Puppy Pool
Our puppy is obsessed with her pool.
Equinox is obsessed with two things. Ice and her brand-new pool. We started giving her ice when she was around 9 weeks old. It started after we noticed that she seemed to be too hot and unable to cool off. We started filling her water bowl with ice cubes several times a day and she was always bouncing to get the bowl out of my hands before I could put it down. She loved it so much that she would dig it out of the bowl and throw herself on the floor crawling around licking the ice cubes until they had either been completely finished or melted into the carpet. No matter how many times we moved them back into the bowl she would throw them back onto the floor.
Still, this wasn't seeming to be enough to keep her cool from the summer heat. So we decided to get her a kiddie pool. It took us three days to find one as they were being bought up because other people had the same idea of getting them to keep cool. Likely for kids rather than their dogs. We put chicken wire around the patio to keep her from slipping between the wooden bars. It took a few hours of my husband's time, but it got done. We set up her pool and spent a few minutes filling it up a quarter of the way and threw in two bags of ice that we got from the gas station. When we finally put her out on the patio and showed her how to get in and out of the pool, she decided it was too cold.
A couple days of letting her out and teaching her she could play in it and finally she was bouncing in and out of the pool and running around like a hyper puppy. I would leave her out on the patio checking on her occasionally, but after a few days, we decided to move it up to the balcony connected to our bedroom. It took a few hours to put the chicken wire onto the rails, but when it was done it was more secure than the patio. We set up her pool and brought up her outside toys that consisted of water friendly dog toys and a couple of gallon water containers and a few soda bottles that all had their caps removed for safety. She is obsessed with carrying the bottles around the balcony and chewing on them. Eventually she will wear them out and they will be thrown away.
I highly recommend getting a pool for a dog that loves water. It gives them somewhere to play and a constructive way to cool down. If the pool is plastic it is best to keep an eye on them. I made the mistake of not checking on her soon enough and she put a few holes in her pool. It's easy for me to make games with the pool and incorporate it into a method for her to get out all of that extra energy. Her being a German Shepard means that she has more energy than anyone can possibly manage on a regular working or school day. I have fibromyalgia which means on my bad pain days I have to get creative to keep her busy and meet her needs for exercise and brain stimulation. I will definitely say that getting that pool has helped me meet those needs and it can be hilarious to watch her bouncing in and out of it as she runs around the balcony. I love her pool almost as much as she does.
About the Creator
Kaleb Haycraft-Thomson
Transgender man. Animal lover. Activist.
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