In news that will interest approximately 3 people, I finally taught Cayce how to swim yesterday....

At one of the dog parks we take Cayce to, there's a place where you can wade in the Mighty North Saskatchewan river. It's nice and shallow, getting gradually deeper the farther out you go.

Cayce loves the water, and has been stomping around in it for a few weeks now. But she's never felt comfortable actually swimming in the river, no matter how much we tried to encourage her to do so.

We'd throw sticks, which she'd try to get. But if they were too far out, she'd only look at them longingly and give a few frustrated barks. Last week, Kirsten wandered out into the river herself and tried to encourage Cayce to come to her. No go; instead of coming out, she only barked at Kirsten as if to say, "Come back here! It's wet out there!"

Finally, yesterday, I managed to get Cayce to take the plunge and start swimming. I started by finding a great stick. Cayce loves sticks. More than anything. More than, in fact, food. Or us.

Anyways, I found a stick that she was really excited about. Instead of throwing it, however, I decided to hold it in my hand and start wandering into the river. She jumped and tried to grab the stick - oblivious to the fact she was getting deeper and deeper in the river.

When it got to the point that I was pretty sure she was almost deep enough to swim, I let her grab the stick... and kept moving into the river. Before she knew it, she was swimming!

After that, she swam 4 or 5 more times. The funny part was that the current in the river was pretty strong..... so she ended up swimming backwards most of the time!

Cayce had a great time though; we played in the river for about an hour and a half before heading home. She slept pretty soundly last night.