Album The dogs of backcountrypost.com

Luna, tuckered out on her first backpacking trip. Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness, TN/NC.

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Nick said:
Patina's first time on the boat today. I actually convinced her to jump out into open water with me.
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I wish fender would jump into the water. He'll tip-toe into any water, but he kinda freaks out when he can't make a smooth transition from land to water. He's also weird about deep water. I think he wants to be able to see the bottom of the lake. Even in a boat, he struggles to feel safe in deep water. My theory is that he thinks he's in an airplane, and if he notices the bottom of the lake is way down there, he feels like he's super high up in the air and he might fall. I could be way off though.

I need him to hang out with some of your cool dogs so he can learn from them that jumping into the water isn't scary, and riding in a boat isn't scary. He's a fantastic swimmer, so I'm not sure what he's worried about.
 
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sixstringsteve said:
I wish fender would jump into the water.
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Patina hasn't jumped in the water since! She apparently decided it was not fun at all and spent pretty much all of the hot days at Powell just hiding in the shade on the boat.

Nikita doesn't like to swim but she loves to lay in the water. She'll go in about 6-8" and just lay there forever. On this last trip, she found the nice shady spot between the pontoons.

Sage we're working on. We can get her to swim for sticks after warming her up. Strangely, she seems more scared when the water was clearer. When we went up to Good Hope Bay, we were all just swimming and she swam out and said hello to us a couple times. The water was really cloudy up there so we think maybe that made her think it wasn't so deep? I don't know. One of these days I'll get her to just plain love it though. You should bring Fender out and meet us at a lake one of these days and see how he handles being on a bigger boat with other dogs. Is he a fetch lover? That's been the ticket for getting Sage to jump in.
 
Nick said:
You should bring Fender out and meet us at a lake one of these days and see how he handles being on a bigger boat with other dogs. Is he a fetch lover? That's been the ticket for getting Sage to jump in.
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We would love that. Fender will fetch a stick in the water only if I tell him to. Sometimes he'll swim on his own, even if I'm not getting in the water. Any time I go swimming, he starts to panic and he gets worried about me, so he swims out to me to make sure I'm ok. When he sees I'm ok he turns around and swims back to shore.
 
Lots of talk about dogs liking water but not swimming, Biff (3 years old) was the same way until this day. Janet held him by the handle on the float vest and gently led him out of his depth. He tried to swim back to shore but she just held him in place.

Biff in Navajo Lake, 25th July 2014 (1) by Bob Palin, on Flickr

In five minutes he wasn't interested in getting back to shore.

Biff in Navajo Lake, 25th July 2014 (4) by Bob Palin, on Flickr

He swam fine without the vest within 30 minutes, a couple of days later we went to a different lake and he was virtually an otter

Biff The Otter, 27 July 2014 by Bob Palin, on Flickr

The other dog Frikka absolutely loves swimming and it might have helped him get the idea though he had seen her swim many times before and declined himself.

Full albums of pictures on Flickr

Navajo Lake https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobpalin/sets/72157645952686114/
Yankee Reservoir https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobpalin/sets/72157645561241317/
 
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