The Amazing Diving Doggy!!

Okay this earns it's own separate post. Max's adventures with the pool this year. Every year we try and bring Max in the pool, and last year he even finally seemed to enjoy it. But a year goes by and he forgets, so he was leary again.

But as we swam one day and were splashing about, he would start running around the whole pool, barking and trying to "catch" the splashes of water with his mouth. We would start splashing water AT him and instead of running away like the years before he tried to bite the water, and started crying. He looked like he wanted IN! My Dad kept going up to him but he would back away. Dad dragged him in but it didn't seem good enough, so we put him out and splashed and yelled Max jump , because that is what he actually seemed to WANT, he kept getting close to the edge, his muscles would bunch but he would lose courage. So we jumped up and down splashing for 20 minutes and still, not brave enough to jump in. But he started using US to GET in. I flattened my back close to the ledge and
he walked on my back and then JUMPED in!! He loved it! He did it over and over!

When Kate got down, the first time she went swimming we planned on showing her what we had told her about and they were calling him to jump by himself, and he DID, he was so excited Katie was there, because he hadn't seen her in 5 days, he jumped straight TO her! He wouldn't do it again, but he used us, even when NOT prepared to be his launch pad. He ran up to Dad jumped on his shoulder and dove in over and over, the girls helping him find the step to get out. He would shake himself, I'd splash and bam back in again. He does have one bad habit. He bites the water as he swims AND has his mouth open to swallow as he dives in, he is a nut ball. He likes to drink the pool water. Oy, Max. And he loves when Mom and Dad decide he has had enough or we can tell he is now doing it just to please us, and they take him in a giant towel and dry him off sitting on a lounger inthe sun. He soaks it up, literally.

The last few days of the trip he got braver and braver. He would crawl on dad's back, now with a tee on because Max's nails scratch bad, and let himself be "ferried" to the other side. He would step off and run back to the other side to do it again. On another day he decided no one was close enough to the ledge so he jumped onto shoulders from a distance. Then he decided he did not care if there was someone willing to be his diving board, if he saw a HEAD, yeah a HEAD, he jumped ON your head and used you to dive in. Let me tell you THAT hurt, especially after my accident which will is in part 3 of my Disney Trip. Then he leapfrogged from the cement onto Dad's waiting back and then into the pool!! Then he leapfrogged onto Sandy, then leaped onto Dad then dove into the pool the next day! He was SO happy, the look of joy on his face every day he swam in the pool was priceless. His pool adventures are one of my favorite parts of the WHOLE vacation. On the last day before Dad and Kate left to drive him home...his LAST swim...yes I am sad...he did the unimaginable. He began diving in all by himself!! Over and over! We would hit the water near the steps and he would swim there...if he was finished with that swim. I splashed the most so he dove to me a LOT during the vacation, and the visual of his fave and body hurtling to me through the air was SO much fun and so cool (and don't worry animal lovers, Max has never been allowed outside, near the pool, alone. Even when he was terrified of water, he was only out there if someone else was, that goes quadruple now!LOL). It was amazing seeing him vault into the pool from the ledge all by himself, no help, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth as he grinned!! Max IS the Amazing Diving Doggie!!!