When my pup was about 10 weeks old, my son and I were in the pool and she was watching us. Without any warning she jumped into the pool and promptly sank about 2 feet under. She made it back up to the surface, with just her nose and eyes sticking out of the water. Stocky little thing...

(she doesn't like the pool too much now though)

My now deceased Rott and my male Dutchie had to coaxed (pulled) in with me beside them. My female Dutchie just jumped in to follow me.
This has been the case with all the dogs I owned in the past. Some had to be coaxed and others did it by themselves.

It seems to take dogs a little while to get their hindquarters level with the playing field. After that short learning curve all of mine love(d) swimming.

One of my daughter's Border Terriers (when young) had been left on the railed deck while the humans were in the hot tub, and she climbed up to the railing and dove into the middle of the hot tub, maybe 10 feet lower.

She didn't do well with swimming when she corked back up, either. Of course, there were people there to pluck her out, and the hot tub is covered otherwise.

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

(she doesn't like the pool too much now though)

Ditto.

My GSD (Coach) likes to swim in the pool more than my Golden Ret (Noley), and Noley used to get in the pool to get away from Coach nipping his heels. One day Coach just decided he was going to jump in and swim a few laps. I now have Coach trained to jump in on command. I just tell him Spitz (as in Mark) and in he goes. I guess I need to change the the command to Phelps !!!!!!!

Terry

Hi Kori: Looks like you have had a ton of input on this topic. One more bit of experience for you. My GSD showed a huge interest in water early on (4 months or so) so I allowed him, on his long line, to explore the banks of a local pond. We did that a few times for him to get familiar with water. He clearly wanted to go in further, but was hesistant as it got deeper. So we took him to the beach where there is a shallow inlet, about 2-3 feet deep and let him troll around there without the long line this time - just fetching his toys. Then he hit a spot that required some swimming and I thought he was going to sink (all we saw was nose, eyes and ears!) LOL. Luckily it was a very brief deep area otherwise I was already on my way to him. Since that time (he's now 21 months), we have given him additional opportunities to explore ponds, slow rivers, etc, always on the long line. I found that he was "practicing" on his own - so funny. He would do these little half-circles back to shore. He basically had to figure it out, and did. Now we can't keep him out of water - I think he's part fish. Actually I think he's a Lab dressed up as a GSD. So, my advice is, give your pup safe opportunities on a long line to test his skills and practice, and he'll likely figure it out. We didn't rush it.