Conquering Mylie's fear of water

We put Mylie in the lake once before, she lasted about 2 seconds, then took off out of the water. Since we enjoy time spent in the lake over the weekends, and are looking to possibly purchase a house on the water as well as a boat, I'd really like to get Mylie over this silly fear.
Yesterday during our walk, I walked down the town boat launch and cooled off a bit in the water. My fiance was walking Mylie close behind me. Mylie watched me walk in, sniffed around a bit and thought about it for a second. The water was calm, so she decided to dip her toes in... Then she immediately ran towards me, and did this hilarious hopping motion all around me, splashing water everywhere! After a minute or so she'd had enough and went back to the shore. My fiance then decided to walk out in the water, and Mylie followed with her hopping thing, ran past me & suddenly realized she couldn't reach the bottom anymore. She swam for the first time! Mylie swam around in circle for a bit, I was so proud of her!
We decided to go home, grab our swim suits and towels, and head back down to see if Mylie would go swimming with us. By the time we arrived back, there was a large boat out cruising around in the middle of the lake, making some decent size waves crash into the shore. Mylie wasn't having any of this, the waves scared her and unfortunately, she wouldn't go back in. So she sat on the shore and watched us, thought about coming in a few times, but I think the waves were too much.
A great first step! I hope to find another day when the water's calm.

Comments

  • edited November -1
    hooray! what a cute story!!! it needs to be documented on video!
  • edited November -1
    Hahaha. That is a great story. Yay for Mylie!
  • edited November -1
    LOL, Taj's breakthrough point for tolerating water was when I had her up north a few years ago and she was standing on the beach staring reluctantly at the freezing cold lake. All of a sudden, a family of geese with 25 babies swims into view and she forgets all about freezing cold or wet and swims furiously after them. I unhooked her leash before she took off so she went out pretty far. She then realized a mintue later she can't touch and the geese can swim way faster than her so she turned around and swam back. She's "tolerated" water ever since.
  • edited November -1
    good for Mylie! Sasha's terrified of water, even though she's been in a few times
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