[RKDinOKC]

Remember when I showed my Golden she could swim.

It was on a lake's dam. The ingress into the water was pretty steep.

First few times I just barely tossed in the bumper. At first she would stretch and grab it as long as it was only far enough she could touch bottom.

Then I tossed it just a little fartherl She would jump and grab it on the way down, then turn around while under water and run up the steep bank.

Then I tossed just a bit to far for her to reach jumping at it. It was hilarious. She would turn back towards the bank, realize she was not touching the bottom, then turn back towards the bumper. Only a few inches from the bumper, she would turn back to the bank again. She ended swimming around in circles about 10 times. You could see her mind thinking, too far, wait I'm not touching bottom as the went around in circles. Then she finally took the two strokes to reach it. Then she never hesitated again.

She loved jumping off anything. At my brother's farm they have a dock on their pond. I would stand on the bank. She would run onto the dock, then bark at me to throw the bumper. She would run and jump after it, fetch it, the as soon as she gave it to me would run back onto the dock and start barking.

Another time my nephew and I were out in a canoe on a large pond. As we reached the middle we heard a huffing noise. It was my golden following us swimming away huffing and puffing. Got a little worried as I had heard about dogs getting tired and drowning. So, we paddled the canoe back to the bank worrying about her hufflng and puffing as we went. When we got close enough to the shore she could touch the bottom, she immediately ran up and down the bank. Wasn't a bit tired. But we did take her in the canoe with us after that.