Labrador Retrievers and Boykin Spaniel Learning to Canoe, Kayak, and Swim

These dogs all get to one side of the canoe or the other and get me tippy. All right, so here's what we're doing today. Practicing a little bit of canoeing and we're gonna practice a little bit of kayaking and paddle boarding also. So I'm gonna pull up to the bank here. We've made a couple of trips around the pond. I have Maxi, it's a nice British bred field lab and Lula, it's a cool boykin. Boykins are cool. You don't see these on my channel too often but I'm a big fan. Sophie, who is a champagne lab. And let me turn you around here so that you can see my man sitting up there on the front seat. That, my friends, is Wilson. Wilson's a real chill little dog. He likes to hang out, likes to party a little bit and he thinks he's a person so he always gets his own chair. All right, so I'm gonna get out for a second. And pull my canoe up on the bank and I'm gonna grab a kayak that we've modified so that we can train simultaneously the dogs to ride on a sit-on-top kayak as well as it transfers to a paddle board. All right, so let me show you what we have here. This, for all you guys that have been watching my channel for a long time, you know that when I'm cruising around in kayaks, I use Hobie kayaks. But we kinda like to do other stuff too. We like to get in a john boat, we like a paddle board. And so one time we went up to Walmart and we bought just a cheap kayak. And it's turned out to be really nice. It's a Lifetime brand and the body of it's really sturdy. We've drug it around and beat it up and it's in as good a shape now as it ever was. Now, the thing is is that the seat wasn't really that good but we didn't really need the seat too much anyway. We took the seat out and we just built a plywood base for the dogs to sit on. That way we can come out here and we can get a lot of practice with multiple dogs. So instead of having to do one dog at a time, we can put two or three puppies on here and kinda drag it around and get them used to, you know, what it feels like to be in a boat and to deal with the unsteadiness, the rocking. And you know, some of the things you don't think about, like with putting the dogs on the boats, is like, you know, they're having to not only, it's like there's a lot of visual stimulation, okay? But there's also a lot of olfactory stimulation because as I'm tramping around out here in this ooey gooey mud, just tons of mud, right? And every time I step in that mud, it releases gases and those gases contain a bunch of stuff that smell really weird to the dogs. And some of it they like, some of it they don't like, but it can make them a little bit antsy on the kayaks. So we just kinda bring them out here and we let them go out and back. And I'll just kinda walk them around till they get the hang of things. Now in the canoe, it's pretty easy to keep them in the canoe because the canoe has walls. And so those walls kind of give you mental boundaries. But see how Sophie just decided to step right off of the kayak? That's because there's no mental boundary there. It's just a kind of a flat platform. And that's what we run up on when we're paddle boarding, you know, is that the dogs, they just are like, they're on the paddle board and then they're off the paddle board and you're trying to get on, it just becomes a mess. So we just come out here and practice. And so the pond is pretty shallow at this part right here. So if the dogs get off or fall off, it's not a big deal. And I put a long line on the kayak and I just kind of push it out and then I'll bring it in. And I'll do that a few times and they'll fall off. But it doesn't really matter because they didn't fall very far. So the dogs didn't have a bad experience and it's not a lot of trouble for me to get them back where they need to be. I'm gonna bring them back. Whoa. And what we're doing here is just, again, we're acclimating the dogs to the different types of stimulation, the visual stimulation, the olfactory stimulation. And for those of you who have been on the water a lot, you know that the auditory stimulation is different. Water travels across, I mean, sound travels across water much differently than like if you're in the woods or just even out in the field of grass or crops. They're just here. I kind of turn them around, spin them around a little bit, send them out. Oh, gotta watch out for holes. And look at Sophie. She's thinking about getting off there. So I kind of have to remind her. Hey, listen, get back here, nerd. There you go. Send them out, pull them back. And what I'm looking to do is I'm looking to get Sophie to bring herself back here. Oh, and calm down and relax. And then once they're all calmed down and relaxed, then that's gonna be kind of how they earn their freedom to get out and play in the water or go investigate in the field. And my little boykin has run off somewhere. So we'll have to round her up and do her next. Now, that's the thing between the labs and the boykins. Those boykins, they stay close, but they don't stay real close like a lab. They kind of, you know, flit around a little bit. Okay, so we've lost one. Oh, this is a dog business, guys. Right here. All right. Come here, Wilson. Get back on there. Come here, Sophie. Come on, Maxie. Very good. And of course, you can see in the background here, we got Henry and No Name setting a good example. All right. Now I've got them all three sitting there and they're being good, acting like they got a little bit of sense. So I'm gonna bring my little kayak up to the bank. Oh, and I'm gonna let them off. And I'm gonna work on swimming with each one of them individually. Okay, babies, very nice. You're very good dogs, you're very good dogs. I let those three guys off, but I forgot that Lula had run off on me. So let's get Lula up here and see if we can get her to settle. Now, these little boykins, they're just into everything, you know? Like I said, they don't stay super close, but they don't go very far away. Like, and that's kind of a genetic thing. And we'll talk about that in the boykin video that I'm fixing to make. But I can kind of count on Lula when we come over to the farm to like be just fidgeting and moving and going everywhere. But it's cool. As long as you understand that they're gonna do that, it's really not a problem. The only time people think that these kinds of dogs are inattentive is when they don't understand the breed-specific tendencies. So I'm just gonna kind of put her out, bring her back. I'm gonna rock my kayak a little bit, get her used to this rocking motion in case we hit some stormy weather somewhere. Or you know what happens to you a lot when you're kayaking or canoeing is people in power boats, they don't really respect kayaks and canoes very much. So they'll just blast past you and then their wake will hit you. And it looks like this, you know? And so you can be having a nice day on the lake or the river and your dog is settled. You've been doing a lot of practice, but a power boat comes by and a little bit of wave comes up and a dog freaks out and jumps out of the canoe, kayak ruins your whole day. So you need to get that stuff, you know, you need to get that stuff covered in your yard work, in your basic training. So when you're out practicing, think about all the situations that could possibly ruin a vacation, you know? And having your dog jump out of the kayak or canoe on the river on vacation is a lot different than having it happen in practice. So if we can get it out of the way in practice, then we're saving ourselves a lot of potential problem later. So I'm gonna get the dog away from me. This is another thing people don't practice enough is like making sure that the dog understands to stay in the canoe or kayak, like even though the canoe or kayak might not be super close to you because you might have to get out and, you know, grab something off the bank, like a cooler, or you might have to talk to somebody. So I need for the dog to understand that we don't have to be perfectly close to each other for her to stay in the kayak. And see, that's gonna happen. And I don't really have to fuss very much because you'll notice when she jumped off there, she kind of went head first. And so that's just, you know, it wasn't that much fun for her. So she'll stop that on her own after a few repetitions. All right, and she's doing pretty well. So now we'll go back and do our individual swimming lessons. Well, since Lula was already on the kayak, we'll just go ahead and start with her. So I'm just gonna move her out here where she can kind of touch. Then I'm gonna use my long line to encourage her to go a little farther. And I've got Henry and no name out here to let her know that nothing to be worried about. You a smart dog. Oh, you a very good dog. And it doesn't take very much. Just a few little repetitions. Very good. Then I'm gonna walk her up to the bank because she did so well and let her off. And I'll grab one of the other dogs. And you can see she's kind of wanting to move towards the kayak, so that's fine. Good. All right, so we'll grab another dog. So Sophie has hopped up here and we'll do her next. Okay, come on, Sophie. Sophie's like, no, I'm going back to the bank. Come on, Sophie. Come on, you can do it. Come on. Oh, you're a very smart dog. Come on. You're a very good dog. Oh, you're so smart. You're so smart. Okay. Go back. Make us another little trip. Come on, Sophie. You can do it. Oh, Sophie's caught on a log. Come on, Sophie. You can do it. Oh, what a very good dog you are. What a very good dog you are. Very good. All right. Now, we'll go up here and get another dog. All right, now. Oh, we have Wilson. Oh, come on, Wilson. You're a big adventure dog. And Wilson's like, I'm not sure, Stoney. Come on, Wilson. Now, one of the things you'll run into a little bit is that the long line, if you're in a pond especially and you're trying to do this kind of work, the long line will get hung up around stuff and it'll cause the dog to pause. You know, don't get frustrated with the dog. The dog, you know, is worried. Like, if you were out swimming and you felt like you got stuck on a log or something, you know, you wouldn't be too confident either. Come on, nerd. Come on. Very good. See what I'm talking about? All kinds of stuff. Oh, you're a smart dog, Wilson. You're a smart dog out here with Uncle Henry and Uncle No Name. Come here, nerd. Come on, come on. Come on, you can do it. Oh, that's a wonderful dog. You're a very smart dog. Well, I just kind of go over this other direction. Very good dog, Wilson. Come on, Mr. Wilson. Oh, you're a great dog. You're a great dog. You're a very nice dog. Bring him up here where you guys can see him a little better. Oh, and he says, I'm going to the boat. And I'm like, not yet, dude. Come on, come on. Come on, Wilson. Oh, come on, you can do it. Let's go a little deeper. Come on, let's go a little deeper. Oh, you're a very brave dog. All right, and then we're gonna walk back up to the bank and practice getting back on the kayak. Oh, come on, Wilson. Oh, we'll have to work on that later. All right, but Wilson did a good job. So take his leash off, let him go explore. Have a good time. Now we have Maxie. Oh, and Maxie's a good little dog, but he's very sensitive. He's very sensitive. He doesn't like anything to change in his environment. He's not a risk taker, you know. But he's a good little swimmer. He's a good little fetcher. Gonna make a good little hunting dog. Very nice. Oh, you're such a good boy, Maxie. Come on, come on. See if I can get away from him just a little bit. Oh, there's a hole. Come on, Maxie. Very nice. Maxie. Come on, Maxie. Now it's important, guys, when you're using a long line, don't be pulling on the dogs too much. The long line is really mainly just for kind of a little bit of steering and guidance and to keep them from leaving the area. We want to try to use our vocal inflection and our posture and the context of the situation to keep the dogs with us. Because ultimately, once we get them used to being in the pond and stuff, then they're not gonna want to get out. Like, you can already look. Hand over there to Wilson. You see, he's already starting to want to get back on the kayak and go do some more stuff. Doesn't take very many repetitions for them to want to go party at the lake. They're just like people, you know. I always talk about how little kids, you know, don't want to get in the swimming pool, but you got to kind of make them get in the swimming pool. And then once you've done that a couple of times, then you can't keep them out of the swimming pool. The same thing when you go to the lake. I mean, how many of you have went to the lake and you climb up the rock quarry with your friends and you get up there and you don't want to jump off, you know? And the very worst thing in the world that could happen to you is if your friends allow you to jump off. Good friends would push you off the rock quarry, right? Okay, because sometimes in life, you just have to be pushed into doing things that are good for you because your natural, like your natural tendency to avoid risk, it outweighs the fun. And that's what we're all trying to do in life, right? We're trying to like look at risk versus reward. And I want to make these dogs understand that there are some things that are pretty risky and they ought not engage in those activities. Like they shouldn't chase cars, shouldn't chase horses, right? But being out here in the pond, being out here exploring, having a good time, okay? You know, riding on a four-wheeler as long as it's done safely, all that stuff, that's the spice of life, guys. That's all we do here in the Bluegrass State. And so I want everybody that comes here, Maxie, Sophie, Wilson, you know, Lula, I want them all to be able to have a good time. And since a lot of them grow up in the suburbs, they don't know, you know, they don't know when they get here how to have fun and their owners are the same way. But they hang around with Uncle Stoney for a few days and next thing you know, they're drinking moonshine and jumping four-wheelers over creeks. All right, I'll see y'all next week.