Splash

I've seen photos of Ridgebacks willingly going into water. They did not look like this:I tell people all the time that Ridgebacks are not water dogs. I feel like I'm lying when I see other people's Ridgebacks splashing happily through rivers, lakes, swamps, sloughs, and the ocean. I think "My gawd, what is wrong with my dogs?" and then it occurs to me ... maybe it's not my dogs. Maybe my dogs are the ones who, in the wilds of Africa, will live to tell the tale of their friend the Water Ridgeback who never returned from a leisurely swim in the Limpopo River.

I mean seriously, if you were in Africa would *you* go into the water? Want to retrieve a shot bird from a crocodile infested river? Go on ... just jump right in there and swim with the hippos. Was that a poisonous snake that just swam by or a harmless log? Let's not stay to find out. I think on some level my dogs know that water means danger - we'll work on getting them in to cool off on hot days but they'll never love it and I'm not sure I want them to.

This may paint me as a heartless person but some part of me secretly of enjoys the dog's reactions to water. I get a little tickle of glee at their disgust when I ask them to get wet ... and so to satisfy my funny bone I'll keep making them go in ... just one last time, I promise. Always one more damn time ...