My first fall pup so I've never been in a situation where I could not introduce the pup to water fairly early. Now I am a little concerned about waiting so long to intro to water. By the time it is warm enough to let him get in he will be 7mo. old. Short of taking some vacation time and heading down to Florida I will have to wait till mid April before we start seeing water temps in the 50's. I am sure others have dealt with this, any problems in waiting that long?
Any of you folks have grounds along the gulf coast where I could take a long weekend and intro my pup to water. Be happy to throw birds for a training group for the weekend in exchange.
How far are you from Danville? I live in NC just southeast of Danville Va on the west side of Hyco lake and the temps down around the power plant are in the upper 50's to 60's when it's below freezing. This coming week it will be in the upper 60's outside so the lake will be a good place to intro. I have two that will go soon. I'll get alot done that day,1st boat ride,play in the water, throw puppy marks off an island etc etc. Let me know if you want to come train one day.
I have a ton of people that send me dogs that have never been in the water. Very rarely is there a problem getting them to love water at the age you're talking about introducing yours.
My girl was born Oct of last year, I was also worried about the cold water. Even in Texas... I knew that forcing her into cold water or cold water in general could be a bad experience. On about 3 or 4 instances when it was a warmer day since she was about 12 weeks or so I let her run around water and threw some sticks in the water to see what she would do. By the second and third time she would get in willingly but not swim. Just this weekend it warmed up to about 70 degrees (outside, not water temp). I decided to put my waders on and get in the water. She followed me out, no problem at all. Even retrieved a few water singles on her own after that. She is 4.5 or so months now.
All of that to say, the earlier it warms up and the sooner you can get your pup in it will probably be better, but also many trainer haves told me that they get dogs that arent swimming at 6-7 months and they can knock that out real quick once they get into formal training. Do not worry, these dogs are made for water and instincts will take over.
Mine went to a pro at 6 months old and I was embarrassed to tell him that he had never been in water. Like you, it was simply a matter of timing.He was a quick learner and now won't stay away from it. I'm pretty sure yours will be fine.
Mountain Duck, that pic is beautiful!
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