Swimming with a Lab. Is she life guarding

[alixb]

I went on my first summer vacation with Sunny. We were swimming in the ocean & I thought she was going to drown me. she kept getting right on top of me. I ended up having to push her away.
She managed to scratch me so hard she left bruises all over my legs. Is she trying to be the life guard?

[smartrock]

Mine scratch us up as well. I can be standing on the ocean floor and the dogs swimming around me still scratch me. I never thought they were trying to "save" me since it wasn't like they were trying to pull me closer to shore, just swimming around me excitedly. I stopped going in once they would go in without me.

[zd262]

We were trying to convince Bubba to jump off the dock at our lake house, and we thought that having my boyfriend in the water would make him more willing to. Bubba did jump off the dock, swam directly over to my boyfriend who was treading water, and starting scratching up his entire face. I think it was a combination of just how close he was swimming to him and sort of climbing on top of him.

[ccetta]

Lucy does this as well. If someone jumps in our pool & she hears the splash, she immediately runs to the pool & jumps in & swims right over to person. She seems to get very excited & gets too close and has scratched us. I don't know how to correct this other than pushing her away. When we have guests, she either has to stay in the house or my husband or I have to be in the pool to try to keep her from jumping on anyone. I really wish I could stop her, I don't like the behavior & think it could be dangerous.

[SunDance]

My Hershey did that when he was first getting to know water...he was nervous and wanted me to rescue him.

[Meeps83]

I LOVE that pic of Sunny!


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[Sue-Ram]

Nice smile Sunny.

[Annette47]

I don’t swim with any of mine as it isn’t allowed in the lake where they go (mostly because there are no life guards, not because the water isn’t good). Years ago though, I would swim with Scully in our neighbors pool (before they moved) and if I got into the water she would swim over to me (and scratch me etc). But if I grabbed her collar she immediately swam me to the steps, so I think she may have been life guarding me. I was the only person she ever did it to though, LOL.

Getting scratched by swimming dogs is pretty common I think judging by what friends have told me.

[SoapySophie]

Interesting to read these accounts, as this is the first summer Sophie has been exposed to water deep enough for her to actually swim in (as opposed to splashing around like a spastic octopus).

I just got her into the shallow beach area of the lake a couple weekends ago, but the water wasn't warm enough for me to go in yet. I'll heed your warnings when I'm going to go in with her.

[alixb]

I just still don't know if she is trying to save me or she wants me to save her LOL. Regardless: I did get her nails cut.