Max loved to swim from day one. But when my exfriend & I tried to grt her rottie to swim we had the same problem. he'd go out to his belly & then hit the breaks & cried for us to come back.

I decided to get Rocky out as far as he would go & then lead him quickly off the edge of the water (I could still touch bottom). The first thing I did was put 1 arm under his neck & the other under his belly & kept talking to him & giving him kisses.. it took a few mins to calm him down, but then he realized that he was ok.

I did that too him for a few days in a row until he went out on his own.

(I did that 5 yrs back) & I also taught Rocky to jump off the dock with Max (I had to help Rocky jump out far enough so he wouldn't hit his knees on the dock) & race to fetch the stick. Max always won, but Rocky learned that when he caught up to Max on land Max would give Rocky the stick. They were the best of buddies, I hated the day I had to end it for them.