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You haven't said how small your pup or large her bumper are. Smaller bumper might help, but she'll probably get past the problem in time. Don't recall the coyote actually needing my assistance, but do remember he took in a lot of water while otherwise swimming well for a time before either figuring it out or growing out of it.

Lose the tennis balls.

The size of the ball in relation to the size of Pup's mouth is likely much or all of why she's taking in so much water. It's holding her mouth wide open with big gaps between it and her gullet. Give her a few turns with a 2" bumper and see if she doesn't do much better.

I'm working on training a 6.5 month old golden myself. While he loves tennis balls on land, we're working with the small Avery teal bumper in the water, seems to be doing fine with the water. He's in the 45 lb range

I think it's great that you guys can admit having goldens. Er...that you're going to be hunting goldens. Perhaps it's a sign that they're making a comeback. Had some good times gunning over them in the "Way back when...", but it's been a few years since we've even seen one through the camp.

Im admitting to loving him, good, bad and ugly. He's lots of fun either working toward some semblance of training or boat riding, swimming, etc. We wanted a dog to do it all and he's delivered so far and loving his weekend adventures. Pardon his accessories, wifey likes him to be festive on the weekends.

gave him just a moment with his dummy to get the pics in:

Grew up quick.

Rick wrote:Grew up quick.

hard to believe he started at this for us, about 2.5 weeks old in mid December:

Really nice looking dog darren. I'd have a golden in a heartbeat if I wasn't lazy about grooming them. too many burrs up here they'd be a mess at the end of the day

ohioduck wrote:Really nice looking dog darren.

x2

ohioduck wrote:too many burrs up here they'd be a mess at the end of the day

I always loved the look on my Chessie's face when I was combing burrs out of her. It looked like she was thinking, "I know you have to do it, but I still hate you for it."

SpinnerMan wrote:

ohioduck wrote:Really nice looking dog darren.

x2

ohioduck wrote:too many burrs up here they'd be a mess at the end of the day

I always loved the look on my Chessie's face when I was combing burrs out of her. It looked like she was thinking, "I know you have to do it, but I still hate you for it."

Mine has that look when he gets a bath.

We just chalk it up as puppy stuff. We've had some young dogs that ingest a lot of water until they get it figured out. I've seen very few dogs not outgrow it and even those dogs get better about it. Get him in the water often and just limit his exposure to avoid him getting bloated which can be dangerous if done to excess. The more often he gets in the water the quicker he''ll figure out to breathe through his nose. I've seen them do it with 3" and 2" bumpers as well as with ducks and pigeons or even with nothing at all in their mouth so IMO your tennis ball isn't the issue although there are better tools to use for retrieving.