It’s hot here, HOT, so I went swimming friday and saturday. Almost had a disaster friday – after work Soolin and I were overheating so I stopped home, switched into swimming gear, then headed to the hudson on spire falls road. We got there, I tossed the frisbee in the water, and Soolin took off – she lost sight of the frisbee and became obsessed with finding it, or simply confused, and proceeded to just swim down river. She got a couple hundred yards ahead of me as I scrambled along the edge of the river in water ranging from ankle to waist deep. I finally ended up falling in and swimming after her. Long story short a guy in a kayak rescued her, else she would have ended up at the dam in glens falls or who knows where. It was pretty scary, I couldn’t imagine how I would have tracked her down if I had ended up losing sight of her, and I’m immensely frustrated with my inability to get her to respond 100% to the ‘come!’ command. Anyway this led to plan b on saturday – no more off the leash for her. We went back to the same spot, this time me with my paddling life vest on and her on a lead. I hopped in and the two of us swam and drifted about a mile or so downriver, stopping now and then along the bank for her to rest. It was like having a little motor on a string – I let her head wherever she pleased for the most part and just floated along behind as she dragged me too and fro. When we got out we just walked back to the car. I need to get something with a little more buoyancy to it before we go next time because at times Soolin wants me to hold her as we drift, and I can’t stay above water with our combined weight. I might get a doggy life jacket and see if she takes to it, otherwise I’m thinking a styrofoam ‘noodle’ or two will do the trick, or maybe this thing would be a better bet since she probably could get on and off it on her own.