Swimmy Swimmy With My Jacket

This past Saturday we were able to go to the lake just as we had hoped, allowing Sammy to wear his life jacket in the water for the first time. It was a perfect time since it was our fifth day straight in the 90's, with the humidity it was pretty ridiculous outside! We got up early, made Sammy eat his breakfast and tried to keep him from playing too much, to allow him to digest but not waste too much energy! That was the toughest part of the day, let me tell you!
"Look mom, cleaned mys plate, ready for swimmies!"
**We are trying a plate to get him away from his plastic bowl to see if that helps his chin bumps, before buying a new one.**

We got to the lake about 10:30 in the morning, at which point it was 89 degrees already! There are a few beaches to the big, main lake and the first was pretty busy already, so we drove down and found, what we thought was a secret beach. Actually, it was an awesome beach! It was very shallow for a long time, so Sammy could walk out into the water a good 20 feet before needing to swim. He got to play with his tennis ball alot there, since he could just splash through the water for the ball. There was a pretty steep drop off after that, so we could also get into the water, as well. Not too long into our beach fun, a dead, bloated fish came floating by!!! I freaked out and made us go to a different beach!
We went to the next beach down, which was alot less busy that the first, so it was still a positive. There were a couple families, so Sammy was somewhat distracted by the kids. We were able to get him over that with long swims! The water got deeper much faster, which was too bad, but the bouys were way further out, so each swim was much longer than the other beach, which was more fun for us. We put Sammy in his life jacket, and he was just so darn cute. We took him out of it, and we noticed a difference in his swimming attitude. Less messing around, and more swimming back to the beach. That made us feel pretty good about the life jacket. In fact, we are vocally pro life jacket for short dogs now. Haha.

The best part, is taking him out to deep water, he hasta paddle in the air, just to prepare!

Our big objective was to see how he would do, since my cousins will be coming into town next week, and we wanted to invite them to go swimming at the lake, but not before we tested Sammy in the water. Growing up I had a dog who loved to swim, but would attach to people in the water, and I didn't want Sammy to do that to any kids. Sammy is all business in the water, not clingy at all. But also doesn't mind being picked up in the water, although he still paddles! Haha. So we are even more excited now, that before.

After a while, we gave Sammy a little breather, and took him back up the beach to lay out for a little while with us. He wanted to lay down, and we brought him his own towel for it, but...he just couldn't get settled. When two brothers were wrestling in water, he barked at them! It was funny! And, he had to get drinks from his water bowl every couple of minutes! He kept rearranging his towel to get comfortable, then he decided he needed to get underneath my legs, probably to get in the shade!


We didn't lay out long, just enough to get some sun. We went back in the water for a cool down, then we carried him over the sand back to the car. Almost made it. He had to get back in the sand once more to roll around! It's so weird that he loves to roll in the sand. He accidentally (I hope accidentally) eats sand when he rolls around, which worries me, so I'm the mean Mommy who won't let him just enjoy his day at the beach!

After coming home, he immediately got his bath. (Which clogged the drain a little...fun fun), then he got to go see the kitty-cats at my mom's! He even got to stay with them while we went to dinner! But once we came home to stay, he was passed out! Completely done for! And now he knows the word, "swimmies." He is totally excited to go "swimmies" again! And so are we!!