Swimming! What do you do?

we have a pond in the backyard and several more ponds a two-minute drive away. I've seen labs happily break an ice layer to swim, and seem perfectly content so I'm not sure if a temp limit exists.

 I haven't found a temp limit for my dogs either. They will swim dead winter if there's a break in the ice.

I only throw sticks for them to fetch. Anything else eventually gets lost.

We just about live at the pond.  We have two on the property.  We do water fetch - even Zhi my Chinese crested loves it!  The BCs can swim briefly even when it's snowy out but not when there's ice on the water.  They can and would but I don't let them.  In cold weather I swim them with vests in case of sudden cramp.  Probably for a lab you could swim in any weather if you acclimated them to it, and I think most people also use vests these days in cold weather.  You can find appropriate snag-resistant vests in outdoor supply catalogs like Cabela's.

There's tons of water-friendly fetch toys.  I pick toys that are high contrast to the water depending on the season.  Dog's color vision is pretty limited so white is best in summer if you fetch from a pond that reflects leafed out trees, and an orange/yellow toy or bumper is best in winter when the sky is reflecting in the water. 

We chase geese, too, but that's our job.  LOL  I don't recommend that unless your dog is really fully trained to do so. 

There's a river right by where we live (5 minute walk) and I take Ari there.  If I'm not in the water with her, I just keep my eye on her and call her back when I think she's going to far out.  We only use sticks - she has no interest in any of her actual toys in the great outdoors but is obsessed with sticks.  I'm still taking her swimming now actually - not sure when I'll stop taking her.  Probably later this month.  I don't think I want to be standing there in the freezing cold while she swims though I'm sure with acclimation she'd swim all year round if we let her.   

 Can't help you on this one. Wish I could but my Black Lab mix HATES water with a passion. Lol. It's quite sad really to see her backing away from a puddle or running back in from the rain. *shrugs* I'm condemed to the shores till I get my pup..

Here's a video of Woobie swimming with his Aussie friends.  He's not actually swimming yet at this point, but getting closer and closer.  He full on swims now, I'll have to try to get video of that soon, I'm such a proud mama!

Woobie at the Lake

I live near a large reservoir and it takes us about 15-20 minutes to walk there, 3 mins to drive there.  Woobie will go in after a floating ChuckIt frisbee, tennis ball, sticks, those Kong Wooba's that float, he likes them all.  He just started going in the water this spring/summer so I'm not sure on the temp thing.  Indie's a wierdo, he would run into the water up to his belly in the winter when it was freezing but once the weather got warm he won't even wet his toesies. 

 I couldn't get to Youtube the first time I posted (fritzy connection today):

Bet, a trainee I placed this summer, her second time swimming on our pond - the things I'm saying are directional commands:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Vm9kJRZAE 

Rocky, another dog I trained for goose work, working geese:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0LG9CjnY4A

These are long and sort of boring which is why I didn't really hop to posting them when my connection was goofy.  The reason we take these from so far and in such a boring way, is that for my clients, they need to know where the fowl are, where the dog is, how big the body of water is, and whether the dog can do certain basic things.

Another of our pond, with four of my five swimmers out there:  left to right, Zhi, Lynn (way out in the middle as usual), Ted, and Ben.

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My girl gets to swim a couple of times a month during summer and early fall in a river close to our house. I dont take her in the winter months because there isnt much water. We just started going to a recreational lake in teh summer and we've let her take a jump off the boat a couple of times but she dosnt care for jumping too much.

 She is a good swimmer and thankfully she dosnt go to far out. Its funny that the only time she'll fetch is when it is in water and she preffers big sticks. I was going to get her a life jacket before she learned to swim well but she has done great without one. However if she swam a lot I would invest in one, I hear they are worth it. Here are some pics!

Here she is with my sisters dog

and with Primo our adoptee/cousins dog

 We have a pond in our yard, a river 5 minutes up the road, and a beach 40 minutes away. We do all of the above, regularly. When it's cold out, though, my dogs won't swim. "No, thanks, Ma!" I have spoiled house dogs with low cold tolerance and very little body fat. One of them is hairless. 

I have labs and goldens. I don't like them "swimming" before they are 5 months old. I do introduce them to shallower water as early as I can. Teddi my youngest we got in December 2006, if there was a puddle she was in it from the get go. She is water obsessed. All my dogs love water and I have not seen a temp limit from their point of view, but my tolerance for wet dogs in the cold is very low. Many labs hunt in extreme cold as long as you have the proper necessities for taking care of the dog (towels, coats, blankets) I don't think it is a problem. I do winter dock jumping competitions with my dogs. They are indoors but the water is NOT heated, it is straight from a fire hydrant. We just vigorously dry the dog with a chamois after every jump. They love it, the swimming and the toweling.

My dogs will swim and retrieve almost anything. We have floatable frisbees, bumpers, wubbas, but have used sticks and even stones. We just have to be careful with stones as the dogs will stay out thinking they will find the object and bring it back. I have many opportunities near by for swimming. We go to a location on a river where there is a bit of a current. I didn't let my dogs swim there until they were proficient swimmers, and I don't let them swim there in early spring or after storms as the current is stronger at those times. I use my best judgment, if I have a concern I don't let them swim. Lakes and ponds are best options as they don't usually have a "current". 

I also have access to a training center that has a pool for swimming therapy. Whether you want to rehab from an injury or just exercise. We use that in the cold winter sometimes just to let the dogs have a swim. My dogs LOVE water, Teddi thinks it is against the law to be dry and clean. 

Apollo swims year round. We live on the beach, so he swims in salt water daily. He also goes to the park 4-5 days a week and swims in fresh water ponds. The only time I do not let him swim is when there's ice chunks in the water, also, I never, ever allow him on frozen ponds, lakes, etc (you never know what's really "frozen" thoroughly). Sometimes he fetches a stick or tennis ball.