Let me start by explaining that the lesson would have gone much better if I hadn't left the bag of dog toys and treats on the counter when we left the house. It would also be better if Kozmo's unorganized humans would order him a doggy life vest. We decided to try an area where he could walk out into water that gradually got deeper. We approached the water and Koz walked right in and stood next to me. The other human went where it was deeper, about 15 feet away and started calling Kozmo. After some coaxing Kozmo swam to the other human and back to me and got lots of praise. He didn't want to do it again and we wanted to make this fun for him so the other human was swimming and enjoying the sun while I stayed along shore with Kozmo letting him play. He was interested in sticks and weeds.
Since sweet Kozmo likes to chew leashes we are down to the back up leash, the reason it's a back up leash is because it's only 4 feet and the clasp is junky. With a few spins and head moves Kozmo was free from the leash and running around. He found something gross. It was a skeleton of some sort, I couldn't figure it out and I didn't want to. He was happy, throwing this gross thing up in the air and chasing it. Our trainer told us not to chase him and when he is chewing something he shouldn't have we ask to see what he has and offer a trade. I was able to grab a handful of weeds and make a trade. I left his disgusting skeleton chew toy and put the leash back on and tried again to get him to swim. Koz seemed happiest along the edge of the water. Since I didn't have treats or floating toys I just kept walking along the shore line hoping he'd get used to the water and have fun. He stuck his head in the water to retrieve a pile of weeds floating on top of the water.
Kozmo must have got bored with the shore line walk and did another fast move and broke free of the leash AGAIN. This time he went immediately to the skeleton and was running as fast as he could with this gross thing in his mouth. It was very helpful to have the other human in the water telling me that having the dog escape the leash one time was an accident and the second time was clearly a human error. I had visions of beating the other human with the leash, but I had to focus on getting my dog back. You have to understand how fun this was for Kozmo. He had a really awesome treat that was smelly, gross and crunchy AND a human playing chase with him. He was smiling. Kozmo would run with his treasure and just when he would lay down and start crunching on bones that I was sure he would choke on I would try to calmly walk up to him and ask what he had, every time I got close he would run away again.
I tried to offer a "trade" with a stick. Normally he likes to play fetch, but clearly the stick wasn't as smelly or interesting as the carcass he found. Still leisurely swimming, the other human suggested I try a trade with the gross pile of wet weeds Kozmo found interesting earlier. I really didn't want to touch these wet slimy weeds with my bare hands so I used 2 sticks as tongs and picked up the dripping weeds. Now I am walking around trying to entice my dog to drop his beloved dead toy and trade me for a pile of weeds that I am holding between 2 sticks. For some reason this makes the other human laugh and the scene is a beautiful lake close to sunset with a happy dog running in circles with something dead in his mouth, one human running behind the tog with two sticks and some weeds trying to beg and reason with a 10 month old puppy and another human floating in the water, enjoying the sun and offering a not so helpful running commentary of the entire chain of events.
Finally I convinced the other human to help project "Capture Kozmo". We both called Kozmo and went in different directions. We tried to catch him as he ran by us with this dead thing in his mouth. He is fast and would NOT give up his precious dead crunchy friend. We managed to chase him into some deep weeds. I wouldn't set foot in these weeds where there was a high probability I would encounter a snake. I have no treats to offer Kozmo. I go to the car and try shaking pretzels to fake him out. No luck. The other human decided to go back to the sun and his relaxing swim and told me Kozmo wouldn't come to me until he finished eating his gross find. I found one squeaky toy in the car and tried to lure Kozmo with a toy. While searching for the stupid toy or anything to distract Kozmo I managed to lose track of Kozmo. I start walking back to ask the other human for help and as I turned the corner I see Koz and his human just hanging out like the past 20 minutes didn't happen.
When I finally got to my two favorite boys I put 2 leashes on Kozmo!! We still had a partially chewed leash in the car with his junky back up leash. You can see him in the photo below wearing 2 leashes and 2 collars happy as can be from his little adventure. Just as I was catching my breath the other human threw Kozmo's toy into the water and Kozmo went after it. The good news is Kozmo went right into the water, the not so fun part is that I was attached to the end of 2 leashes and had to run to keep up with Koz. The toy did not float so I had to get it out of the water for Koz. We brought the toy back and just as I was sitting down the other human threw it again. I regretted not beating him with the leash earlier. Koz ran right into the water and actually stuck his head under water to get his toy!!! He is going to be a water dog!
We are calling the first swimming lesson a success and will try again in a few days. The next swimming lesson will involve treats, a doggy life vest and toys that float.
No comments:
Post a Comment