Our lifeguard

When we first got Elliot one of my concerns (and there were many let me tell you) was the pool.  We have a pool fence that separates one from the deck and the pool, but as usual I worried what if.  What if someone left the gate open and the dog got out?  What if the dog chewed through the fence and got to the water?  What if the dog opened the gate?  So I decided that the dog needed to learn to swim.  As soon as the weather warmed up we introduced Elliot to the pool.  Swimming came naturally to him, although he wasn't in any hurry to get into the water, but he knew how to swim and where to go to get out of the pool.  The problem was and is that he doesn't seem to like that we are in the pool.

We know he loves water.  One of his favorite exercises is having Madison spray the hose around the yard so that he can race back and forth jumping and catching the mist and spray.  Every time Madison takes him into the front yard he leads her to the hose in hope that she will play the game.  But when it comes to the pool and splashing he gets frantic.  He wants us to splash him so that he can jump and catch the droplets, but if we aren't focused on him then he will run around the pool deck barking and whining, barking and whining. 

It can get quite annoying, all that barking, as he barks shrilly and loudly.  Tom attempted to train him by pushing him into the pool when he started all that barking, but Elliot has know learned to run out of the way.  The last time we left him in the house while swimming he knocked off all the stuff on my bookcases that are under our big picture window leading to the pool.  Plus he howls when we leave him inside, and by howling, I mean like a wolf.  The newest problem is that all the running around the pool deck causes his paws to bleed and he limps for a couple days afterwards.

I've been wondering if he is a natural lifeguard.  If someone's head goes underwater and there is splashing involved he has been known to jump into the water.  Once in he doesn't attempt to drag the person to safety, but instead swims to the stairs, but I'm wondering if maybe I should be teaching him some lifeguard training.  Because certainly the neighbors are use to his barking and barking and they aren't about to come see what is going on if he were barking in an emergency situation. 

One day I went into the pool and tried to do some sunbathing while on a raft.  It was so boring that I actually fell asleep and was awakened five minutes later by Elliot who pawing me on my head when the raft floated to the side.  This past week I have been doing something I was taught not to do.  I have been swimming alone.  While this goes against everything I've ever learned in my business I am desperate to exercise my degenerative disc disease and think water is the way to do it.  If I get in and keep my hands under the water, my head out of the water, and my splashing to zero then Elliot will go find some shade and lifeguard me from there.

If after a few minutes, I keep to that plan then he is able to relax even more while keeping a vigilant visual. 

Yesterday I got the bright idea to train him to stop that incessant barking.  I pulled him into the deep end and swam with him to the shallow.  We did this four times, but it didn't stop him once he was on land.  I enlisted Tom and Darcy's help.  Tom rigged it so that I could tie a cord around my waist with the other end hooked around the railing so that I could swim without moving.  He and Darcy cornered Elliot so that he couldn't run and tried training him to stop barking.  Instead Elliot jumped into the pool.  Over and over.  Tom tried holding him, but he just barked.  I held him in the water while Darcy swam, but he would make this pitiful whine like he just knew she was in trouble.  We finally gave up.  Everyone was exhausted.  Elliot slept well.

We'll try again tomorrow, but something tells me he is just a nervous nelly lifeguard that isn't going to let down his guard as long as people are splashing as if they are in trouble.