Took our three labs to Miss River today-- the older two nmales 9 & 7 did fine and 3 mos old pup made us real happy- he was introed to gunfire, boats, swimming, and water retrieves. after watching the older guys do their thing he was ready to bust- took him a couple of tries but then he went into ater over his head an swam out to retrieve a bumper-bumper launcher noise didn't phase him and he loved the boat-all in all a good start.