G'day G'day Folks,
We have a 12 week old labrador pup. According to what we have been told, labradors imprint on swimming between the age of 8 weeks and 12 weeks. A cousin of mine has a lab that hadn't been exposed to lakes or the ocean till it was past 12 weeks. When they threw a stick into the water for it to fetch it walked in ... and in ... till it could leap UP at the stick. Rescuing a lab that doesn't swim tends to give one an easy to recall profile in the pedigree doggy circles. <grin>
Well our Gypsy can swim. In fact she has swum right across a local river. Considering that El Nino is bringing drought conditions here, people can easily wade the river. The point is puppo had yet to swim for pleasure. This in a lab retriever is a contradiction in terms. We tried tossing in toys. We tried having other dogs playing in the water. We tried having her playing in the shallows where she didn't have to swim. None of these logical strategies worked.
This evening we went to a different beach, and to our surprise she leap in and swam around and around obviously having fun.
Now I wondered why that might be. Maybe she was just ready. Maybe she was frustrated with the Summer heat and the cool water was inviting. Or, just maybe, the old beach held anchors for the old behaviours and the new beach was well ... new.
New beach, new behaviour.
Sometimes its simple.
Email us if you have examples to share.