Back in Time: September 2008 post "The Swimming Pomeranian"

Last weekend, I finally got the last dog in the water and she took to
it like a little competent bug that she is. She the wiggliest, "don't
tell me what to do", Pomeranian who has major breathing problems. I
always tell people that I named her "Dewi" which means "Goddess" in
Indonesian, so I ended up with a major biatch. As for the pool, I just
hadn't tried it yet, but I was getting her brother in for another try,
and she was just standing there saying, "When is it my turn?"

We got in the water, and despite my holding her wrists on my forearm,
she started paddling ever so slightly! I told her she didn't have to
swim yet, but she didn't really care. We floated for a bit longer and
I tested her out of a few strokes -- she could swim just fine! But she
forgot to breathe. So, I had to keep holding her. She didn't like the
massage much, she just wanted to keep moving! A few more short swim
sessions to see if she could figure out that she could breath and swim
at the same time, not so much... She started blowing bubbles out of
her nose, so I got her out.

(Slight detour in the story about Dewi the Pomeranian) I met someone
who's been swimming dogs in Atlanta (literally swimming, not really
anything else that we do), named Marna Stein (www.dogpaddle.net). She
has decided to leave the business and has moved back to California and
is getting into the dog walking business (contracting other dog
walkers). She studied with someone named Kathy Kern in California
who's now retired but Kathy's theory was that swim the dog 3 days in a
row for excellent results. Mixed results the first time, tired on
second day, third day really clicks in and the dog makes some
progress... (end of detour.)

So, I tried it out with Dewi and we swam Sun, Mon, and yesterday.
Monday morning, she still was happy to get in, try swimming, more
tolerant of being held and massaged ... By Tuesday, she could swim for
a good few minutes, was breathing while swimming, only a few bubbles
from the nose and recovered quickly to breathing fairly normally while
floating! And, she even tolerated being floated on her back for a few
seconds, showing off her pillbug tummy. So cute.
(The End)

Did I tell you that I finally have a business name ? The Rex Center,
LLC (Recreation Center, get it?)