Grizzly is really enjoying the water now that all the ice is gone, but really hasn't figured the whole dog paddle thing out. He'll retrieve all day, but is splashing so much he is wasting energy and probably having trouble seeing the mark. He's having fun and working hard, but needs to improve. Could it be he grew up swimming for the first time breaking ice and up until recently had to do the same? Just a thought. Thanks in advance for any and all input and suggestions.

Try having him retrieve something heavier. A dead duck or cork bumper which is waterlogged will help with swimming form. Moving water also helps, they have to learn to use their back legs instead of just the puppy swim with the front legs. Just a thought......

thanks kate I'll give that a try

Just curious. Our 4 yr old is a wonderful retriever, but a very slow swimmer. Most of the chessies that i've seen swim are also slow. Gator seems to swim so much better after he has made the retrieve. Swimming out to the bird it almost looks like he's using only his front legs. I always wondered if this was a chessie thing

I've seen chessies that are very slow swimmers and some that swim like they have an outboard strapped to there back. Some dogs never do use all there legs when they swim. The fast ones seem to use all four. CBRKAIE gave good tips on teaching the dog to level off in the water, (swim against current, heavy bumper ext). The pup will figure it out in time.