NewsFlash: Puppy Grounded from the Pool
I am a proud owner of an American Bulldog puppy named Phinnaeus. He's 15 months old, still very much a puppy and well over a hundred pounds. This is my first AmBully and I love him to death, he's big, slobbery, goofy, endearing and sweet. He's also an avid swimmer.
When he was younger, we took him and his older brother from another mother to Morro Bay along the central coast of California. As far as we knew, having adopted him at 4 months, that was his first experience with the ocean and water. Brisco, his older brother, already ours for a few months, told us right away that water and he - not so much. At the ocean that day, we enticed Phin with seaweed and sticks to jump into the waves and water. He loved every minute of it.
Fast forward to now: we just got our pool open for the summer as we needed to fix some of the plastering and get it repainted before we could fill it and play. Its finally full and warmed by the abundant southern California sun. At first Phin, was unsure about the pool, it had been so long empty and a great place to throw his toys so that he could run inside to get them. He was doing more damage to the plaster, though, so we had to stop that activity but I would see him nudge his Kong toy over the edge of the pool and then growl and fuss until someone retrieved it.
Now, however, he loves the pool. Loves, loves, loooooves the pool. At first he would clumsily lump his body into the truly shallow end, an 8 foot diameter section that's one step down into about 18 inches of water, which leads to the foot and a half drop to the shallow end, 3'. Mostly he stood there, up to his chest in water, pawing at the water with his feet, biting at the splashes he made. Apparently, this got boring very fast. With one of us in the shallow end, he would howl and whine to join us but was scared of stepping off into the deeper water. Josh got the idea of throwing one of his toys farther out into the pool, thinking that would encourage him to swim. It did. He excited jumped in after his toy and promptly sank like a rock. Josh was there to lift him up as Phin flailed about in a panic.
We immediately put him back in the shallow-shallow end and got him to calm down. His panic was a mixture of fear and excitement, "what was that? I was underwater? wheeeeee" Tail wagging, zipping water everywhere, Brisco watching from the edge of the pool, Phin was anxious to give it another go. He timidly stepped off into the shallow end and instead of sinking, turned into a dog-bobber, more vertical than horizontal, more flail than paddling. I swam up next to him and he turned right toward me and started to flail harder. I could see that this was going to be a painful thing if I didn't push him out of my way. His paws are as big as my hands and with claws coming at me in an excited rush, I was best advised to get next to instead of in front of. I pushed him away a bit and lifted up his butt by pulling up on his considerable tail. He went more horizontal, the paddling smoothed out and he was swimming! Honestly swimming and he was exhuberant! From there he immediately began looking for his toy. He swam in circles looking for his toy so he could retrieve it. Once he had it, he would paddle to the shallow shallow part and smile like a fool.
Three new developments have come up due to this new activity:
1.) Phin is so excited about swimming, he can barely contain himself. Once swimming, he will sometimes come right at you and just claw you with his feet. I don't think he means to harm, I think he's just wild with excitement.
2.) The Toys. We've started a game: jump in, retrieve toy, swim to the "home" area, the shallow shallow spot. Phin will sometimes get so worked up about the toy even if there isn't one in the pool that he jumps in from the side now and will swim until he's exhausted looking for a toy that's not in there. If you are in the pool with him, he will swim to you and start chomping like a shark thinking you are the toy. Dangerous.
3.) No one can swim without the puppy. We live in a communal type environment. There are two houses on one lot that share the pool, five people all together. Others want to swim without a gigantic puppy on top of them and telling Phin "No. Stay" isn't enough. He will run and jump on top of whoever is enjoying the pool. This is how he got grounded.
I discovered that he was responding to the sound I make as I inhale air right before I dive in. The big gasp of air is Phin's clue to dive in. I figured this out after I told him to sit-stay and then dove into the pool. He dove in on top of me. Right on top. His paw became tangled in my suit top, he was pushing me under and clawing my back with each paddle, meanwhile chomping at the surface, which was where I needed to be. I thought my own dog was going to drown me.
From underwater, I kicked his chest to get him off of me and finally got some air. As I breached the surface, I screamed in pain, my back and chest were both well clawed, red stripes everywhere. Josh came running from inside the house to the sound of my scream and saw me hanging on the edge of the pool. Now, I've been a swimmer since I was a tot, swam competitively in high school and am SCUBA certified, needless to say, I am comfortable in the water. A scream from me in the pool meant something was seriously wrong. As Josh came out, I yelled, "get him out of here and tie him up. He's officially grounded from the pool until further notice!"
I've had dogs my whole life, I'm a strong swimmer with good skills in the pool, what I have not had is a swimming pool of my own and a swim-crazy dog until now. For the next two days, he was not allowed in the pool as I made lots of noise and squealing while playing in the water. If he became excited about it, I scolded him. Day one was hard for him. Day two, after about 15 minutes of me in the pool, diving, playing and running races with friends, he became bored watching. Last night with other friends over, he was very excited about the pool but still he was not allowed in. I'm trying to get him to realize that he needs to be invited to play in the pool, not the other way around. I am, however, still stumped on how to get him to calm down whilst in the water and not chomp at the surface like Jaws.
So, while I work on that, the puppy is grounded from the pool.
Holly
LA, CA