Yesterday I got to swim with my dog.

It’s a birthday treat from J., one that came up at the last minute. You see, ’round here normal humans don’t go in the water most days. When the days are at their hottest (above 80*) yes, we go in the lakes and such. But otherwise, it’s too darn chilly unless you have a wetsuit.

Sasha swims almost daily in a lake, that’s her main exercise. I could go in, too, but its too cold (already).

But! There’s a place nearby, aquadogspa (.com) where they do water therapy for dogs, and you can do ‘self swim’ sessions once the instructor is ok with water safety and the like.

So we went.

The pool was a lot smaller than I expected. I thought it’d be like a small swimming pool (25′ long), but it was more like a double-long jacuzzi. Maybe 12′ long? But there is a jet to make a current to swim against, and it was a balmy 94* (big grin!) and we went for it.

Sasha did not like getting into the water at first. We taught her ‘step’ as the command to go in on one side (where the steps were) and had to sort of push/pull her into the water the first time. Then it was all good. J. and I stood at either end and threw her ‘duck’ (a bright floating toy) back and forth while she swam back and forth. We played ‘keep away’ and hide and go seek with the duck. We had a really good time.

I don’t know that I’d do it again any time soon. There was a lot of chlorine in the water and Sasha didn’t get as much of a workout as we expected (the current was nothing for her). But it was fun to do nonetheless.