Pool Party!

Morey and I recently attended a birthday party/house warming party for one of our rugby teammates. Morey was especially invited because there were going to be several other dogs in attendance. We arrived and Morey immediately joined the party in the backyard. The dogs in attendance were Doc, a yellow lab, Tonic, a golden retriever, and Crockett, a black lab/great Pyrenees mix, and then Morey. The backyard was pretty  ideal for 4 big dogs. The yard is completely fenced in and spanned the entire length of the house, with a combination of trees and low-growing plants, open spaces and then the pool.

Although Morey loves swimming in natural bodies of water, I am not sure what his experience is in pools. At first he was hesistant and just circled the edge, but when he saw the other dogs getting in and out, Morey took the plunge. He would only enter via the stairs and would get in, swim around and then get back out. Throughout the evening, the dogs were in and out of the water constantly, leaving a fine film of dog hair covering the water by the end of the evening. 

The dogs were a great source of entertainment to all the guests. You did have to stay alert because they didn’t feel any need to stay out of our way and having 4 large dogs running through the groups was like being in the middle of a stampede. There was one small scuffle between Morey and Doc when Doc decided to resource guard Crockett from Morey, but it was quickly resolved and the rest of the evening all the dogs got along quite well. Tonic and Crockett spent a lot of time wrestling each other and growling ferociously. Morey wasn’t sure about this and would start barking at them. He appeared to be playing referee and  didn’t realize it was all fun and games for the two dogs.

There was a vacuum in the pool that had a plastic line with round bobbers on it. At one point Morey decided that he needed to retrieve this from the pool. He grabbed onto the bobber and “saved” the rope and brought it to the edge. He looked very proud of himself and didn’t understand when we threw it back in the pool. He continued his “lifesaving” efforts to rescue the rope and I finally had to tell him to “leave it”. Of course, once the other dogs saw what Morey was going they wanted in on the fun as well so throughout the evening we had to be on guard to save the vacuum from the dogs who were trying to save it.

We stayed at the party for 5 hours and the dogs didn’t stop moving once. They were all in constant motion, and even after Tonic and Crockett left, Morey and Doc kept at it. Morey was exhausted on the way home, but he obviously had a wonderful time and was invited back for more pool parties in the future.