For those of you that keep saying "more pictures please", this post is for you!
We started with the boys as they are the swimming mianiacs.
Boogie is much more talented than we even thought. Maybe we should start a new sport - water tail art.
The boys were wild today, especially Slugger. He swam/dove with reckless abandon.
Normally he goes in from the steps to enter the water. But today he wanted to dive off the side. Sometimes he had pretty nice form....
...getting the toy with such skill.
...and sometimes...well, not so much. Poor guy, this must have hurt.
And I'm not sure what kind of form you call this!
Even when going in from the steps he was diving instead of gently pushing off like normal.
Boogie was crazy too. He normally does his diving from the step but today he was diving from the side as well. As you can see, he is the one with amazing form!
The boys had a great time diving and swimming together with their pretty orange toys.
Notice how Boogie is wearing a collar. This is strictly for the purpose of keeping his head higher in the water so he doesn't swallow too much water. Even though we use this ball that is very squishy so his mouth can close most of the way, he still seems to swallow a lot of water. The collar helps....some.
The boys couldn't swim calmly very long. Soon they started having a contest to see who could splash the most.
Both valiant efforts but I guess you can tell who won.
The boys were then put away so the girls could have some cool down time. Problem is, Sparkie is the only one that will go into the water willingly. So Mike had to get in at this point.
Much to her chagrin, we had to force Wazzu in the pool. Once she's in she'll swim around. She won't go for a toy at all, she'll just paddle around and around.
You may not know this but we've taught the girls to do synchronized swimming. Here Mike is setting them up for the start of their routine.
Down to the other end and make the turn.
And now down the rails together.
By this time, 2iggie still wouldn't come in the water and the boys were in the RV screaming to come out and swim some more.
Mike decided to pick 2iggie up and put her in the water. But soon as he got near her she cowered and piddled.
He finally got 2iggie and Wazzu in together. Talk about a herculean feat!
It took about five minutes to get them in and less than five seconds for them to swim to the steps and get out. Notice how high she holds her head out of the water. No collar needed for her!
I then let the boys back in since only Sparkie wanted to swim. Boogie immediately dove right into the pool. Notice who is watching so carefully.
I don't know exactly what goes through 2iggie's brain but I guess once she saw Boogie dive in she figured this was the safe way to get in the pool.
Suddenly 2iggie was a diving fool. You can see the surprised look on Mike's face as 2iggie unexpectedly dives in the pool for the first time.
She would dive in then make a beeline for the steps so she could get out.
She absolutely would not come in via the steps. And if you asked her to come in the pool she would run and hide. But boy did she ever love to dive in....just so she could get out.
You probably think this is a lot of pictures of her diving in. But I just wanted to give you an idea of what our time was like.
She must have done this 25 times in less than 20 minutes.
No one could believe her. As you can see, spectators lined up to watch her in wonder.
Boogie won't come out of the water without his ball. And the only ball he will play with in the pool is his squidgy ball.
For some reason, Sparkie suddenly decided she would only swim for the squidgy ball. As you can imagine, this caused quite a problem. Sparkie would swim after Boogie and bark at him.
Then she'd try to take it from him. But he's the faster swimmer of the two so it really wasn't much of a match. Boogie should play water polo as he's very fast and can turn very quickly.
If we threw it for Sparkie, Boogie would quickly dive off the side of the pool, then even dive down under the water to get the toy so that Sparkie wouldn't get it. Poor Sparkie. But no one comes between Boogie and his squidgy ball!
I took this picture while Boogie and Sparkie were watching for Mike to throw the ball. This is the exact picture I wanted....
...this is one picture I got. Offer me a million dollars and I could never get this shot again!
Time for everyone to get out.
Boogie always gives the ball back...until Mike told him it was time to quit for the day.
Everyone had a great time swimming today for sure.
Slugger - who would, and could, do this for days if we let him.
2iggie - the wonder diving dog.
Boogie - what a cute little tongue.
Sparkie - our most graceful swimmer but nowhere near our fastest.
Boogie absolutely, positively won't get out of the water unless he has a squidgy ball in his mouth. We were drying all the dogs off when Boogie jumped back in the pool. But since we were done playing, there was no squidgy ball. Boogie treaded water for over five minutes before we decided we'd better throw a ball for him as it was clear he wasn't coming out.
As you can see, everyone had a great time today playing in the water and cooling down. Okay, not everyone. Wazzu tells the story differently.
Boogie likes to dry himself...he's our most independent dog. To dry off, he pushes himself along the ground with his back legs while on his side. He can go 30 or 40 feet in a matter of seconds. Quite the sight to see.
Phew. That's tiring.
Boogie swallows a LOT of water when he swims. So much so that he makes himself sick. He looks like a balloon and he moans and groans with pain. He has to potty every 15 minutes for the next couple hours.
Each time he goes out to potty, he literally stands there three to four minutes just going and going and going.
The third time he went out he was in so much pain that he just laid down to do his business....at least four minutes of steady stream while lying down. Poor guy.
When he finally got empty, he was one tuckered puppy. But let me ask...when there is a very expensive memory foam bed right there, why does he sleep on the floor right next to it?
They're all out now...I guess our day is done.
I sure love this weather!
Debbie
8/16/10
No comments:
Post a Comment