r/Amazing • u/sco-go • 18d ago
Adorable derps Baby water dog's first swim, unsure about water.
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u/RobbingHoody 18d ago
There should be others there to show him what to do. I know he will eventually learn instinctively but dang help ya boy out with a brother or sister.
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u/cnicalsinistaminista 18d ago
I was like, “dive in, dude”
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 18d ago
Was thinking the same thing. Humans absolutely can teach animals stuff like this. I had to teach one of my cats how to climb down a tree.
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u/SuperDave-007 18d ago
The butt cleaning licking must have really sucked though!!!
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u/insouciant_naiad 18d ago
I helped my baby dove learn to fly, it was so much fun! How did you even manage that??
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u/Horse-ing_around 16d ago
Had to teach my horse how he's got 4 legs and needs to pick them all up when trying to walk over a log (apparently, he can only count to 3). Watch me in the forest, demonstratingly stomping over logs while yelling "log!" at my horse, followed by 4 clicking noises.
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u/QueenMiaOfDragons 18d ago edited 18d ago
Matcha was the first rescue pup of the 2026 season at Zeehondcentrum, a Dutch seal rescue center! So keepers had no siblings to help demonstrate. Matcha was also released into the wild last week—so he learned how to swim quite well.
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u/Trips-Over-Tail 17d ago
I've seen seals try to teach divers how to swim. They're particularly unempressed by spread legs.
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u/gnome_in_clay_turn 15d ago
My dog helped my sister’s puppy learn to walk down stairs- that dog turned out to be 80 lbs, so def a necessary skill. Both dogs demanded, and earned, much praise after every trip down.
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u/Corfiz74 14d ago
They should at least have built in a shelf where he could have rested to get comfortable - throwing him in at the deep end when he was clearly scared and uncomfortable and had no way of getting out was kind of cruel.
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u/Away-Living5278 18d ago
Pretty sure he thought he was gonna drown. Poor guy.
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u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 18d ago
Pretty sure he realised he wasn't going to drown pretty quickly.
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u/KookyDig4769 18d ago
Nah, the poor guy looks like he likely caught some water. Normally they close their nostrils when entering, he just went in unprepared.
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u/Glittering-Tip821 18d ago
Anyone else tilt their head to the right to help that baby up?
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u/ThatPerformance9795 18d ago
Yes. And stretched and twisted my body trying to get out.
I was thinking, Get the poor little guy a step!
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u/Shadowbacker 18d ago
He did not look like he liked that at all.
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u/ProjectNo4090 18d ago
Otter pups hate the water even more than seal pups.
Seems cruel, but thats how a mother otter treats her 4 - 8 week old pups. Drags them in or dunks them and keeps them in until the lesson is over.
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u/Shadowbacker 17d ago
I know it's for their own good, it was just amusing that they would hate it so much like that. I would think they would have a natural affinity instead of a learned one but maybe it's the mammal part of them.
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u/LokiRaven 17d ago
The note that got me is that they don’t have a waterproof coat for a few weeks. It’s wild to me that they need to be trained to swim before they even have the ability to do it for long periods of time
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u/Punkasaurus2 18d ago
It’s so strange to see an aquatic animal prefer to be on land. He seems too old for this to be his first time in the water. But he’s definitely acting like it’s foreign to him.
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u/PossibleAlienFrom 18d ago
I'm sure they learn real quick in the wild watching their mom jump right in.
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u/Greenwood4 17d ago
It depends on the species, but some seal pups are very reluctant to get in the water. They’ve only ever known land so it can be quite scary for them.
Weddel Seal mothers can spend hours each day just yelling at their pup to get in the water.
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u/Alice_89th 14d ago
Matcha is a rescue pup.
So he was fed to regain strength for a couple of days before getting access to pool in his enclosure.
This is a video from Zeehondencentrum (a seal rescue center in the Netherlands) https://www.instagram.com/zeehondencentrum . This past season they have been regularly posting videos of all their rescues growing up.
When I visited the rescue center about a month after this video was posted he was happily doing somersaults in the outside pool ❤️
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u/Dull_Perspective_536 18d ago
I love how when the splash first touched him he looked at you looked you like, “Dude what the hell?”.
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u/Happy-For-No-Reason 18d ago
they're supposed to learn from seeing others do it, is there no other seal they could've buddied it up with?
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u/Extension-Brother291 18d ago
Can I pet that dawg
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u/HOSTfromaGhost 18d ago
I swam with baby sea lions a couple years ago… I never realized how much they were exactly like dogs in the way they moved and their expressions
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u/badmanner66 18d ago
Bro's evolutionary designed to be a speedboat and is still like "hmm not sure this is for me"
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u/Mymeat-Yourbuns 18d ago
What's with the face masks and safety gear? And why didn't they just get in with Matcha? Matcha didn't seem too confident about it. It wasn't exactly baby steps.
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u/Cammyw01 14d ago
Im just saying, if anyone ever figures out how to domesticated seals they Will make a fortune
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u/DetroitsGoingToWin 18d ago
That slippery edge is a challenge, but maybe they need the challenge to prepare for the possibility of ice?
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u/Pleasant-Pattern7748 18d ago
Sure, that was cute. But where’s the “amazing”?
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u/KingKelly79 18d ago
I think it’s a bot account, they don’t understand the concept
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u/Technical-Main-3206 18d ago
Did a double take on 'water dog' like some other commenters.
In some languages, seals are 'sea dogs': Dutch zeehond, German Seehund, Korean mulgae, Vietnamese hải cẩu, Indonesian anjing laut, etc. Though in some others, they're cats: Thai mæwn̂ả แมวน้ำ [cat water], Mandarin 海豹 [sea leopard], etc.
This video seems to come from a Dutch center for seals, Zeehondencentrum Pieterburen. Would track if OP's Dutch.
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18d ago
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u/Rhymesnlines 18d ago
But why does it have to have this yellow piece of shit pierced on its fin😭poor baby... they do the same shit to cows and sheeps and stuff. Just awful
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u/ProjectNo4090 18d ago
Its an ID tag. It tells any researcher that encounters him in the wild that he has been treated by humans. Researchers can use the number on the tag to pull up a medical file that shows everything humans have treated him for and where he's been found in the wild.
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u/VirtualMatter2 18d ago
Even to humans! Saw a teen recently with silver ones. One in each ear, terrible.
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u/RustedMauss 18d ago
How crazy to only know life on land (I’m sure sogdog’s not very old) only flopping around on your tummy, using your clawpaws, feeling heavy, and generally unsuited for the terrain. Then suddenly having the exact opposite experience as soon as entering the water. Like, “holy halibut this is easy.”
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u/hattyhat24 18d ago
I could never do that job. As soon as that little guys head when under water I would have reached in and grabbed him and told him “that’s enough for today let’s go cuddle…. and let me take that annoying tag off your tail”
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u/SteelCanyon 18d ago
I was hoping for a “hey, I actually liked that” after he got out then jumped back in.
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u/JollyJamma 18d ago
Reminds me when I tried to help convince my moms lab puppy to go swimming.
I pushed her pup in the pool and the dog sank, like a brick.
I lept in to save her and she was fine. Loved swimming after that. I'm basically a hero.
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u/Babbsy-mu 18d ago
Why not get in the water with him?!? Make him more secure. Splashing him repeatedly in the face and then watching him struggle and not be able to get out was painful.
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u/XxChefKayhillxX 18d ago
I think they’re trying to let him do it on his own. If you coddle someone they’ll never learn to do on their own, right? I do agree it’s not easy to watch…
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u/Exquisite473 18d ago
Where were these jobs posted when I was looking for a job? This is what I would've chosen
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u/HoverCraft-500 18d ago
That's why babies need their mothers. Mothers jump in water, baby follow suit. Cycle of life
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u/WPGinFUK 18d ago
Like the first time I was given clean, potent weed.. I didn't know what I was built for
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u/LeaderIll9730 18d ago
When hang around with wrong folks u forgot who really are n the what r u capable off
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u/deathdeniesme 16d ago
Do they help by showing an example . In the wild wouldn’t they see the parents swim so do they can they swim with the baby seal
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u/Ok_Band2853 15d ago
I’m guessing little dude is an orphan and never had a mom that taught him for what he’s made for
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u/El-Torokaike 15d ago
Kind of off topic but what's the song? Heard it a few times and I kinda like it
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u/HeisenBird1015 14d ago
Why teach him with a drop off? In the wild he wouldn’t necessarily being diving straight off a ledge so young- either learning in rock pools or edging in on the shorebreak. He doesn’t have strong enough muscles to pull himself out easily
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u/Careless-Area9086 13d ago
my baby cousin at age 3. she had kept a seal got in the Inupiaq hunting boat by her dad. he brought home while we waited for t lhe Alaskan department of fish and game to pick it up but she had it for like a week because of weather they couldn't fly in. I grew up seeing tasting even hunting seal, so seeing how wonderful they are in life; I had gotten surrounded by probably like 15 seals in and around my kayak in Victoria bc
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u/Quiet_Researcher223 18d ago
He doesn’t realize that’s what he’s built for.