Not a water dog

Josie’s first summer, we traveled to my parents house in SC. They live on a lake, so naturally, we would have swim time every day. My parents had a pug, Henry, who loved the water. They strapped his life vest on, throw him in and he’d enjoy paddling around, visiting each person in the water and when he was tired, he would rest on a float.

Josie, on the other hand, wasn’t quite sure what to make of the water. She would stand on the dock and bark at us in the water. She was a bit smart, and learned that we used the ladder to get in and out of the water. She would walk over to it and attempt to go down – something I did not expect her to succeed at – and she didn’t, and luckily gave up attempts.

Seeing that she was curious about the water, and she was relatively light, I went over to the ladder, picked her up and carried her down into the water.

I should have trimmed her nails first. 

Other than scratching me up pretty good, she did eventually swim a bit, and settle down on the float alongside Henry. When she decided she was done with the water experiment, she swam back over to the ladder and attempted to climb it. I helped her out, adding to all the scratch marks.

Josie is definitely not a water dog – she was completely water logged and took hours to dry. But she slept really well that night.

Over the years, Josie has made a few more attempts at swimming. I’ve tried to teach her to get in the water using the shoreline instead of the dock – she doesn’t learn.

The most memorable moment, which unfortunately I didn’t actually see – I just heard. I heard her barking on the dock. Then I heard the splash. I looked over just in time to see my 50 pound dog frantically paddling to the surface. I assume she decided to jump into the water – which really meant she fell 3-4 feet into the water and sank. Her body is not built for water. I swam over, helped her to the surface and calmed her down.

After that, I invested in a life vest. She hasn’t tried jumping from the dock again.