Swimming with Bossy Boots!

I am going to give credit right now to Anna Ransom for sharing "Bossy Boots" with me... :D

Since I have two broken toes and it takes too long to walk and I can't run, I have been thinking of new things to do with the pups in the morning. Last week, Nate helped me out and took care of the dogs in the morning and once I got off the crutches, he let me take care of them again. So, Tuesday morning, we went swimming as many of you saw from my Facebook post, Oakley is the worst lane mate on the planet!!! Since we are swimming in a damned up part of a river, or as we call it, a pond, there is lots of room to swim... However, Oakley likes to make sure we are all very close to each other and she's leading...

Let me share a little about Oakley and Scout before I go on. They are both great dogs and super fun! Oakley is part retreiver, part whippet, and a whole lotta crazy. Scout... I'm still not sure what breeds Scout is. They said he was a Border Collie/Lab/Boxer mix... He could have some Border Collie... maybe a little lab... probably not boxer.... probably some terrier something or other... and also a whole lot of crazy! Oakley is the intense dog. I've heard that whippets are stubborn and sensitive... and Yes, Oakley is both of those. She's also scared of men so if a man comes over to our house, she barks and barks and whines and scatters... and on and on! We have worked on a few ways to keep her calm and quit the barking, but it's hard when a dog's tail is so high up between her legs that you think she is going to crawl into herself. Scout is the uber affectionate one... in the house! If I pet Oakley, Scout is all over that and trying to work his way into the petting session. However, the minute he gets out of the house... Poof... Scout's gone! He's a hunter and he likes to hunt out birds, squirrels, chipmunks, chickens, you name it... He wants to hunt it! He's getting better about staying with us, but we still are creative about keeping him close!!

So, this morning, I took the pups to the pond for a little swim session before work. Because Scout is a wanderer, I have tried many ways of keeping him close. We have a 15 foot leash that we put on Scout so that he can wander, but I can stop him if I need to. While we are swimming, I don't have to worry about him too much. I make sure he's following us or at least close by, but I can catch him if I see that he's breaking free. However, the minute we get back to shore, Scout's out and about running up the road! At first, I felt bad making him drag his 15 foot leash in the water. He can hardly keep up with us, now drag 15 feet of rope... the poor pup looks like he's gonna drown!!! This morning, I thought, "I'm going to let Oakley babysit Scout and I'm going to attach Scout's leash to Oakley"... BRILLIANT!!!! Not only did Scout keep up, but there were a few moments, that Oakley had Scout's leash in her mouth and she was pulling him along!! To recap, Oakley must be in front. If she's not in front, she will scratch the heck out of your legs. If Scout isn't keeping up, she'll pull him along by his leash! Hence the bossy boots!!

I am going to have to bring my waterproof camera along with us some time so that I can take pictures! They are pretty cute when they are swimming side by side. Plus, their little feet are super cute while they are swimming! So next time that there is a swimming post, there will be pictures with the post!