I made a video of the crazy kids ripping it up. The Husky in the video is only a young one as well and made a great playmate for all of the houndies.
I also got a new kayak, which meant swimming lessons and perhaps a bit of kayaking for Mouse.
We started off practicing in the back yard, before we set out on the river. I wasn't sure if Mouse could even swim so we thought it would be better to introduce the kayak first.
She was quite happy to sit in the boat, especially if I was in there as well and she could cuddle in to my legs. Here's a video of some of our practice.
When we took her to the river though, there was a factor I had not quite considered properly. The ducks. They were useful in a way, because she wanted to get to them, so she was willing to come out in to the water with me. At first she had no clue that she had to move her legs to stay afloat and keep moving in the water. With her float coat on she had a tendency to just float, and then lean over into a capsize.
I took the float coat off and she started to figure out the swimming thing.
After a few half-convincing swims she decided she had enough and decided to plop down in a sit in the water. This was her way of asking me to stop making her swim, I think!
Unfortunately it was very difficult to keep her in the boat as she was too busy staring at the ducks. I may have overloaded her a bit by attempting kayaking and swimming lessons on the same day. We need to spend a lot more time around the river and waterfowl to get work on her focus.
Here's a brief moment where she did what I asked....
As you can see in the pic, I made a Gopro video of our kayaking attempt. Looking back on it she was no worse than Bender on his first go. I will probably take Bender out in this boat next weekend and I predict that he will be much less likely to jump off this one.
I am determined for someone to actually enjoy kayaking with me!
