Meeting Santa wasn’t the only exciting new experience for Biggles this week! Earlier in the week he came along to Beanie’s agility practice session and had a little sniff around the equipment. Today he joined Beanie in the swimming pool.

Biggles won’t start proper swimming lessons until he’s growth spurt finishes at around 6 months old. But right now he is still young enough not to be afraid so we wanted to introduce him to water now. He seemed to instinctively know how to swim! Here’s a little video clip showing his first dip in the pool. Watch his little legs start to swim before they even touch the water :)

He had a second brief dip a few minutes later and swam beautifully!

Clara and Tara (Tess’s babies) had their first swim too at 6 months old. Being older and wiser than Biggles they were pretty apprehensive at first, but did just great once they found their sea legs.

You can see Clara & Tara, Tess and all the other participants of the recent Glasgow Dog Training Club Pool Party on the Glasgow Dog Training Club Blog.

One of the members of Beanie’s agility club told us about a new pet therapy pool that was opening up in East Kilbride. She showed us some snaps of her dog enjoying a swim and it was clear that the pool was much bigger than Beanie was used to. We decided to go and check it out. I telephoned the owners last week, and I also mentioned that we might be interested in using their premises for Glasgow Dog Training Club pool parties. The owner invited Beanie and Val’s (the club’s head trainer) dogs along for a complementary swim and a tour of the premises.

The pool isn’t officially opened as the new facilities aren’t yet complete. The pool itself is fully functional but there’s still quite a bit of decoration to be done to the pool room. It’s a lovely big pool in a huge room – if you don’t mind putting up with undecorated walls then there’s no reason not to start using the premises now (though I believe there’s going to be a big open day when all the work is complete).

The really appealing thing is that the owner is very flexible, and is happy for you to go in the pool with your dog if you have your own wet suit (and you can pick up cheap wetsuits for £25). There are showers so you don’t have to go home soaking wet, and there’s even a hair drier for your dog. He’s also happy for you to have more than one dog in the pool so dog owners can get together and share the cost of the pool rental. This makes it much more affordable for regular swims. The only stipulation is that you must have one handler in the pool for every dog. However, it would be quite practical for three or four dogs to share a swimming slot and pop into the pool one at a time while the others are resting between laps. And of course, if you don’t want to go in the pool yourself, Jennifer is on hand to make sure your dog gets a good workout.

The owner is particularly keen to have the pool used by clubs, and will offer them special rates. So for example, it would be great for any kind of canine athlete as swimming is known to improve performance and prevent injury. It’s also great just as a fun way to spend time with your dog. I’m not sure, but I expect if a group of people got together for regular swim sessions with their dogs they would be given these special club rates. So I’m hoping that lots of Beanie’s pals will be interested in teaming up for regular pool parties. And at the very least we can take both Biggles and Beanie swimming for the price of one when Biggles is old enough.

The pool is at Allers Farm Kennels, and their website is http://www.allersfarmkennels.co.uk

I think the website is undergoing some maintenance right now as it was offline when I tried, so if you need the phone number or contact details drop us a line. And if you want to team up with Beanie for group swims let us know!

Beanie and two of Vals dogs enjoyed a lovely swim under the care of the pool’s therapist, Jennifer…

Lucy takes the plunge first

Beanie can’t wait for her turn

At last she gets fitted with her little harness…

…and dives into the pool for a lovely swim

Last up is Anna…

…but sister Lucy wants to join her – unfortunately mum Val refuses point blank to put on a wet suit and jump in the pool with her!

More piccies here

Beanie was on great form during yesterday’s swimming lesson. She’s been so full of beans that we asked the veterinary nurse to give her a really good work out. She did double laps, resisted laps….you name it. After each lap the nurse always checks her heart rate. She was unable to get more than a very slight increase in Beanie’s very low normal resting pulse rate. She’s a fit little girl!

Now that she’s got her first swimming course under her belt our plan is to cut back. We considered taking her once a fortnight or even once a month just to keep her joints nice and safe and strong. But we’ve decided it will probably do her more good to take about three months off swiming and then to do another concentrated block of lessons in the new year. And if we wait until February Biggles will be old enough to join her :)