Storm has never been one of those dogs who swims for the sake of swimming.  She swims when she needs to retrieve.  Usually she will find a way to make the retrieve that requires the least amount of swimming and certainly no splashing.  But last weekend–Storm found her splash!

We were out training and set up some water singles.  Storm has not been in the water much this Spring and she was hesitant to jump right in.  She took the land most of the way to the mark.

Storm rarely has a giant water entry.  Mostly she wades into the water in the same way an alligator quietly enters the water in search of its prey.  Come to think of it, Storm sort of looks like an alligator when she swims…kind of low and stealthy.

And when she is grabbing the duck!

But enough of alligators.

Storm got her bird and made her way back.  Notice she is taking the route that requires the least amount of swimming.

It’s going to be like that is it Storm?

But then something happened.  As the day went on and the more Storm was in the water, the more Storm got her splash back.  All of a sudden she was leaping into the water.

The more water retrieves she made, the more she wanted to do.

She was even making a big splash as she entered the water.

All of a sudden Storm was taking the long way through the water to make retrieves and having fun doing it.

Storm would have done a million more retrieves that day, but we did not want her to overdo it.  While it lasted, Storm had a blast finding her splash.