Well, after a few days (spread over a few weeks) of training, Callie took the plunge off the dock into the depths of Lake Arrowhead. She handled it well, but she still has some work to do.
She started by warming up with a few swims & retrieves (of her “floppy disk” from the shoreline). It had been two weeks since her last swim, so she had to get back into the feeling of swimming. The first time we tossed her Floppy into the water, very close to shore, she didn’t go right after it. Instead, she ran back and forth on the shoreline, not quite having the courage to tackle the massive (six inch) waves of Lake Arrowhead. We could see her trying to get up the courage to go into the deeper water, and finally she “just did it.” It’s pretty astounding to watch her work hard at overcoming her natural fears.
So then we decided to give her a try off the end of our boat dock. In case you’re wondering “why all the fuss?” the problem here is that there is some boat traffic near our dock. We didn’t want to have Callie in the lake until we were sure she would come when called. And that she would “fetch” her Floppy every time and “bring” it back.
For these first few test dives, I wanted Callie to be on a leash, so I hooked her up to a thirty foot lead. This would give her plenty of room to swim, but it let me reign her in, in case of an emergency.
So with Barbara in the water, Callie and I walked to the end of the dock. She walked like she was desperately eager to jump into the lake. But when we got to the end of the dock, she stopped short. She looked over the edge of the dock (which is about two feet above the water) and acted like she wanted to jump, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to take the leap.
She tried reaching down to the water with a front paw, but she couldn’t quite reach it. This went on for a few minutes, with Barbara and me encouraging her to jump in. Finally, she just lost her balance and fell in! It wasn’t pretty, but there she was in fifteen feet of water. It only took her a few seconds to start paddling, and then she was fine.
She swam to her Floppy, retrieved it, and swam with Barbara back to the shoreline (about sixty feet). Success!
So we tried again, and Callie had the same problem getting up the courage to jump off the dock. We let her work at it for a few minutes, and then I gave her a very gentle nudge. This time, as she realized she was falling forward, she pushed off with her hind legs and made a beautiful four-legged entry into the water. What a champ! She retrieved her Floppy and swam it back to shore again.
That was enough for one day. She did great, but she will get stronger at swimming as she gets more practice. She’s a great swimmer for a six-month old puppy, but she’s nowhere near as strong as Jamie was (or any full grown Golden Retriever).
Here are a few photos of Callie retrieving her Floppy:
