Kody's First Swim!

We learned goldens do NOT need life-vests to learn to swim!

 Kody's first and second swims at Sun Hill Kennel were not what I'd hoped. The first time, we put Sammy's vest on him, just in case -  you know - give him a little more comfort of staying above water when he got it.

Short story: First time - he fell in once. I put him in twice and the rest of the time, he played "Lifeguard".

Second time we went, we got cut short due to the weather and it's just as well. No luck that time either.

BUT the third time's the charm or maybe it has to do with Vic coming out and giving us a hand. With Vic 'encouraging' Kody at one end of the pool, and me at the other, we had one little 11 month old puppy swim the length of the pool!

Life guard Kody on duty  Day one at Sun Hill

After several times of swimming back and forth with Vic's encouragement, Kody took off for the field to roll and roll on solid dry land!  But when Vic called him, back he came ready for more!

We worked with him until finally, Kody actually scooped up the tennis ball floating in the pool and swam around in a circle to turn around and bring it to me.

He went in one end and would follow me as I walked around the pool, doing big cirles. This showed him HE COULD SWIM!

By the time our time was up, Kody was SOOO close to going in on his own. He's whimper and step in and whimper some more, but just couldn't take that one last step to get all the way in.

Next time big boy! You can do it!

Thank you, God!