Annie's first swimming day!

[Tiga's_mom]

We've certainly had our ups and downs with Annie. She is progressing well but we still have big challenges to overcome. We've had several outings with Tiga and Annie over the summer. Some have gone well but others have been less then successful.

 

It was warm today but not as humid so we decided to go to the beach with them. We've had her several times over the summer to different beaches and she was not interested in the water too much until the last time we went to a friends cottage a few weeks ago. It is not easy to get in the water but Tiga loves it there and she really wanted to but couldn't figure out the logistics out there. She was scared to go the way Tiga does. She did swim a bit but mostly because she kind of fell off the rock she was standing on. I thought she would have scared herself and not go back in again, but she still tried that day. We haven't been to water since then, until today. At first, again, she was timid about the water. We didn't force it and just started throwing Tiga's frisbee so he could swim. After a few minutes she started getting in and before long she was running, jumping, swimming and frolicking in the water! She was loving it even more then Tiga ever has. We were ecstatic! We did have a couple of incidents when her long leash slipped out of our hands (3 times ) mostly because we were so surprised with her zoomie reaction to the water and then the handle broke on the leash, but once we got that under control, we had a great time.

 

We then went to sit under a tree for the dogs to dry off with a clicker and treats. I've never seen them both more focused! A few dogs walked by and Annie didn't bark once. She did take her focus to them both for small amounts of time, but was focused back to us pretty quickly. I feel so hopeful for her after today. We've been having a few issues with her lunging and barking at skateboards (the worst!), sometimes bikes (not always), and other dogs. I think we will be going to that beach more often. There's a lot of people around but there's a lot of space that we can go away from the majority of people and slowly work our way closer to the distractions. We're also have a friend that has a longboard and will bring it over sometimes so we can work with her. So far it's going well inside the house. Next step is to go outside.

[Tiga's_mom]

We dropped Annie off to get spayed today. Haven't heard back about how she's doing yet. She's also getting her dew claw removed. Any advice for keeping her quiet for the next 2 weeks?

[Tiga's_mom]

She's home safe and sound! She's very restless, can't get comfortable. They also removed her last 2 puppy teeth. She looks so sad and uncomfortable.