Beanie’s been having baths once or twice a week because of her skin allergies. She doesn’t really mind them, but sometimes she gets a bit fed up of getting wet. At last week’s swimming lesson she wasn’t keen on having her pre-swim shower so we took a little bit of cooked liver with us to make shower time more enjoyable. It worked a treat – she couldn’t get in there fast enough :)

Normally toys are used to tempt the dogs to do laps of the pool. This doesn’t work too well with Beanie as she’s never been toy oriented…unless of course she’s stealing another dog’s toy to ‘encourage’ it to race her. Today there was a rather noisy dog staying in the kennels next door to the pool and Beanie was more interested in a barking chorus with him than in swimming.

The vet suggested that we try using the liver treats in the pool. What a transformation!! Little Beanie was like a thing possessed. She was just a blur as she did lap after lap, desparately trying to catch that little piece of liver that stayed just ahead of her nose. Normally the vet has to keep hold of her little harness to stop her bolting for dry land. But while she had that little piece of liver in her hand our pup was mesmerised. The only drawback was that she was so focussed on the liver that when she finally got it she’d forget all about swimming and just sink…..with a mouthful of liver and an expression of utter joy on her face.