What better to do on a really hot melting summer day than splashing in cool water? I thought last Saturday (25th). Looking at Smug panting and dribbling in the house with temperature at 33 degrees Celsius, I decided to take her swimming, although she didn't seem to enjoy it too much the last time me and Patrick took her a few months back, for her first ever swimming lesson. I discovered this Dog recreation club through other dog friends, where your dog can swim and play in big fields with lots of games and hurdles.
Last time me and Patrick took Smug there, she was picked up and chucked into the water to force her to swim as she just would not go anywhere near the pool herself, and because we had to pay to get in, we thought that we could only have our money's worth if our dog is in the water the whole time. After a few times as a water bomb, she was running from us every time we went near her as she knew what was to come. We found it embarrassing as well as amusing looking at other dogs flying into the water like a rocket after their toys. There it was, our Smug standing by the gate, looking terrified and wanting to go home. We only stayed about half an hour.
This time, we decided to give it another go, and if she didn't like it, we would not go again.
There were lots other dogs in the swimming pool as it was such a hot day, the car thermometer showed it was above 36 degrees outside. Humans are not allowed into the water, I suppose the owner of the place dosn't want to be responsible if people pick up horrible germs from that water and become seriously ill.
We carried Smug and threw her into the water a few times, then Patrick came up with a different idea, he had brought Smug's favourite toy with her, an orange Tweedy rubber ball, and threw it into the shallow part of the pool, she went in the water for it reluctantly as she hated loosing her ball to other dogs nearly as much as she hated water, but as soon as she got her tweedy ball, she legged it onshore. Patrick did that over and over again, he threw it a little bit further to the deeper end each time, until Smug suddenly finds that her legs were not touching the bottom of the pool anymore, for a second, she looked panicky, but that didn't stop her going for the ball again the next time and found that she was actually swimming with her feet way above the bottom of the pool and seemed to be enjoying it.
Lots of people cheered for her as many of them saw the whole process and laughed all the way through.
Bravo! That's my good girl!
