Training

[Walkerman101]

[Bearhunter]

[chris]

[old bess]

[Thunderboltkennels]

when i have a dog that wont take to the water like i want i would always start giving them a bath about twice a week and the taking them down to the pond with the house dog that love to play in the pond and when the pup saw how much fun the other dog was having next thing you know the pup is in the pond to after that the sky is the limit. i have one right now that i had to do that with and she just flys into the water now like it wasnt even there. no quit. hope this gives you another idea or two. preston Morgan

[*beagle girl*]

for some reason ppl keep having water issues with blueticks! any who, just go into the water with waders or bathing suit and call the dog in, and as soon as the tip of his toes touch the water, praise him! he'll get the idea, just don't force him, you might want to put him on a leash and walk him in, or maybe wait till he gets hot and lead him in the water to cool off

[Melanie Hampton]

I know Oregon Blueticks can't swim LOL Or mine can't.. But in California, dang them blues can swim..

To get our pups used the water I take them about 4 days a week to the lake right by my house. I am lucky because I have a Walker male who turns into a lab in the summer time.. I just throw sticks out and the pups get all excited seeing him having a blast in the water.. Pretty soon they are swimming also. Now to get my Walker male to swim, I used to take him salmon fishing with me all the time. I would stand out about knee deep and he would have to come out to see me. He was little enough that he would have to swim. He hated it at first but the more he was around it, the more he liked it.. Don't force him like Bearhunter said.. To this day I have a female who can't stand to get her feet wet. She only does it when she is hunting. Great swimmer also, she just doesn't do it until it counts..

[calblu]

We absolutely can NOT have a dog that won't swim!! (Boy are you right Melanie!) I've lost count of how many pups we've had shipped out here that we gave away because they just wouldn't swim.
We keep all pups in our litters until 12 wks old, which gives us lots of time between 8 and 12 wks to do some "exposure" work. Exposure to water/swimming is high on the list. We try to only raise litters during the warm months, so they get a wading pool in their kennel once they get big enough to get in/out and not drown in it.
We walk them around small streams and creeks, and then we take them to ponds. We always take our best swimmer along so the pups can see a dog that really enjoys the water.
We usually buy one of those 3'x10' kiddie pools during the summer and when we're sitting out there in the afternoons, we'll bring pups in with us and call them back and forth.
ANYTHING to make sure those pups like water!! Must work because all 4 of the pups we sold last year took to water like ducks.
Oh and BTW, we have blueticks.

......I should add that we do have some blues that will not swim unless they're out hunting. They don't play that water race game, and we don't hold it against them!

[Melanie Hampton]

Walkerman... What lines is your bluepup?

Calblu had a great suggestion that I forgot that I had done. The kiddie wading pool. I had a litter of pups last summer and I couldn't keep them OUT of it. I had to change it twice a day from how muddy they would make it..

Just take him to a little creek or lake or pond and go have fun in it. Pups are so dang curious that if someone is having fun they just have to try it eventually.

[buckshot]

I hunt around rivers and swamps here...........My dogs have to take to water or I won't keep one that doesn't. I don't normally buy older dogs as I like pups that are fresh and not been messed with.

I set up kiddy pool with water and start messing with the pup in it...I think someof my blue dogs can swim better than the labs I have owned.

I tried a dog on trial years ago. My first question to the man was "would the dog cross water cause if he won't, there is no need to talk further about him"..........The man said "the dog loved the water and was a good swimmer".

Took him out that night. Located with the other dogs, ran track until it got to a creek no wider than 20 feet and only 3 foot deep. That dog was running up and down the creek whining wanting to get to the other side. I followed the other dogs to tree thinking this dog would figure it out. Nope. Gathered the dogs up from the tree, and the dog was still crying running up and down the stream.

Took that dog back to the man's house at daybreak the next day. Told the guy the what happened and he gave a million reasons like the dog wasn't use to you and so on. Then he said I could have the dog for half price.

That is why I buy pups so I do not have to break bad habits and spend wasted time teaching a hound not to be scared of water.

[arachyd]

Make it fun. Never discipline the dog for being scared of water. They don't think like we do - if something scares them and they get punished they assume what scared them is also what punished them. The easiest ways are for the pup to either see their buddies playing in water, take them to water when they are hot and tired, and their favorite person standing in the water offering to play with them and talking in cheerful tones. If you take a small group of pups to a wet area, mostly big shallow puddles and give them something really fun to play with they will usually chase each other through the water without realizing what they are doing as they try to get the drag or bone or whatever. These pups did that. One starting running in the muck and the others followed. I don't have a dog box so it was fun bringing them back home in the car

[calblu]

Love the NICE LIGHT coloring on those pups, arachyd!

Here's Tiny doing "waterwork" with our litter last year. This was after building their confidence by walking through streams, playing in the wading pools, etc for several weeks.
And no, Tiny is not pushing that pup out of the boat. He bailed out on his own. They all swam from the bank out to the boat in the first place.

[arachyd]

Thanks, they really do have ticking but I can't get it to show up if I use a camera flash. They are about as light as the Brussel dog except for one that is really light. I think it's the NJ air have any of you ever driven through and smelled NJ? It probably fades the spots right off them Here's a video clip of our male when he was a young'un getting used to running around water.
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/ ... sh4mos.flv

[calblu]

[Libby]

those are beautiful dogs, arachyd, but fred doesn't look like he PLANNED on that!! very funny. like the reason for the light colors...when we'd drive thru NJ it was thru Elizabeth...as a kid i figured that was how all of jersey smelled. but learned last weekend NJ is #2 in blueberry growing in the US, so it must be the garden state.

good you explained that pix, calblu...looks like tiny is giving him the heave-ho! fun pictures, thanks