Took Payton back to the lake today and expected him to be just as jazzed about the dock as he was last time when we left. Well, the remnants of Isaac rolled through this weekend so there was more water in the lake, so it looked different. He jumped off once and was totally surprised that it was deeper. Not super deep, he could stand up on his back legs and float there fine, but it WAS deeper than before. I called him around and he swam around and came up on the shore, looking happy and proud of himself... but he refused to jump back in after that. I got him all excited over his bumper and then had the bumper in the water, dragging it around and slapping the water. He stood on the dock bark-screaming at it, but would NOT jump in. I didn't bring his life jacket because I didn't think the water would be that deep, I don't know if that would have made a difference, but I don't know how easy it will be to get him back into the water again now, even with the life jacket.
So now I don't know if it's worth it to drive the hour and a half to the trial and pay... because I have a feeling he won't jump in the pool and my time and money, neither of which I have a lot of these days, will be wasted. I've been trying to join the Chicagoland Dock Dogs Facebook group (they're putting it on) so I can ask people questions, and I can't get approved... I actually got approved to the St. Louis Dock Dogs group almost immediately and I don't even live in Missouri. =P So I can't even ask questions about it. I just have a really bad feeling about the whole thing now, which sucks because last week after his enthusiastic hopping into the lake I was so excited.
Maybe I should just throw in the towel... everybody told me shelties don't like swimming or water anyway.
ugh.
So now I don't know if it's worth it to drive the hour and a half to the trial and pay... because I have a feeling he won't jump in the pool and my time and money, neither of which I have a lot of these days, will be wasted. I've been trying to join the Chicagoland Dock Dogs Facebook group (they're putting it on) so I can ask people questions, and I can't get approved... I actually got approved to the St. Louis Dock Dogs group almost immediately and I don't even live in Missouri. =P So I can't even ask questions about it. I just have a really bad feeling about the whole thing now, which sucks because last week after his enthusiastic hopping into the lake I was so excited.
Maybe I should just throw in the towel... everybody told me shelties don't like swimming or water anyway.
ugh.