learning I can swim

Mommy has always been overprotective and doesn't let us swim in the lakes or creeks that we come across during our hikes, like the other dogs do.  She's always been afraid that we'd end up with an ear, skin or some other type of infection - so Dorothy and I usually just watch other dogs jumping in the water, swimming and fetching sticks from the sidelines.  Only very recently (since the weather's become hot) mom's started letting us run across the shallow parts of the creeks where the trails weave in and out of them, but for the longest time, her and daddy would carry us over the water and we didn't get the tiniest bit wet.  

Then something incredible happened... On Wednesday, during one of our afternoon hikes at Bull Creek, I was running across the creek when I accidentally fell into a deep part and got completely immersed in water!  I got myself back to the shallow, crossed the creek and turned around to mommy to see if I was in trouble or not,  but other than being worried for my ears... she was totally ok with it!  I overheard her and daddy saying things like 'well, it is super hot,' 'should be ok since it's running water,' 'at least it'll cool him down' and 'heaps of other dogs get in this water all the time so it should be fine.'

I made super sure it was ok one more time by pretending to fall in again at the next crossing, and when neither parent said anything, I took off down the middle of the creek barking at my splashes and chasing fish.  Dorothy followed but her legs are so short that she could hardly reach the bottom! Luckily she knew how to swim straight away but she didn't like being out there in the water and returned to the bank where mommy and daddy stood, watching me.

D coming to check up

Before long the real began because daddy got a stick and threw it for me to chase!  I was ok in the shallow where I could reach the bottom, but when he threw the stick out further, I didn't know what to do!  I tried jumping up and down, springing myself from the bottom - but this filled my nose with water, so I kept trying different things until eventually, I SWAM!  I didn't even know I knew how to!  It was one of the most exciting things I've ever done - and it was all caught on video:

Not a bad place for a dog to learn how to swim!  Here are some more photos mommy took that afternoon:

I loved my stick!

I wanted to take it home with me

I even had a spectator (see the dragonfly?)

this was when I first got in (when I thought mom would be mad)

And here's a video is of my first attempt to swim - when I was just jumping: