Dog Park Saturdays

Summer Saturday's are the best. Really, weekends are the best. Us Schaefer's just love the weekends - a time for relaxation, naps (Casey), free time, and for Piper Bear…dog park.


Piper loves the dog park for many reasons - other dogs, freedom to run EVERYWHERE, ponds, and a ton of new people. Piper loves new people. Casey and I love the dog park because it is highly entertaining to watch her socialize and because for the next day or so she is wiped out. She is only a year and a half old so she has amazing amounts of pent-up energy that we are just incapable of releasing on a day to day basis. But at the dog park, she can just race around however much her little heart desires. We love the dog park.


One of our main goals at the dog park is obviously releasing all of this energy, but our side goal is that she will one day swim. She is a water dog.


Well, she is suppose to be.


 Her idea of swimming is submerging her whole body (except her head of course) under the water to cool off. Meanwhile, Casey and I desperately wait on the edge of the pond praying she will accidentally walk too far out one day where her furry little paws can't reach.


Doesn't happen.


Until yesterday.


I should probably preface this with the fact that Piper loves her soccer ball. Nothing else exists when this thing is around. She will sprint down the alley way, across fields and through mud puddles for this ball.

Now typically if the soccer ball happens to end up in the pond (and by ends up, I mean we threw it in to see if she would swim for it) she sits on the side, looks at us like we are suppose to get it…. 

and waits…

and then waits some more…

until finally its close enough to reach.


But yesterday.


Yesterday was the day.


Yesterday she ventured out. With the fear of another dog taking her ball out in the open water, she waded out to where she couldn't touch and slowly paddled around, grabbed the ball and then dramatically splashed back to shore. Casey and I couldn't believe our eyes. After a year and a half of waiting, hoping and slightly shoving her out into the water she was finally swimming. Our dog was now officially a water dog.


Of course, us being the crazy and slightly obsessive (ok really obsessive) dog parents we are… we took video. Evidence. Just in case she decides next weekend she doesn't want to swim anymore.