Fit Dog Friday: Pool

On Wednesday, I bought myself and my dogs a pool for the summer.

The new pool. Taken with my underwater camera, so seriously lacking in picture quality.

I've seriously been wanting a pool for years, and now, I finally have one. It is twelve feet long, six feet wide, and three feet deep, which makes it plenty deep for the dogs to swim, and even big enough for the humans to swim a little bit as well.

Also taken with the underwater camera, but I liked the picture anyway. You can see at the bottom that Koira can't possibly wait to get into the pool.

The pool got set up yesterday, and this morning, it finally finished filling and was ready to use. And just in time, because our forecast has temps in the 80s and 90s all week.

I actually did three separate sessions of pool time with Koira. She kept getting to a point that she was shaking violently. I'm not totally sure if it was from excitement or from being cold. I was in the water with her and not particularly cold. But once she started shaking, I took her out for a break to calm down and warm up.

I tossed Koira's lifejacket on and we played in the pool for a bit. I had worked with her yesterday on climbing the pool ladder (without the pool in the picture) and she did okay. It became abundantly clear, however, that it just wasn't going to be the best long term solution. So this afternoon, I set about making a ramp and mini dock for her for the pool.

This is the new mini dock I just worked on today. It overhangs the pool side by just a few inches, and is topped with an old yoga mat to give some traction. 

By the end of the day, I had a mini dock and a ramp up to it from outside the pool. It still needs a few adjustments here and there (a few more slats on the up ramp to give her more grip, and plug the hole between the ramp and the dock part with something so she doesn't catch a foot in there) but overall, I am calling the mini dock project complete.

You can see here the ramp to the ground. I need to add a few more cross pieces to give more traction. I also need to close that gap between the ramp and the dock, and hammer in that nail more- I just noticed the nail in the picture, otherwise I would have fixed that earlier. 

What I still need to work on is something the helps Koira climb OUT of the pool. The pool ladder kinda sorta works, but not well, and I want Koira to be confident in the pool. Part of that means she needs to be able to get out easily. At the same time, I really don't want to spend fifty plus dollars on a pool ramp for my dog. So I am researching DIY pool ramps and trying to figure out what course we want to take. I was originally actually going to do a ramp similar to the one outside the pool, but realized that the wood is just too buoyant and won't stay down in the water. And then wood will likely get waterlogged and slippery after some use. If you happen to have any ideas, please, let me know.

Eagerly waiting on the other side of the fence. 

But, no matter what we decide for the dog ramp, I think it is safe to say that Koira is looking forward to a summer full of swimming in the new pool. You can see, even when I was just taking pictures of our mini dock, she was jealous and wanted to come swim. Silly girl.