Dutch Does The Doggy Paddle

The Man has started his vacation, and since there is so much that ought to be done around here, we are going to stay at home and try to get some stuff down around here. But we wanted to go up to Mom & Dad's house first since The Man never gets a chance to come with me.

Dutch eagerly anticipates arriving at Grammy & Papa's house.

He loves their chihuahua, Harley, and their great big yard to play in.

The pool was open and during the brief period of time on Saturday in which it was not raining, we got in and persuaded Dutch to join us. He has never been around any sort of water before (besides the bathtub) and he fearlessly leaped into my arms when we were in the pool on Father's Day. I had him swim around a tiny bit then to see if he would like it. This time, we thought we'd get him to swim some more and hopefully learn how and how to get out of the pool if he accidentally fell in.

Nervously licking the lips.

The Man started out by carrying him in, where Dutch quickly retreated to the highest spot he could stand on. We got him to doggy paddle back and forth to us a few times and he would try to head for the closest side. He can't get out there, of course, so he quickly figured out how to follow the side around to the steps. He doesn't seem to be too traumatized by the event and he was very cute in all his wet, freckled glory.

I can swim! What a relief!

A l m o s t there.

Grammy, I'm not sure this is my best angle.

Ah, help. They makes me swim.