Dog day...

What a beautiful day today was. This was only the second day this summer that I was able to spend in the backyard with the furry kids- either there was an agility show, I was traveling, or it was raining. But today almost made up for it with the brilliant sunshine and the nice breeze. Maggie lost no time in getting wet.... bless her heart she races around the pool, then runs over and nudges me with her nose asking if she can jump in. After a few "wait" I relent and say "okay, you can go swimming now." Like a little kid she races for the edge and jumps in in complete abandon. I don't know why she likes it so much, but she sure does. One or two turns around and she climbs out, shakes off, and gets ready to go again. But once she's wet, she doesn't ask if she can jump in anymore, she just goes when she's ready. I sure would like to know what goes on in that brain of hers.

Sometime I think I ought to train her to do dock diving... she does like to jump out into the water, but I have no idea how to train her to jump the big distance. She is happy with a 7 or 8 foot jump and then swimming to the target. She actually looks like she's trying to walk on water for the first few steps.



If she's not jumping in after something, she'll take a more leisurely approach, stepping onto the top step of the ladder and then sort of falling forward in without a big splash.

You may be wondering where Jake is during all this splashing. Jake is pretty afraid of the water, though I have gotten him to the point where he will put his front feet on the top step of the ladder and stand there. A couple times Sarah has coaxed him onto a float, but he isn't really comfortable with it. Today he hung out under the patio table trying to catch chips. You see, we've always played this cruel trick on the dogs where we drop food onto the clear glass table while they try to catch it from below. Yes, we realize it is sort of mean, but it is also funny. And since we do eventually give them the treat, they don't seem to mind much.