Sunday 22nd January 2006

Freddy had quite an adventure at My Pet Stop. He knows how to swim very well in the sea, but a pool.. isn't that just an oversized bath..?!?! And it doesn't smell like the sea, in fact "suspiscious" doesn't even begin to describe what he thought heading up the ramp onto the poolside. He had full-on claws digging in and refusal to go even a smidge further. In the end, Dave had to lift him in. Now, I know this flies in the face of our one-step-at-a-time philosophy, but we knew Freddy would enjoy it if only he'd get into the water! Lo and behold, a few minutes of us both playing silly games with him and a switch suddenly went on in his head as if he'd thought "OOOOHHH!!! It's a GAAAAME!! They're not trying to kill me after all!!"

Freddy absolutely loved swimming around, especially once he worked out we couldn't reach him to get his new Tennis Kong toy off him! In the end, I had to put my stern mum voice on to get him to come out of the pool. After he was all dried off, I took him on-lead to the ramp to see how he'd react and he practically ran up it to get back into the pool! What a change from half an hour previous when he acted as though we were indeed sending him to his doom :O)

A fun swim at My Pet Stop costs £12.50 and they also do therapy / rehabilitation swims. Yolande had taken her Fred for a session to help his hip dysplasia and he was held by a system of ropes and pulleys in the centre of the pool to encourage him to swim for longer. Michelle the Hydro-expert was very helpful and extremely friendly and the dogs loved her! For more info, visit MyPetStop.