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.

Wordless Wednesday: The Can-Can!

I call this series of photos the "Underwater

Mischief Monday: Splashing

Koira's version of mischief is not normally too mischeivious. At the river, she had a ton of fun making big splashes with me. I would run up and down the bank of the river in knee deep water (yes, I was totally exhausted!) and she would run and bounce next to me, seeming to try to make the biggest splashes she possibly could.

I think her mischief was paid back a little by her getting water up her nose and sneezing though!

And of course, she had to get a little sassy about the whole thing. She knew she was so much better at running in the water than me, and couldn't help but mock me for it a little.

Underwater Dog!

First off, a quick race report. Pallo ran at our tournament earlier today. He did good, right up until he didn't. He is still doing that random stopping thing. I do have a theory about it that I will be testing out at our next practice. The sports vet on one of the local teams was nice enough to do a quick once over of Pallo and didn't find any obvious physical reason for him to be doing it, which was a relief even when I didn't quite think it was a physical thing. Koira didn't run today, so she just hung out in her crate the whole time. I ran another team mate's Belgian Teruvren, Zip. She is a total blast to run, and she ran like a total rockstar, even when she suddenly realized during the last race that her dad was judging and her mom was sitting at the scoring table.

I figured I would be busy enough with running two dogs and helping out my team (we were hosting the tournament), so I didn't even bring my camera along. Instead of flyball pictures, how about some pictures from our trip to the river yesterday?


I let the dogs wield the GoPro for a while on the new neoprene vest I made for it. But then I decided I wanted to try for some underwater type photos of the dogs. I held the camera myself and set the automatic timer to take a photo every second.

Here is Pallo. He doesn't actually believe in putting his face in the water.

Koira, however, DOES believe in putting her face in the water. Here she is from above. The blue vest she is wearing is the neoprene vest made for holding the GoPro. Koira spends so much time in the water that she gets chilled even on hot days, so it is dual purpose as both a camera vest and as a canine wet suit to help keep her warm.

For a ball, Koira thought sticking her nose in was plenty. No real reason to stick her whole head in just for some silly ball.

Though she might stick her nose in a little deeper, too.

The real thing Koira will dive her entire head under the water for? Rocks. Because apparently, rocks totally rock*! (Yes, my dog is a little special in the head sometimes.)

And then, of course, the best for last. At least, I think this is the best underwater photo I got yesterday. I'm totally in love with it.

Obsessive underwater dog!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!



*I do not at all encourage you to support your dog's rock habit. Koira has lost most of one of her canines between a combination of chewing on her crate and obsessing over rocks while at the river and beach. I only let her pick up rocks from the river during this shoot, and took them away from her before she had a chance to chew on them. Most of the time I will keep her attention with a toy the entire time we are at the beach or river so that she doesn't have a chance to obsess over rocks.

When Things Get Wet

I decided to see if my dogs liked to go kayaking. That is to say, I wanted to see if they would stay in the boat or flip me over with their wiggling and jumping. We normally kayak on rivers but decided a still lake would be the safest way to try out kayaking with the pups.



Both dogs actually did pretty well for the most part. Pallo was just about perfect once in the boat. Koira was a bit squirmy and whined a bit. I think Koira preferred to swim, actually.

Check out how cute Pallo is perched in the kayak in the video below (video taken by my mom via a helmet cam).



After trying out the kayaking for an hour and a half (during which Koira was allowed to get out and swim a few times), we went back to shore, packed up the boats, and played fetch for a little bit.







Koira really loves the water. Like, a lot. She thinks it is the most awesome thing ever.



All of the video and pictures during fetch were taken by Koira herself, with the camera mounted on her life jacket. (Safety note: no matter how good of a swimmer you or your dog is, you should always wear a life jacket when boating.)