Poolside

Sam's becoming a better and better swimmer. He started out afraid of the water (probably because he fell into the pool at 10 weeks old and sank straight to the bottom), then worked his way up to wading, then to swimming, and now to jumping in from the sides and submerging his head underwater to fetch dive rings. His form has gotten a lot better too, from swimming vertically and splashing everywhere to keeping his butt afloat and his paws underwater so he can jet along with surprising rapidity.

All that being said, he still prefers to be as much up in my business as he can, so when I took to floating in the pool peacefully on my little $5 blow-up raft from Wal-Mart, Sam wanted in. He watched me from the side, sticking his paw out in front of him to gauge the distance, then launched onto my raft (he's done this to Mom, as well). The first time he did this we floated in peace for a good twenty minutes before he spotted a beetle and flung us both overboard, and now he thinks he can raft with me anytime.

Yo-ho-ho and a box of Milkbones

Yesterday was no exception. I try to keep Sam in the garage and then slip out the back door to the pool so he won't crash my relaxation time, but to no avail. Before I even got a good float in, he was on my raft again.

Please keep arms and legs and tails within the raft at all times

Of course, this time he didn't want to sit still, and kept smacking me in the face with his tail. And since I'm the one largely responsible for canceling out Sam's awful balancing, taking me out of the picture does not bode well for our overall buoyancy.

Nice one, Sam.

So, predictably, Sam tumped us both. And of course as soon as we're both in the water he wants to ride piggyback, since that's the only way he can be close enough to me for his liking without either drowning me or scraping me to pieces with his paws. He seems to enjoy piggyback rides around the shallows, and he's even held on while I've run up the steps and jumped in with him from the side.

Sam riding piggyback

So tumping aside, Sam's an all around cool pool dog. (But don't tell him I said that.)