(EP:28) Water Work & Tips to Get Your Dog Swimming!

In this episode we talk about water work and your dog. Tips to get the dog swimming and just things we have done in training that have our retrievers come confident water dogs.  Enjoy!

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Transcript

0:35

Welcome to the bird dog podcast. My name is Ty Serikson. I will be your host today. Um, if you're new to listening, just a little bit about my background. I've been training gundogs for the last 18 years, doing this for a living, rain, snow, sun, we're out there. Getting the job done, trying to turn these dogs into amazing hunting companions or family dogs. Um, things I talk about are from doing this in the trenches every day. Uh, it's not just something I've read and I'm sharing with you. It's just from real life. Uh, experience real life practice, and hopefully you can glean some information from this podcast as we talk about things we see as we go out and work these dogs. Uh, recently, uh, I've had a dog that's about two years old and he has been struggling to swim. So today I want to talk about getting your dog in the water, getting him comfortable in the water, and getting them swimming good. So, this dog, we can throw a bumper into the water, a duck, whatever you want, and it just breaks the water. Break, break, break. It just basically swims. upright. And that's very common when dogs get in the water, they just swim upright, kind of like a cork. And so their back legs are straight below them, their legs are up, and then they splash. And then the water splashes into their faces, which actually raises their faces up more and puts their legs down and makes them so they don't swim like they should. So. Uh, if you have a dog that hits the water really hard, he's not afraid to go in the water and he just is not what found his stroke. That what we, that's what we call it. Just haven't, hasn't figured out how to swim. The thing I have found to do with them is just basically wear them out until they find their stroke. So I probably spent an hour of just throwing, um, The bumper in the water. And what will happen is the dog will splash, splash, splash going out again. If the dog has confidence, you may have to start close, obviously with any dog, start close, throw the bumper out there, not too far. So it's more enticing. It's more exciting. And then slowly stretch that distance out. This dog isn't, wasn't afraid to go a distance. Actually. He go, uh, probably did 10, 10 back and forths in 150 foot pond. Back and forth. And still he got tired enough that he found his stroke. And so what it kind of looks like is you can throw that bumper out there in the water. Dog splash, splash, splash goes out. It's, it's swimming upright. Usually what happens is they'll grab that bumper and when they turn back, um, the weight of that bumper kind of pulls their head forward. And then also it doesn't allow those hands to. To come up and break the surface of the water. So it starts creating a little pattern of muscle memory. They're like, Oh, okay, I'm swimming. This isn't too bad. And they can swim forward and they kind of, it brings that head forward. Something you can also also use as like a dock and bumper, something that's heavier or a bigger bumper that actually kind of tires the neck out and brings the head forward to that's going to kind of pull that dog into that swimming. Position. And, um, And a lot of people get nervous that the dog may drown or it's going to get too tired to drown. If the water is not ice cold and the dog is swimming, I've never seen a dog drown or I've never had a dog that I had to jump in and like save it because he just was sinking to the bottom. So sometimes you'll see him where They'll kind of start spinning circles or they're, they're upright and they're kind of panicking and their head actually might go down for a second. If anything, that gives them a little adrenaline rush and then they start splashing and then they realize they can kind of move forward and then they'll start moving again. So obviously if your dog goes under and it's like going under, under. Uh, you know, you could just be cognizant of that. And if you have to jump in, obviously go ahead and do that, but work your dog in a place where the conditions are obviously not too cold, the water's not too cold and you can, you know. Help the dog out. But again, in doing this and training thousands of dogs and teaching them how to swim, I've never seen a dog just not figure it out and sink to the bottom. Now, these are all hunting dogs. I'm not throwing like a French bulldog in there or something like that. Those ones may sink. They don't have the body for these types of things. These are going to be more your retrievers. You know, even some of your pointing breeds that don't mind getting in the water or your versatile breeds that we're talking about dogs that should be able to swim or have. Been known to swim. So anyhow, a little tip, use a bigger bumper. So again, it draws that head forward and then that's when the dogs comes back, you're going to see it starting to find it stroke. Those legs won't be able to break the water. It's going to pull that head down and get that butt up like it should and get that tail closer to the surface of the water. And. And then basically just keep throwing that bumper out there. They're going to splash, splash, splash until they get it. The one then what's going to happen eventually is they're going to get really tired. Cause that's a very tiring stroke to lift that head up and keep it up really high above the water and also bring those arms out of the water and splash. And they're going to get so tired over. Now, ideally your dog has enough desire that he just keeps going. Um, but, uh, they're going to get tired enough over time that those legs are just going to stop breaking the water. And that head's going to fall into position. And between doing that. Plus the dog coming back with the bumper and the stroke starting to get more normal. Your dog will find it stroke. Um, you're definitely gonna want to be in deep enough water when the dog is learning to swim that it can't touch the bottom. If that dog swims upright and he can kind of touch the bottom with his back legs, he's going to tend to reach for that bottom a little bit. So if you're really trying to teach that dog to find its stroke, You got to get somewhere where it's deep enough where the dog can swim normal. Um, if you don't have a pond or the dog struggles to, you can't get enough time. The dog doesn't want to go back in the water cause it's tired. Um, and your dog's desire just isn't quite there. You may need to go out on a kayak or a small boat or something like that and help. Don't just Chuck the dog overboard, but Maybe you could throw a little bumper overboard and or gently put the dog into the water and then kayak away from the dog and just keep it in sight, but just keep in front of it and just tell the dog to follow you and generally they're going to want to follow you if you're on a kayak or something like that, and eventually that dog is going to get tired enough that it stops, stops, stops breaking the water and it's going to start finding that stroke and being fluid. So again, Take these things, the grain of salt, a lot of these things are common sense, but most of the time you're not gonna have to jump in. If your dog kind of gets nervous just for a second and kind of goes under and then comes right back up, um, you're going to see him kind of get nervous and then that's going to push him forward and. I've never had a dog that couldn't learn how to swim when it comes to waterwork. So, um, ideally you start the dog when they're young, this may look, well, let's kind of rewind here. We're talking about an older dog that just really hasn't been in the water enough or struggling, but generally the average dog. They're going to find their stroke with just some practice. So that's just find a good gradual bank where the water goes out, just slowly gets deeper, deeper in the beginning, get in there in the water, just kind of running water is ideal. Again, you're just getting uncomfortable with the situation. Grab a bumper, toss it out there and four to six inches of water. They're going to run out there, go grab your bumper. They're filling the ground, right? It's just, it's, they're literally on ground, but there's just wet stuff. There's just water there. So that's just going to get them comfortable. Okay. I can run around and then you slowly increase. The new things, right? So, okay, now we're going to go a little deeper. So then you just throw that bumper a little deeper and then the dog runs out there a little deeper and then he's, and he's still comfortable. And then you throw it a little further. We're all saying, okay, they got to kind of jump for it. Now they're kind of splash, splash, splash. They grabbed the bumper. Then they come in. Okay. That wasn't bad. Tease them again, throw it out there. Then they go a little further, a little further. It's always baby steps when it comes to training. It's always incremental training. So you're just trying to slowly build that dog's confidence up, be successful. Um, and the dogs can all of a sudden start getting that confidence. It's going to splash weird. And all of a sudden, usually what you'll see is just all of a sudden that stroke will kind of kick in and they'll stop all that puppy splashing, we call it, or. And, uh, and they'll find their stroke and start swimming. Once they find their stroke, that's going to be converted into just muscle memory, where when you shoot that bird down or throw a bumper into the water, they're just like, I know how to swim. And they're just going to go out there and swim. Uh, little puppies, uh, are generally pretty easy to teach them how to swim, go out there on a nice summer day. Um, I've heard people say, don't introduce your dog to water. If it's under 50 degrees, I'd say kind of read your dog. I'd say that's a good rule of thumb. You don't want to, again, you want things to be positive. You don't want to just throw your dog overboard into, you know, 30 degree water. And the dog's never been in the water. So we do want to get the dog comfortable with water when temperatures are nice, when it's not too shocking to the system and build the dog's confidence up. In the water. And then as things get cold, they're already comfortable with the water. So when they transition to the colder temperatures, it's not too much new, right? It's just a colder temperature of something they're already comfortable with, which is water. When they're a puppy, it's really good to go out, just get in some wading water and you can throw a little bumper or just, you know, get put on your shorts, put on your swimsuit. Hey, you know, coax the dog to come out there with you and just they're puppies. They're kind of roly poly, fat little things. And generally they'll just kind of start swimming and following you around and you know, If, as you continue to introduce the dog to water, they'll just like anything, they'll get more and more comfortable. So don't wait until that dog is way old. I mean, I've had puppies as old as nine weeks of old out there swimming in water, even a little younger. Um, but generally, you know, just, you know, Take them out. If the temperature's right, don't overdo it. A young puppy. Again, you don't want to, they do have not a ton of energy, so you can't just let them run out there forever. A puppy could sink or something like that. So when I was talking about dogs, I've never seen sink. These are adult dogs with good retrieve desire. They just have not found their stroke yet. And that's where I was talking about in the previous conversation. Just, you're going to have to go again, again, again, again, until those legs get tired enough. They don't break the surface. Then that stroke transitions, um, into muscle memory. So, uh, so I see some clients, the wait until the dog is a lot older to introduce water. If, um, do all you can to get them kind of at a younger age, but with the ideal, temperatures. You know, if, if you get your puppy and it's obviously mid winter, uh, that's not a good time to get them comfortable with water. Uh, wait till the spring, wait till things start warming up and then get them in the water. Uh, you know, a lot of people say, Oh, my dog really loves the. The little kids pool in my backyard, like those little blue swimming round pools. It's completely different than swimming. That's just a water on the ground, right? So it's like running water. So most dogs, if it's hot, especially love to be in little puddles or jumping in there, they're not far from humans when it's hot. We like to be at the swimming pool when it's cold. We generally don't want to be in the water. So they're kind of the same way. Obviously they have a coat on them that helps to keep them warmer. But much of that is kind of just common sense. If there's a good time you would like to be swimming, then a dog is probably going to want to be swimming. And that's probably a good gauge to when to introduce your dog. to water and to have a successful experience. Once your dog is swimming, um, started off, um, in water where there's not a lot of debris. And then if this dog is going to be a hunting dog, then we want to start adding stuff. To the dog again, we want to train for our hunt, right? So if you, if you're, you're not going to be just hunting in a swimming pool, you're going to be out in the marsh where there's sticks, there's cat tails, there's whatever brush, there's all sorts of nasty stuff in the marsh. So as that dog gains confidence, just in the water. Now you want to start throwing that bumper into stuff where they got to go through cover. They got to swim through the cat tails. They got to, um, Go over stuff or through stuff or stuff. That's going to be under the water. That's going to surprise them. I've seen a lot of young dogs and they're running that water and all of a sudden they touch a stick underwater. It makes them jump. Whoa, what is that? Makes them kind of freak out, you know? And so you're just, again, baby stepping them slowly, transitioning them into what you're, how you are going to be hunting. So I always think. How is this going to, how do I hunt and how do I want to train this dog for the hunt? So don't go too fast. Don't go ahead and throw your bumper out in the middle of a bunch of thick toolies. Cause that bumper will probably stay there forever. If it's the first or second time that dogs, you know, been out in the water or been in that kind of stuff in the beginning, when you're transitioning into working through debris and water. Again, just baby step it, throw it into an area that's not as thick. Once the dog gains confidence, he's swimming through the brush, he's getting in there, he's grabbing that bumper, no big deal, then add a little more cover to it. Throw it on a little thicker stuff, then the dog's going to start digging in there and hunting it out. Then go as thick as you can find. And so, when you do knock a bird down, the dog's going to be like, I've been here, I've done this, I understand what this is, and you're not going to have those huge setbacks. You're going to have more. More success. So as humans always, again, train for the hunt or how you're going to be hunting. Um, and today we're talking obviously about water and, and training for that training we've talked earlier about in one of my other podcasts episodes, talked about working the dog off boats and training the dog in water off your boat, helping setting them up for success. If your dog goes out and goes on a boat and it struggles and has a hard time and you expected it to perform flawlessly and it's never been out there and you're adding new decoys, two or three of your buddies, their shotguns. Don't be surprised if that's too much for your dog. Um, that's a lot of information to absorb for an animal that's actually, that's young and new and it's going to struggle. So continue to focus. Um, on just helping that dog be successful and getting it in the right mindset when it comes to water. Um, some people I've, uh, I've talked to me and said, my dog, you know, it doesn't seem to like water. When I spray it with the hose, the sprinklers come on. It doesn't like that again. That kind of goes back to the pool. I don't like my face being sprayed with a hose. I don't like, you know, water being sprayed on me. Um, But I do love swimming, especially the temperatures, right? Or it's something I enjoy doing. Um, so dogs are not too far from humans in some sense of a way that we are. All living thing and there's temperatures and there's things that affect us. And just like a little kid that's learning something new, you can't throw too much Adam, or it's going to kind of all blend together when you're learning math or something like that. You start with the basics, one plus two equals three, and then you slowly work your way up. And as you incrementally add things to that training, the dog is going to absorb those, absorb those in a positive manner. And then before you know, it's going to be. Quote unquote doing, you know, calculus and doing those advanced things. But you have to start and don't do too much at one time. And try to end before the dog gets bored with it. So don't go out there at the lake and throw it, throw it, throw it until the dog is so tired or he doesn't like it anymore. He's too cold. This isn't fun. Keep it simple. You know, come back another day and train. Um, is, is a society. We want everything now. We want our dog better. done now. And that just is not the way an animal learns. It takes the daily repetition. So the more you can get your dog out there on a daily basis and have positive training sessions where the animal progresses, that's where you're going to get your training, your dog. In the long run, you're going to have a nice animal. You don't just try to, I'm going to get through gun introduction today and the dog's going to be fine with guns. Maybe your dog can absorb that information, but if you do that over a week period and you've introduced the dog to something positive like birds or something bumpers that it loves and slowly introduced that gun into something already positive and you do that over a week or two period, so you're not, making the jump too big, then you're going to put the, the ball in your corner where you're going to have, you're going to lean towards success. If you do it that way, instead of I got an hour today, and this is my only day this week to work this dog. That's where you're going to, if you're trying to jam things down, that's where things. Tend to fall apart. So anyhow, hope, uh, this is not going to be a huge, long podcast, um, water. There's a lot of common sense to it, but hopefully some of these things have helped you out. Um, when you, as you introduce your dog to. water. Um, one last thing I talked about is neoprene vest. Um, neoprene vest can help the dog with buoyancy also can help to keep their core a little warmer when it comes to water. Make sure that neoprene vest is fitting. It's not so loose that the water is just flowing all over around it, but also allows them to have some movement there. Um, when it comes to I've never had to use one to teach a dog to swim. You can try if you feel like it helps in the beginning, anything to help that dog find its stroke. You could throw a vest on the dog to give it some buoyancy. But again, generally just getting that dog comfortable, starting them at a little younger age or just working with the right temperatures and getting that dog out and following you around on a kayak or a boat. They're going to generally find, find, find their stroke. If, uh, If you still just feel like you can't get the dog, um, to find a stroke, you can reach out to someone like us, professional trainers that have worked with, you know, hundreds, thousands of dogs that you can, they can kind of guide you along or take your dog and get it swimming for you and put that work in, uh, never hurts to reach out to a professional or someone that has been around dogs for a long time. They can help you out with your retriever if it seemed or whatever breed it may be, if it's struggling. to get comfortable with the water or struggling to retrieve. Um, if your dog isn't a strong retriever, um, sometimes force fetching the dog, teaching the dog to retrieve on command and, um, essentially making the dog retrieve on land first and getting the dog retrieving on land first, then transitioning that into the water that can sometimes help get your dog, um, you know, more comfortable with the water. But. If ideally your dog is getting in the water because it's going and getting something for you, not most of the time is going to be a bird. If it's a hunting dog, if it's a non hunting dog, it could just be a ball or a bumper or whatever you want to check out their stick. We don't recommend throwing sticks in the water. That's a kind of another side note is, uh, Don't throw sticks for your dog because that's the last thing you want to do is throw something out there And then it just retrieves a stick back and it leaves your bumper Out there in the water or it leaves your duck out there because it's so used to picking up sticks that that's what it's uh used to so Always if you're going to go do to the water take something for your dog to retrieve that might be a bumper I generally always use bumpers not balls, but if you want to throw a ball out there, I guess you can um, whatever you want to to get out there, but If you have any other questions, hit us up. You can send us a DM at, um, the bird dog podcast or our training website is Utah bird dog training. And also you can send us an email at office at Utah bird dog training. com. If you have any questions or thoughts or things you want us to talk about on the show, we're happy to, uh, uh, entertain those. Questions and try to get them answered for you. If you have any, thanks for listening. Good luck with your training. Good luck with hunting. It's a great time of year to be alive. Um, hopefully your dog, you're having good, positive experiences with your dog. Um, if you're struggling, go back and just backtrack a little bit, see where. You got off the path and, uh, build the confidence back into that dog and, uh, keep moving forward. Enjoy the journey. It's fun to be out there working your dog and working through things and helping them become an awesome hunting companion. Uh, thanks for listening and we'll see it in the next show.