Swimming with a Labrador

[2rocky]

This summer my girlfriend showed up with a year old black lab. He and I hit it off and i introduced him to the water. He had a blast in the farm pond retrieving whatever you threw in. This summer on a road trip we stopped at a swimming hole and I jumped in. He followed right behind me and swam right to me.



At that point, he got right up against me and began kinda nipping at my arm, and took my whole forearm in his mouth when I tried to swim out to deeper water.



He literally positioned himself between me and the deep water and herded me to shore.



I had to keep pushing him off me in the water because his paws were scratching me.



In his mind, was he "SAVING" me? Because if it had been a little kid he might have pushed them down.



What is my responsibility here to train him to behave well in the water with people? DO I need to teach him to keep space when swimming with people?



How do other people's water dogs react with swimmers?

 

[teej89]

my lab will swim towards you and constantly swim at you while you're in the water. No idea why, doesn't really bother me b/c I just take his ball from him and throw it in another directly and race em to it. Then again he will let us alone and swim around and do his own thing, it's only when we call him to us does he swim around us and scratching us by swimming at us.

 

[Goatshoes]

My guess is that he isn't saving you so much as he was retrieving you, because everything that you have ever put into the pond was brought back to shore. He'll get over it and figure it out. In the mean time just don't let him swim with kids that can't handle him.

 

[mtnrunner260]

My mom's golden would always swim over and try to climb on top of my head. My guess was they don't understand that will cause you to go under and just saw it as a place to stand.