great training method and the dogs that didn't see it that way were dumb dogs!

If a dog is truly fearful of water I don't know why we feel we must force it to swim.  I know it's fun to watch our dogs in the water but not if they are not enjoying the experience.  One of my dogs was accidentally introduced to water in a way that made him not fearful but he doesn't like to get in swimming depth water.  It doesn't bother me since he is enjoying running along the shore in the shallows.

Oh I agree and I would never condone throwing a dog in water but it's interesting that for some it seemed to have worked.  Xen has a pretty strong personality so I'm sure that has a part in it.

And agreed, a dog that is truly fearful should never be forced to go into it.