Our Little Man, Jasper, has never liked the water. When he was a puppy we introduced him to a kiddie pool that was filled with a few inches of water. All he did was sniff the water – even as his big sister, Boo, also a Golden Retriever, played in it. At first he was curious about water sprinklers – until he got sprinkled with water and then he didn’t want anything to do with them. Likewise he wanted nothing to do with a running garden hose either – never mind a stream or bigger body of natural water.
When he was 1½, he eventually worked his way up to putting one paw, and then two paws in the kiddie pool on a really hot summer day. But he didn’t seem capable of going any further. He just stood there looking around with his two front paws in the water and his two rear paws on the grass. He didn’t seem to mind being splashed as Boo played in the water without him, or even being splashed by one of his humans, but he would not put all four paws in the water.
We thought we hit some progress when he started to shuffle sideways around the diameter of the pool – still two paws in, two paws out – until he got back to where he began and just innocently looked around again. I finally picked up his rear end and pushed him in the center of the pool and again he just stood there and looked at the water to his right, in front of him and to his left and back again and then took turns picking up and holding one paw out of the water at a time. I even stood in the water with him, but he just stood there and looked at the water around his legs. We eventually had to help him out of the water, as he seemed unable to find his way out of the kiddie pool on his own. The Little Man was paralyzed.
The following summer, when he was 2½, he started to ‘dig’ in the water from outside of the pool – three paws out and one ‘digging’ in the water. He seemed to enjoy splashing himself with the water and playing with one paw in it, but still refused to put all fours in the pool. That summer we made a point of taking him to natural bodies of water and letting him approach the water and see if he would go in, but he would just look at the water, sniff it and look around – not even touch the water with a paw.
It pretty much seemed as if Jasper, who is naturally a very curious and confident dog, just had a thing with water – even just three inches of it. Although he has never had a problem with going outside when it is raining – in fact, he seems to enjoy taking his time finding THE spot to take care of his business in a downpour while one if his humans stands nearby getting soaked. He also has no problem getting a bath or going to the groomer. It seemed as if getting wet wasn’t the problem – it was more of the how he got wet was the issue.
Yesterday we decided to check out a couple dog beaches on Lake Michigan and took Jasper with us. We thought he would just plant his Golden butt in the sand and watch the other dogs play in the water or since he is a very social pup would greet all the people on the beach and play with all the pups on terra firma and just watch them play in the water. That was pretty much what happened until one of his humans went into the water – the one that was holding his leash.
We were both surprised when Jasper willingly followed me into the water. All four paws too. We were even more surprised that he didn’t just stand there looking at the water around his legs and actually started to move around and play in the water. He looked bright and happy and was wagging his tail the whole time! We were so proud of our Little Man.
A short time later we were completely baffled – astounded – when he decided to go check out what was left of an old pier sticking vertically out of the water maybe 25 feet from shore. To get there he had to swim – yup, the Little Man went for his first swim! No kidding – he just started swimming for the piece of pier sticking out of the water. Now, he didn’t get very far because I was holding onto the end of his 16 foot retractable and I didn’t really feel like checking out the pier. But still he didn’t hesitate whatsoever – he just started swimming for the old piece of pier – and not this splashing, sloppy strokes that dogs who have never swum before tend to do. The Little Man looked like an experienced swimmer – a nice, graceful dog paddle with no splashing.
It was almost anticlimactic – it just seemed like the end of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture or Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries should have been blaring from the Heavens or a full orchestra should have appeared out of nowhere on the beach to celebrate this momentous event – this triumph, this victory! (That’s what happens in the movies, right?) Our Little Man went for his first swim! This was HUGE! Alas, no one else on the beach seemed to notice – they went about playing with their pups, reading or enjoying the fine weather. But that is life – we all have our little victories and triumphs as we journey through life – all of which are reasons to and should be celebrated, even if no one else notices. Go, Jasper, Go –– you can do it Little Man!
