Thread: Teaching a dog to swim

My old boy would splash through the water stomping his front feet making a big splash, but once deep enough to swim would go "normal"
As mentioned a gradual slope into the water, and go in front of him and play around the depth where he's almost floating and lead him into swimming mode. Good chance he will still splash his front legs for a few times, but make sure when he comes back into the shallows you lead him back to the deep part again. After a few goes he should build his confidence.
The most important part for me is worrying about the first time out of their depth, and them not knowing how to turn around while swimming. Not much of a problem on a small river but the ocean goes out a fair way.