Playing in the POND for the love of a Gigle Ball!
Posted By Sandy Wilson on April 5, 2010
If there is one thing my dogs love, it is to go in the pond when it’s nice outside. Everyone goes in the pond to drink and to retrieve their squeaky gigle balls except for Delta! She loves the rain and trying to bite the water out of my water can while I am watering my flowers, but I haven’t been able to lure her in the pond yet. Maybe it is the strange vegetation in the pond, the croaking frogs, or the strange feel of pond mud between the toes. I don’t know, but my goal is to get her in the pond and to enjoy it. When she was younger, she ran in quite by mistake as she jumped in to get the ball, but wow, did she jump out but quick; I don’t even think she knew it was water!
Arla & Delta having fun around the pond!
Above Arla and Delta checking out the pond. The weather is so nice here Easter weekend. It is in the 70-80 degree range and we are loving it. Finally some of the mud is drying up and the grass is coming up nicely.
Arla v.d. Kleinen Wiese
Here are a series of pictures showing the little game that Aiko and Arla play – I throw the ball and Arla retrieves it while Mr. Aiko runs to the side of the pond and tries to steal it from Arla – this goes on and on; they are so much fun to watch and the dogs get such great exercise while cooling off in the water.
Aiko waiting to pounce on Arla when she brings the ball to shore!
Arla starting to approach the shore!
Almost there!
The final moments!
Since taking Arla swimming, she is recovering very well and has maintained good muscle tone in her legs and certainly her stamina is very good. She is doing great and loving to play a little bit more – although sometimes I have to restrain her from having too much fun. She is allowed to go into the pond to retrieve, but she is not allowed to run like a nut and jump for the ball yet. I don’t want her injuring herself again. She is making great progress and I owe that to leash walking and swimming indeed! She is a dog full of energy and playfulness.
Aiko too will go into the water, but he would much rather run around the pond like a game of cat and mouse and get Arla’s ball unless of course I have several balls. The problem is, they all usually want one ball. I can’t imagine how many we have lost in our yard or are at the bottom of our pond, but at one time I had about 8 gigle balls and we are down to two of them – that we can find. I know they have to be somewhere in the yard or in the house!
This past weekend, we had our sheep and new lambs out on pasture too – it was a joy to watch those little lambs bouncing around in the pasture. More on that soon, as Aiko is bringing the flock and lambs out to graze in the lush green pasture. Pictures of Aiko tending the flock, as well as the new Border Leicester lambs – coming soon!
Border Leicester lambs - they are so darn cute!
