He’s smart enough to know he’ll drown.
Back in the 80s, I was walking the towpath with my Wonder Dobe and my fiance.
It was February and very cold.
The fiance tossed the Wonder Dobe’s beloved tennis ball into the canal and the dog instinctively jumped in after it and proceeded to start drowning.
I immediately screamed at the fiance to ‘get my dog out ALIVE’ and literally kicked him into the canal, with the dog.
He got the dog out and I rushed him to the car, where I dried him with the fiance’s very nice golf jacket.
The fiance’ was cold, shivering and soaking wet.
I did not care.
He nearly killed my dog.
To this day, he wonders why I never married him.
Our Dobie/Shepherd mix, Sasha, is deathly afraid of deep water. She loves playing in sprinklers and getting sprayed with a hose, but she cowers whenever she gets too near the pool.
Not sure if she could have swum, but her first pool adventure induced PTSD. When we moved, our young daughter threw a ball and Sasha ran across the pool to get it. She made it to the edge quickly enough, and I pulled her out, but the damage was done. Pools=bad.