Congratulations LarryD, she’s beautiful. You guys should be very proud. As you know, you are in for a real treat - enjoy.
When I brought my chocolate lab home he was defective as well. But, he got somewhat better….
The first time I took him swimming was after a bad day at work and took the afternoon off to take my new little buddy swimming. I started easy, just tossing the stick in the edge of the water and worked my way out to the deep parts, but he would not go much more than chest deep. I was bummed. I remember walking back to the car thinking about my crappy day and how I had the only lab in the world that didn’t like water/couldn’t swim.
A few days later, that weekend, my wife and I took him back to the lake. We get to the waters edge and my wife flings a stick out as far as she can. “He won’t go get it”, I said. But, to my amazement he swam all the way out, got the stick and brought it back to her. I’ll never forget the look he gave me coming out of the water and the little trot he had taking the stick back to my wife. It was as if to say - “that’s for getting me neutered, buddy”. That's the honest to goodness truth.
Anyway, we can’t keep him out of the pond now and he has gotten much better with retrieving sticks out of the water – see attachment. When he did this, he would go about 15'-20' out, stick his head underwater then thrash about. I would have given anything for a video camera. It took a couple of trips but eventually he pulled this off the bottom somehow and brought it in.
His nose is still pretty defective when the deer, ducks and geese are running around - hope yours does better. But, he makes up for it by having a real keen sense for finding cheeseburgers, pancakes (his favorite) and for flushing popcorn out from under the couch.
Eddie