Stormy's first swim

[kimbersmom]

It took a while to find someplace safe to take Stormy for swimming; we're surrounded by water but a lot of it is swamp with critters living in it. But I heard that if you go to the local river beach early in the morning, no one bothers about off-leash dogs in the water. I checked it out last weekend and sure enough, found a pack of golden retrievers happily swimming, so we decided to try it with Stormy.

Stormy's enjoyed soaking in baby pools but has never been in a bigger body of water. I didn't know if she'd be skittish about the water, or if she would know how to swim. We brought some toys but I also wondered if we'd be the ones who would have to go get the ball after we threw it; she likes to chase things we throw but often gets distracted from fetching them.

Well, as soon as we got to the beach we saw three goldens swimming in the water. They immediately came running over to check out the newcomer. After a brief but thorough sniffing, they returned to the water- and without hesitation Stormy followed them right in. She immediately began swimming beautifully. The other dog owners couldn't believe it was her first time in the water. Not surprisingly, she was more interested in the goldens' frisbees than in the ball we offered, but she swam out and brought the toy back, every single time! She even gave it up easily to the human.

We stayed for about 45 minutes and she just had the time of her life. She's been sleeping since we got home.

Here's our little puppy otter:

[Amelia]

Glad to hear she liked her first real swim. We plan on taking Amber this coming week with a friend who has an older dog that likes to swim. She will be going to the river where we took her last time and as you may recall that didn't work out so well. Hopefully monkey see, monkey do!

[Annette47]

Aww ... that's great!

My girls have taught two service dog pups (11 and 14 month old Lab/Golden mixes) to swim this summer while we were pup-sitting. Learning from an older dog is the best!

[lovemylabby]

Great Job Stormy! She looks like a natural in the water!

[zd262]

Nothing like a lab on the water! It's where they're meant to be.

[Labradorks]

Nice job! Make sure she gets lots of potty breaks.

[bmathers]

That is so awesome!! I wish there was somewhere around me like this. Diggity would love it! He gets to swim in the indoor dock pool once a week for his dock diving practice, but otherwise, he is stuck in the kiddie pool in the back yard!


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[SamsonsMom]

Awesome. Glad she had such fun.

[janedoe]

That's really sweet. Glad the goldens showed her the ropes.

[smartrock]

That looks like a lovely place to swim! It's pretty funny how a day comes when one minute they're not swimming and the next, there they go! It's like they don't realize they can swim until they're distracted enough by something else to find that they are out there swimming like they do it every day.