The Lab That Was Afraid of Water

One of my business associates called today. During the course of the conversation, he told me sadly about the passing of his fourteen-year-old dog. The eighty-two year old man, obviously heartbroken over the loss of his long time friend, had gotten a new pup.

“Everyone needs a dog, someone to talk to and to play with,” he said.

With me, he was preaching to the choir. I have four dogs and my conscience is always filled with guilt because I cannot spend an hour or so a day with every one of them. Lucky, my Labrador retriever, died last fall at the age of twelve. Like every person and every animal I have ever known, he had a unique personality.

Labradors are supposed to like water. Not Lucky. Every attempt I have ever made to get him into my swimming pool failed. When he was a pup, several of my friends tried as well. Maybe that is the problem. Perhaps they frightened him, imparting him with a permanent swimming phobia. In contrast, my rottweiler Chuckie loved the pool and got into it every chance he got.

My friend Don raises and trains labs. “I will bring a duck over. If your dog is a natural retriever, we’ll know it immediately.”

Lucky and my Gordon setter Slick took to the duck, taking turns carrying it in their mouths until I finally took it away from them and threw it away. Neither duck dog ever hunted a day in their lives but at least I knew that they could if I ever needed them to.

Slick, by the way, would not get into the pool either. I am not a hunter but if I were, I guess that I would have had to take them duck hunting on dry land.

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