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Sam Learns to swim
His introduction to the beach was slow when it came
to water. He was scared to even get his paws wet at first. Shez of course would
run ahead and make sure she got wet then come out and give him a nip to say come
on. He finally started running with her and getting his toes wet. That was at
least a start.
On his 4th visit to the beach we all went swimming
as usual and Shez who loves the water was with us. The kids were playing
on their boogie boards and Sam was as usual on the beach. I figured he would be
like Ben who could not swim. Surprisingly he decided to try the water. At first
he waded as far as wetting his knees where before he would run away from the
water lapping the beach. Then he made a dash for it and swum out to us to my
surprise. He swam up to me and I taught him like Shez to rest on my arm and not panic.
Well he got it right but it cost heaps of scratches and competition between him
and Shez as this was her mooring.
His next stunt was to grab hold of the Boogie Board
when I did not want to hold him and use his front paws to hold onto it so he could rest from swimming. He tried
getting all the way up, but he fell off, got dunked and got out. For
awhile he would not wander back, but when he did we encouraged the Boogie Board
and he got the hang of it. It looked so funny, this huge German shepherd surfing
back to the beach. Then we would get the board back into the deep and he would
swim out to the board and once again surf in using his front paws.
He in fact liked it so much that I got him his very
own Board. Summer has ended and so no more beach. I wonder if he will remember
how much fun he had and if he will Boogie Board again this summer. If he does
then he will become a surfing boogie dog standing completely on the board with
his latest skill, Balance.
He and Shez are funny when we take them to the river
for a run. She you got to watch so she does not get wet which she almost always
does. He wont go in unless you tell him.
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