Stryder has a new obsession. It’s called: “run into the river; do a little dance; (if he could scream like a girl, insert that here); and, run out as fast as possible”.
Until today Stryder hated water. He would go out of his way to walk around puddles if they were in his way; acting suspicious and miss-ish the entire time. We’ve tried on many many occasions to get him to go into water but he would have none of that business because our ‘big tough dog’ doesn’t like to get his paws wet.
That all changed today.
Instead of taking him for his high energy / highly violent play sessions with his friends at the dog park we took him for a family outing to Bowness Park. While there we showed him the river and tried to coax him in. I even went so far as to show him how to go into the water by going in myself. It took quite a while and MBC throwing rocks into the water to get the dog to go past getting his paws wet.
As time passed Stryder progressed like a kid experiencing water for the first time. First he would run in up to his knees, dance a little dance, then run out and pretend to be squeamish. Next it was a little bit deeper as we cheered him on from the river bank. Eventually he made it up to his neck; and, each time he would run out, make a little girly noise then shake himself off before running back in to do it all over again.
The highlight of the evening was when two dogs came by to play. Their owner threw two sticks out to the middle of the river and the dogs rushed out to retrieve them. As the two dogs swam out to the sticks and then came back, Stryder watched them like they were two headed sea serpents. I could almost hear him shout: “WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE TWO DOGS DOING?! DON’T THEY KNOW THE WATER IS OVER THEIR HEAD?”
As they got closer he bounded out of the water and hid behind MBC’s legs. Then he did a little bark and jumped two feet backwards and wanted nothing to do with these crazy dogs and their sticks. When they left Stryder was visibly relieved.
As we walked back to the car, Stryder happily zigzagged back and forth ahead of us. He clearly likes this new form of exercise; and, it certainly is a lot easier on his paws.
I love your dog. =) I wish I could meet him.