[hokisteph5]

Two years ago I took mine out to a nearby lake, parked my new (to me anyway) boat on a beach, and thought that the dogs would love the water. Not so much. I got them in the water, but they ran to the beach and stood looking out at me. The next day my wrists and forearms ached so much from the tugging I did because they hated the water.

I then tried a baby pool by my backdoor thinking I would work my way up to the lake. I got Samson to put a front paw in it, but Gretchen thought I was nuts. Neither dog got to enjoy the boat much that first summer because it was usually too hot for them to go out without a cooldown in the water.

Last spring I decided to take them to a semi-local pet resort that has an inground pool with a inflated cover when it's cold. I wanted to see the technique the owner/instructor would use since she gets in the pool with the dogs at first.

She put a lead on their life jackets (which I bought the first summer) and coaxed them into the water via the steps in the shallow end. She gradually moved them to the deeper part of the pool so they had to stop trying to walk on water, realize they wouldn't die, and learn the swimming technique.

After the first session, which lasted maybe 15 minutes, Samson was semi-swimming and Gretchen was still in her "you're nuts" mindset, with a glimpse here and there of what she could do. About a week later Samson was restricted by the vet to no swimming because he had a flare-up around his eye.

In any case, I had put my boat in the water for the summer and took just Gretchen out to work on her swimming. I parked in a cove and made sure I was close to the shore, but far enough that she had to swim a short way before she got to rest. I made sure I kept a lead on her so I could coax her back into the water when we swam back to the boat.

About a month later Samson was able to get back in the water and he was slightly behind Gretchen in his technique, but soon caught up. By the end of last summer, I was working on making Samson wait for me to release him off the back of my boat.

He had fallen in love with the water and managed once or twice to launch himself into the water before the boat's anchor had caught. Gretchen never quite fell in love with the water like Samson, but has a great technique as she swims.