Water Baby

As it was another beautiful spring day, & given my new found love of all things watery, mum & dad took me here for my walkies.

Keynes Country Park is part of the Cotswold Water Park. It has been created from the pits left from sand & gravel excavation. There are over 140 "lakes". Some are nature reserves, some are for water sports, some have luxury homes & holiday homes around them & some are for lucky dogs like me to go walking around & swimming in!

At Keynes Country Park there is a beach where the hoomans can go swimming. This is the only area us doggies aren't allowed. fair enough I say, we have the lions share after all!

The trees still look quite wintry, but there are lots of buds, shoots & baby leaves appearing.

Peekaboo! I found these funny wooden animals to befriend, but they didn't do a lot. If the squirrels in my garden would stay this still it would be happy days for Oscar!

Mr Owl looks a bit mean. Maybe he was worried I was going to do pee-pees up against him. He obviously doesn't know that I still squat like a girlie!

Close up of Mr Squirrel. He looks like he's going to do some boxing. He obviously heard I'm not the tree rat's biggest fan.

Once we had tired of talking to the wooden animals it was time to head off round the lakes. At the first opportunity I ran down to the water. It was pretty cold, but quite refreshing on the tootsies at the same time. It doesn't look it on this photo, but the water is crystal clear.

There were lots of bits of stick & rockies under the water so I enjoyed bobbing for them. There were also some duckies to spy on through the reeds.

Dad threw me some stickies to try and get me to venture further in. This photo better shows how lovely the water is.

It was fun running up & down the banking. I liked peering over the edge at mum & dad down below. I'm practicing my best "Airedale - King of the Terriers" pose. What do you think?

Mummy doesn't think there is much puppy-ness left in me when she looks at photos like this. I am getting very grown up looking. I still don't think I have quite grown into my paws though, so I guess I may still get a bit bigger. This photo also made mum think that maybe it's getting near to grooming time again. I heard her mention we might be going to stripping class later in the month. I thought that sounded a bit x-rated for a young pup like me, but apparently it's to groom me rather than using clippers so I keep my nice colour coat which can go quite grey/pale tan with lots of clipping. Plus, the stripping will keep my coat good & wiry.

Look! We met another Airedale after the excitement of my play date at the weekend! His name was Jack & he was 7. He had rheumatism in his back legs but he still came for a swim & a romp about. The black dog was his brother. Jack was a rescue dog. His owner was quite a frail looking elderly lady. She was asking mum is I was very willful (I think she meant was I a typical Airedale!) as Jack was a bit of a naughty boy. As mum & dad were telling her I was quite a good boy, I did a perfect recall & sat at mum's feet. Jack on the other hand ran further down the path every time his name was called. Naughty boy. Eventually dad went to get him for the poor lady. He was a cool guy, hopefully we'll see him again.

By now there was no stopping me & every time there was a gap where I could go in the water I was straight in there! It was so lovely & clear - well until my splashing about swirled it all up anyway!

I can't believe I never realised until recently how much fun water is! I missed out on months of fun splashing about & enjoying it. What a silly boy I am!

Dad was trying the Sunshade rockie tactic to lure me further in, but it wasn't really working! As all the lakes here are formed from old gravel pits, they get deep pretty quickly, and I wasn't too sure about having all 4 paws off the bottom. Have any of you swimmer doggies got any tips for me? I think I would like swimming a lot but I'm just not quite sure how to get started!



As we got back round to where we started we saw this great big structure. It's for humans to practice climbing on & looks pretty cool I have to say. You have to go on with an instructor wearing all the proper equipment. Those black tubes at the bottom are to stop people climbing on it unsupervised.

When we got back to the car park I had to have my lead put back on in case there were cars around. I didn't mind too much as I'd had 2 hours running & splashing, plus dad gave me treats. Also, just after mum took this photo a lady came dashing over squealing "Ooh, Airedale puppy!". See mum, I DO still look like a puppy! She told is she had an 11 year old Airedale called Alice at home who was a bit too frail to enjoy walks places like this any more. She made a huge fuss of me, and left muttering about wanting an Airedale puppy! Sunshade, Maggie - want me to give her your addresses?

I hope this Spring weather continues so I can come back here soon & try to do some proper swimming!

Licks

Oscar x