When we adopted a part-Newfoundland dog, we expected our dog to swim. We expected a dog who would adore swimming, who would have to be dragged or bribed out of the water. A dog who would splash enthusiastically off docks to rescue drowning swimmers, fishing nets, or other assorted jetsam. We did not expect our dog to be terrified of deep water. To be fair, he is only half Newfoundland (we think). The first time we took him to a beach, he was quite willing to wade, but looked at us suspiciously when we invited him further into the lake. I went deeper and deeper, and he just looked at me with a worried look in his eye. After several minutes of me calling him from deep water, and him whining, he apparently decided that I was not going to come out of that dangerous water without some help. He set off bravely into the depths, until he reached the point where his feet no longer touched the bottom. Then panic set in. Instead of swimming, he tried to climb the water with very little success and much splash. The more he splashed, the more upset he got. To his credit, he kept going until he reached me, then turned around and headed right back to shore. He went right out onto the beach, and refused to put even one toe back in the lake no matter how I called. After a vigorous shake, he ran around in faster and faster circles, growling and snapping at nothing the whole time. So much for swimming!
In fact, his lack of swimming ability has not slowed us down much. We are not that big on swimming either. We prefer canoeing, and he is quite happy to ride along in the canoe. We got him a life jacket, just in case.
No comments:
Post a Comment