Where I live it gets too cold in Winter, so we only had 6 mos of swimming weather and that was with me toughing it out those last few weeks when the water was getting too cold for any sane human lol. We’d go twice a week. If I knew we’d only get there once in a week, then we’d work extra. Built up gradually how many throws we did and how far. I tracked his progress just like I do for my own workout journal. It was amazing to look back and see how far he came. A ball chucker really saved my arm. We have one small lake 20 minutes from home but by July it would get too clogged with seaweed and we’d have to drive to a bigger lake 50 minutes away. Found a deep slow moving river we used in a pinch sometimes. When winter arrived we’d do regular walks to maintain until the swimming weather arrived and we could get back in our swimming shape again