Water fear

[pigsDOfly]

Can I share a proud moment with you?

My dog is small, with short legs and long fur. As you can imagine her daily run in the park results in a very muddy dog - also likes to roll on the grass.

She's always been terrified of water. If I try to put her anywhere near water her heart starts racing, she pants heavily and gets really frantic.

Up till now I've cleaned her with a wet flannel and taken the worst off with a towel, but it really doesn't do the job properly; last winter we didn't go anywhere muddy but she really missed her off lead runs in the park and it made her miserable.

Anyway, after coming back from a particularly muddy walk a few days ago I decided she absolutely had to have a proper wash in the bath - just paws and stomach.

She didn't like it but with treats she seemed to accept it and was okay.

I've been doing it daily for about 4 days now. This morning after our walk she stood and waited while I ran the water in the bath and then let me pick her up and put her in.

No racing heart, no panting and scrabbling, she just stood in the water and let me clean her.

So proud

[DanielCraigsUnderpants]

Well done !

[Wolfiefan]

Fantastic news. Well done little dog!

[pigsDOfly]

Thank you.

It's was so lovely to see her overcome her fear like that.

[Empress13]

Lovely :-)