My Dog Riolife with a rescue dog

Rio is a good looking dog.

Rio let us know the first time we tried to give him a bath that he did not like water. I had bought a small plastic wading pool and put about four inches of water in it. We tried to coax him into it, but eventually had to resort to pulling and pushing him until he finally stood in the midst of the shallow water. It took every bit of effort from me and Jay to keep him in the pool for his bath. You would have truly thought that we were torturing him.

Then one day we took him over to our son’s house to meet his dog, Whistler. They wrestled for hours in the backyard, and every time they got too hot, Whistler would take a break and lie down in a mud puddle. Rio just stood by and watched, but never attempted to dive in himself.

At the end of the day, after they were both covered in mud, our son threw them in the swimming pool to clean them up. We thought that would clinch Rio’s hatred of the water. But the next time we took him over there, Rio voluntarily stepped into the pool and walked back and forth on the first step while Whistler stood by with stark fear in his eyes and watched from the deck.

Then, this weekend, back at our son’s house the dogs were wrestling out in the yard, and from the kitchen window I saw Rio not only step into the pool, but venture down onto the next step where the water was up to his chin! What kind of a pit bull is he anyway? I actually had to close the gate to the pool to keep him out!

Now he has discovered the water flowing out of the hose. He licks at it and rolls around in the water-soaked grass around it. He seems to have changed his prejudice against getting wet. The next step is to see how those water experiences have affected his opinion about his bath time.

The next issue is a common one among dog owners. Read about Rio the Digger in my next post.