…beautiful Boucle……..

…early this morning Boucle and I headed out to the Lake for swimming lesson # 2……..

…it went very well…..
…at first, he was reluctant to go past his underside….
…then I gently held his underside and coaxed him further …….
…then the same thing with a stick dropped a few feet in front of us……..

…and he did it!

…sweetie-pie jumped, lifting his back feet off the ground, to get the stick……
…paddled with all his feet to do a turn……
…paddled with all his feet back…..
…and was safely back on the ground……..

all the while I was at his side, making sure he did not sink…..
..and watching to make sure that all feet were paddling….

so we did this over and over……
and each time he paddled to the stick and back…..
with me by his side…..

Its official…..Boucle can now swim.  🙂

And a happy poodle he is…..

….sweetie-pie did so well!…..

…Boucle is 9 years old……and he used to really dislike the water…..
…didn’t like getting his feet wet at all….
…bought a small baby pool when he was little and tried many years to get him into it.  Tried luring him in with toys…..he would stretch and crane his neck as far as possible to get the toy before he was put one foot in the water……and then…maybe the other….and then…QUICK….out of the water………

…so I let him be…..
…but last year I would throw the stick closer and closer to the lake water…….
…and then one day he went exploring in the water…….off a big rock  platform……
here is the post from last year
…since then he has gone in, but only to the bottom of his shoulder……

This year…..he was excited to see the lake water…….and wanted to go in……
…but still only to his shoulder max…….

So I decide to try and teach him to swim.  Nine years old.  And he loves it.

A pic of us before the lesson.  Both of us just barely in the water.

…My technique was to gently hold under his chest, in deeper and deeper water. At first, his heart was beating so big.  He was afraid, and only came further out of trust for me.  After the first attempt, his heart was still going, but much less.  Such a brave and trusting Boucle.   And then across we went, very slowly.  And gradually over several trips across, I released my hold and let him do it on his own.

…Today – lesson 1, was to get the front feet off the ground, and let him keep his back feet on the ground.
….For the front feet, I encouraged him to paddle.  He figured it out after a few back and forth attempts.

And look!  Boucle went all the way out to his stick, by himself – he could still touch the bottom with his back feet, but he definitely was doing some paddling on the way back with his front feet.
Next lesson, will be getting the back feet off the ground too.

A pic after his first swimming lesson – watching the water, wanting more.

Happiness is a swimming lesson……