We started Boomer swimming when he was just a few months old. His first excursions were in fountains that were knee-deep on his Daddy (a little deeper on his short Mommy!). Boomer was so tiny back then his feet didn’t reach the bottom!
Friends then allowed us to use their backyard swimming pool to give him more swimming lessons, where he discovered the joy of “dock diving” — taking a running jump off the deck and belly-flopping into the water with a satisfying splash — all by himself. Soon he was flinging himself into the water before we could even throw the ball, then looking impatiently back over his shoulder to tell us to get a move on!
Once we knew he had the general idea to float, not sink, we took him to the protected waters of our hometown harbor in Half Moon Bay. Keeping him on a flexilead, one of us would throw the ball and encourage him to fetch it. The lucky leash holder sometimes got to wade into the frigid Pacific waters to give Boomer enough slack to retrieve the coveted tennis ball.
Soon we were able to take him off the lead, and by the time he was a year old he was a champion tennis ball life guard. Even on walks in strange places he would lead us to the nearest body of water.
He loved one particular rest stop in northern California where he could wade out into a river and swim at just the right speed against the current to tread water. He would stay in place as we tossed the ball in upriver, and let the water’s flow carry it to him. Then he’d bring it to us on the river bank, shake off the water, and leap back in to do it again.
His love of water came in handy as he got older and began to feel the effects of arthritis and accumulated injuries. The vet who rehabilitated him from his back problems and first cruciate ligament tear prescribed Warm Water Hydrotherapy,, and also had him walking on an underwater treadmill. He was the only patient she knew who eagerly raced over to the treadmill when we got to her physical therapy room!
After the wound healed from his cruciate ligament tear surgery, Boomer got to swim in a warm water pool with his second rehab vet almost ever Friday! He soon figured out the route to Dr. Finn’s office and his tail wagged madly as we made that final turn into her driveway. The first time at her pool, he was so excited to get started that he pulled her into the water before she got her warm-up jacket off! She was so happy to have an enthusiastic patient that she just laughed about it.
