Cairns and water

[calami]

Hi all,

Last week I was at a friends house and took Duffy (my 8 mo. old Cairn) with me. My friend has two labs and keeps really large dishes of water for them. Duffy jumped into one of the dishes and looked like he was attempting to swim. I am thinking about getting a small child's wading pool for him to see if he will enjoy swimming. Do any of you out there have a Cairn that likes to swim, and this something that the breed as a whole enjoys doing?

Mike

[kayharley]

My older Cairn, Winnie, is not all that crazy about water....whether it's from a sprinkler, pool, bath, pond or rain. A wet Winnie is not a happy Winnie

Madison is the complete opposite. I have a small kiddie pool that I'll fill when it's really hot out. She looks like she's bobbing for apples in it....face completely underwater while she runs around the edges. It's great for those days when she gets muddy or rolls in "it".

As far as swimming being a Cairn thing...I just don't know.

[bradl]

Seems to be an individual thing more than a breed thing. Our friend's dog Tarry is quite a water dog. We don't seem to have any, unless the puppy turns out to be a duck.

[CarCarDawn]

Hi! We have a pool and Riley would rather do laps "AROUND" it than in it!!!!!

[CallisMom]

Calli LOVES the water!! She also loves to "dig" in her water bowl. She loves to jump into my mother-in-laws pool and swim. Up at the farm she like to swim short distances in the pond and in the creek we wade through. She doesn't like swimming long distances but loves the short jaunts. - Just make sure it is a wading pool she can get out of easily! Calli loves to jump into our hot tub - but she can't get out by herself (and I personally don't like her being in all that chlorine).

[Eliz222]

Scout loves the water too, but I think she likes to drink it more. She will stand in the pool (kiddie pool) and will sometimes sit down in it. She LOVES the hose water and I have to keep her out of the garden because I wouldn't water any of the plants if she were there!

Finch, the puppy, hates water! I gave her her first bath and you would have thought that I was putting scalding hot water on her...the yelps that came out of her mouth! I put her in the kiddie pool, but she just jumps out right away.

[toomanypaws]

I bought a kiddie pool for my lab who loves to jump in and out of it. I don't let the cairns out w/ him because he forgets his gentlemen manners and I'm afraid he'll jump on the smaller ones by accident. My two older ones (3 & 8 mths) love the pool for short periods and then like to run the yard. They know when I call them to go back in the house that I'm going to rinse them off and they don't seem to mind. The baby is only 10 wks so she's still getting use to it but doesn't seem to mind swimming across the pool once or twice as long as she take her out after that.

[toomanypaws]

I thought this was cute of Abbey and Hannah in the pool. It looks like Abbey might be planning an escape and telling Hannah her next move.

Planning the escape

[Guest Mike]

Thanks so much to all of you for your responses. We went out last night and bought a small wading pool for Duffy, making sure that the sides are low enough for him to get in and out of easily. Thank you to Callismom for the great suggestion. Of course we will supervise the little guy. I will take a picture and attempt to post it on this site next week. Thanks again!

Mike

[bradl]

Looking forward to the pic. Toomanypaws - that's a classic shot -- you can just see the mischief brewing.

[Linda]

Murphy (15-month-old female) & Trapper (3-year-old male) LOVE to swim!! They especially like it when we are at a beach where they can walk in themselves. Tho supervised by us, we have been careful to teach them to "go to shore" so they know how & where to get out. They both enjoy fetching in the water too. I'm happy they are accomplished swimmers with lifejackets and without!! Only problem we have is that they both seem to like to go swim after ducks & swans. We are QUICK to intercept when they do because they can go WAY too far out or even get attacked by a swan. Also, since we are boaters, swimming helps keep them cool when we are away from AC.

[Mama Kim]

We just came back from my in-law's home on Long Island where we discovered Piper is not a swimmer. They have a beautiful inground pool which my boys lived in from sun up til sun down. Piper had a fit!! She barked and whined and ran around the pool like a nut!! So we thought she wanted to get in. We had her in several times, but she'd just swim to the steps and run out. She did not like it nor did she like seeing her boys in it. The more they splashed, the more she freaked out!! We had to keep her up on the deck or inside when they were swimming.

[fancypants]

Mamakim - that was similar to our experience yesterday. We took Emma to the beach but there were little waves and she seemed to think that it was her responsibility to kill all the waves and also to keep my son out of those evil waves at all cost! It was sort of funny at first, but not for long because she was so serious and working so hard to accomplish her weird task!!! She literally wore herself out running at the waves barking and trying to bite them!