Water problem

[rosscrazyelk]

I have a Boykin spaniel  and he loves the water.  He will get in any water and swim for 30 minutes without touching ground. It is pretty awesome. My problem is that the dumb switch comes on when he gets in. He listens about half the time and I can only get him  to come back by throwing something for him to retrieve. Also he had this thing about barking while he is swimming. I at first thought it was funny but now it has become irritating. I have always corrected past problems by catching him in the act. How can I correct the problem when he is in the water without confusing him?
Any help is appreciated

[RPM]

you can collar condition him, then you would be able to correct him wherever he's at. or it's warm out go in after him. dobbsdogs.com has great e-collar info and training tips. 

[gasman]

RPM has good advise. E-cllar to correct un wanted behavior.

Worked on my last dog and will use it with my new pup.

[Happy Gilmore]

I don't know a whole lot about it but, with Chesapeakes/retrievers they call this "Water Freaking". It usually gets worse and worse. My buddy from Cle Elum has spent a lot of time just letting his dogs do their own thing in the water and it has propogated with his male. He will get in the water and swim in one spot, dive, bark, thrash around and won't get out until Mike starts to leave.

I took him out training a few weeks ago and the dog made one water mark. On the next one, a live flopping pigeon, he swam towards it, turned away and went out in the pond and started his "freaking" thing. The part that is bizarre is that on the land marks,(the dog hasn't had a single live bird/training in two years) I stretched him out throwing walking singles to over 200 yards and he was pinning the marks. Drive, desire and marking skills are definately not the problem.

I don't know the answer to correction of the problem. It is possible that e-collar may help but, if it really is water freaking, I'm not certain about it.

I haven't run across too many trainers who have worked on the problem or been successful with a dog who is like my buddies dog.

This comes back to force fetching your dog properly IMHO. People have many misconceptions of FF but, I think this is a particular situation that a proper early FF eliminates.

Have you been through a Force Fetch program with your Boykin? FF and CC(collar conditioning)? They pretty much go hand in hand. How old is your Boykin?

[rosscrazyelk]

My Boykin is 4 years old. I worked with him for awhile with the e collar but he was just getting confused and kept swimming back to me. I have to figure it out, I went hiking this weekend and when we got to the lake his bark really broke up the solidarity of the place. I felt bad for the other hikers having this dog bark while they were trying to enjoy nature.

[h2ofowlr]

I had to get a collar for my lab.  He loves the water so much if he saw land on the other side he went for it.  It was a collar or he was going to drown himself one of these days. 
The final straw was when I was down in Vancouver, WA visiting my parents.  They live above lake river.  It was foggy out and woke up and he was gone.  I could hear the shooting down at Shillipoo wild life area and Vancouver Lake.  Looked everywhere for him, couldn't find him.  A lost ad was posted in the Columbian paper two days later.  A duck hunter had found him as he swam out to the Island in Vancouver Lake.  He had heard the shooting. 
The shock collar has broke him of this behavior.

[Happy Gilmore]

My Boykin is 4 years old. I worked with him for awhile with the e collar but he was just getting confused and kept swimming back to me. I have to figure it out, I went hiking this weekend and when we got to the lake his bark really broke up the solidarity of the place. I felt bad for the other hikers having this dog bark while they were trying to enjoy nature.

Properly collar conditioning your dog before you ever use it is critical. This is where you teach the dog how to turn off the collar to get the intended response. It isn't as easy as just putting one on him and nicking away at him.