Beanie has had her first “real” swim at the park! It’s not the best of photos (heavy tree cover) but here’s the moment she took the plunge:
It’s a landmark moment for our pup, and proof that those swimming lessons have done some good. Admittedly the fact that it was a really hot morning probably helped too – she waded right into the cool water and swam without any prompting from us. We’ve booked another lesson for her next week to keep up the momentum, and I’m very hopeful that she’ll become a regular swimmer in the pond and streams at the park.
So it looks like we’re well on the way to conquering our Beagle’s inherent dislike for water. The other Beagle-ism I’ve been trying to break is her total disinterest in playing fetch. For a long time she would run after the ball/stick/frisbee/whatever only in response to competition from other dogs. I have perservered though, trying short fetch games in the garden whenever she seemed receptive.
Dog walkers in one of our local parks seem to have an addiction to those ballistic ball throwing thingies. Being naturally stubborn (I’m from Yorkshire) , I’ve been determined to resist this flexible plastic virus, but I have noted that lately Beanie has shown much more interest in balls whenever they’re in use. Well, last night we succumbed:
Damn you Tesco, damn you and your cheap pet products!
It only cost £1 from our local Tesco. It came with a poor quality orange tennis ball, and as I picked it off the shelf I said to Susan “that’ll last five minutes”. I was wrong, because in fact it lasted just 3 minutes.
Our little Olympian chewer Beanie was the first to puncture it’s delicate orange epidermis.
Hmm, I’m sure that ball was spherical a moment ago
It was all downhill from there, of course.
Penny and Sophie finish it off with a tug of war
Still, it does enable you to throw much faster and further, and I think it could help us to break the Beagle Fetch Taboo. It’ll get another outing this afternoon, albeit with a more robust ball!
