Murphy's Law

Today, a friend invited me, my daughters, and Cabana to her house for lunch. She has a lovely swimming pool in her backyard, so my daughters got to swim. But my friend asked that Cabana not be allowed to go in the pool (she didn't want dog hairs clogging her pool filter). Since Cabana doesn't like to swim anyway, I said that's totally fine, not a problem!

So of course, today, since Cabana wasn't ALLOWED in the pool, she decided she WANTED to go in!! I was flabbergasted. She kept putting her paws down onto the first step in the pool and would have gone in further, but I kept pulling her back out. We've been to this friend's house before, and Cabana didn't show ANY previous interest in being in their pool--so who on earth knows WHAT made her decide that now she wants to be a "real Labrador" and go for a swim.

But my friend's garden is beautiful, so I took a few pretty pics. Too bad I couldn't take any action shots of Cabana in the pool (or even BY the pool; I just didn't think of it at the time, don't you hate it when that happens?).

Tuesday Topics 8 - Sink or Swim?

The temperature has been soaring into the mid-90s these past few days, so yesterday, I took Cabana for her first swim in my bosses' pool. The water temp was a balmy 80 degrees, not even too cold for my wimpy constitution.

For some reason, I thought Cabana would be channeling Michael Phelps. She had fallen into our tiny koi pond when she was about 10 weeks old, and even though the pond is about the size of wheelbarrow, I could tell from the few seconds that Cabana was in the water that she knew how to swim.

But that's the one and only time Cabana has been fully immersed in water. We bathe her in our kitchen sink so that we can take advantage of the water sprayer, and even though the sink is fairly large, the water isn't even up to her knobby knees.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Cabana had her trepidations. Going with my puppy group leader's advice, I took it slow. I put her on the first step, then the second step, and she seemed to like the water. But when I carried her out into the middle of the pool, I could feel her little heart beating a nervous pitter-pat. So I held onto her for quite a while and carried her around and around while talking reassuringly. Then, I carefully let her go....

Cabana can definitely swim--but she doggy paddled straight for the side of the pool, where she hung on for dear life. I took her over to the steps so she could easily exit the water. I tried the same procedure about 3 more times, and each time, she made a mad splashing dash for terra firma.

I tried enticing her into the water with toys. I made my kids jump into the pool as an example. I even tried coaxing her with treats. But Cabana just preferred sniffing around the yard to swimming in the pool. Disappointing!

So, are your dogs swimmers? Did they take to it easily or were they like fish out of water? It looks like we've got a long hot summer just around the corner--and I'd love to be able to enjoy the coolness of the pool with Cabana!