Swimming with your dog at the cottage

With Pirkko-the dog indeed I started funneling and then I decided to try funneling with my other German Shepherd, "Esko". Pirkko weighed only a little over 30kg and Esko weighed about 40kg at the time, so it was exciting to see how much the difference in the dogs' weight would affect the funneling experience with the dog.
Esko didn't quite agree with my idea of going funneling :D Esko wasn't really into swimming in the early summer, only towards autumn he started to really like swimming and couldn't get him out of the water anymore.

This time the board was Joben Yarra 10.6. The Yarra is super stable and easy to paddle even for a first timer, so I thought it would be a great board to try paddling with a slightly bigger dog. Joben boards, like all the so called better boards, are made of high quality materials that don't scare dogs' nails, so there's no need to worry that your dog's nails will puncture the air-filled board. Only a sharp blow will cause such a board to burst.

I finally managed to coax Esko onto the board and we set off quietly. It turned out to be quite a challenge as well, because Esko was so nervous that he was shaking. A dog weighing 40kg shakes, so it was a bit of an extra challenge for me to balance myself. After about five minutes, however, Esko relaxed and I dared to stand up, I started paddling on my knees. It's my own tension certainly also had an effect, when I did not want to find the first balance right. Pretty soon I could relax myself and dared to bend my knees more. Eskok also started to enjoy being on board and watching the scenery. The best position for Esko was clearly sitting. Pike again preferred to lie down.

I quickly noticed that the 10kg weight difference between my dogs on these boards was not noticeable at all. The boards (Lena and Yarra) remained just as stable and it was just as easy to paddle. Of course, for the first time myself also with a standing dog and with full power I didn't dare to paddle yet. So that was the goal for the next time! 😊