This adorable breed are used in some coastal towns to rescue people who are drowning.
Brooke Schofield, a trainer with the Blackpool Working Newfoundlands, explains some of the training they do with these incredible water dogs.
Brooke Schofield, a trainer with the Blackpool Working Newfoundlands, explains some of the training they do with these incredible water dogs.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00 Newfoundlands are working dogs and they historically were used by fishermen in Canada to jump in,
00:07 help pulling the nets in when they were fishing and then they would use them for the land-based
00:11 activities for pulling carts to market to then sell the fish. So we basically re-enact those
00:17 types of activities. On the water side though with the training the dogs have got this natural
00:22 ability to want to help people in the water. We help them get the confidence in the water
00:27 and then do all sorts of activities such as swimming out to people, towing them back for
00:33 rescue, swimming out to boats, taking a rope, towing a boat back to rescue.
00:37 So we start off with the obedience work in the ring so that obviously gives you the
00:44 the relationship with your dog to be able to give them the commands to do left and right turns,
00:49 to do stays, downs, waits and that builds up to when you actually start attaching the cart so
00:54 you can tow the cart safely. And you go on things like they're called a haul where you have a cart
00:58 that's weighted with different weights, different objects and you go on sort of like a mile to two
01:03 mile hauls where you're taking the dog pulling the cart and you have to get all over different
01:07 obstacles like get through gates so obviously the dog has to stand and wait safely while you go and
01:12 open the gate pull through and then close the gate afterwards. It's like having two miniature
01:16 ponies coming and inviting to live with you so there's a lot of work involved and a lot of mess
01:21 but also a lot of love, they're the most loving dogs. A lot of slobber. Yeah that's something that
01:26 just becomes, it just disappears, we like to call it newfie glitter, it sounds a little bit better
01:30 than the slobber. Very good, very good.