Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Swimming Dog

The longer we have Charlie, the more we realize how much he and Tim are alike.  They both have strangely long legs, are extremely affectionate, love to play, and would be heartbroken without each other.  Lately we've discovered that they are both extremely fond of the water.  

Yesterday afternoon Andy called me from work and suggested, "Let's have a picnic tonight."  We love picnics around here and Tim eagerly agreed that a Tuesday night picnic would be perfect.  So, after packing a cooler that would make Yogi Bear proud, we loaded the whole gang into the car and headed out to our local picnic spot at the lake.
 
After Tim selected a table for us, we set up our site and indulged in turkey sandwiches, chips, and root beers (with some havarti cheese nibbles for Charlie.)   In spite of a slight wind, it was a lovely night and there wasn't another soul in sight.  

I may have mentioned before that Charlie has a bit of a pine cone fetish and this particular park is loaded with these enormous California redwood pine cones.  So after our meal Andy launched a few into the lake for Chuck to chase.    

Let me tell you, this dog can swim.  In fact, I'd put him up against Michael Phelps (sans the bong).   Although we'd been working on Charlie's swimming, I have to credit Wendy the Trainer with pushing him over the hump because it wasn't until after Charlie's stay at Camp Wendy that he really started putting his head underwater and going into depths much deeper than he is tall.

It's an absolute joy to watch him leap into the lake and track down his bait.  He has a laser like focus when we're playing this game and is even oblivious to other dogs in the area.  (Dogs are a huge distraction for Charlie - in fact, this distraction is what kept him from passing his CGC test ... an issue for another post.)  There are other benefits of his swimming too:  after a good swimming session he sleeps like a baby!  

Plus, Tim just loves to see his pal having so much fun and will often throw sticks and pine cones for him to chase.  

But, just like Tim, Charlie hates for the fun to end and will shamelessly beg for just one more throw into the lake.   He's even got the whining down ... he'll whine all the way back to the car ... just like someone else I know.

3 comments:

Michelle O'Neil said...

Oh! Poor Charlie, with the whining. How cute!

Clive said...

That was a lovely evening by the lake! Great swimming by Charlie. Wish Clive would get into the water - he doesn't like it at all - which is a huge pity.

jemkagily said...

We need to borrow your fabulous trainer. Ferghus is convinced water is evil and will jump over puddles to avoid getting his sissypaws wet. *rolls eyes* But long legs? check; dog distraction? check; whining in such a high pitch you almost can't hear it? check: our dogs could be twins. So great that Charlie and Tim have found so many games to share!
Happy Mother's Day!