If I could own a business it would be a "wellness center for dogs". Every Labor Day our town opens up the local pool to dogs and their owners. The dogs are allowed to swim all they want and the owners can get in with them. My Golden Retriever had the time of his life! He likes to swim in any water that he can: lakes, the ocean, streams. But this is the only time he can get into a pool. I'm not sure if he cares much that it's a pool, but the special thing for me is that I get to be in the water with him. I can sort of do that in the ocean, but the waves make the experience less than relaxing. And I could get into the lake but swimming in the lake is yuck!
I wish there was a place where we could do this regularly. There could be a pool, an agility course for the dogs, maybe a few hiking trails. We could fashion a dock where the dogs could practice jumping in and retrieving. Swimming is good exercise especially for older and overweight dogs since it's easy on their joints.
I learned, though that not all dogs take easily to water. There were several dogs who didn't care for the water at all. Some even seemed scared of it, but their owners wanted them to get in and swim and tried all kinds of persuasion to that end. Some dogs just wanted to hang out at the kiddie pool. Of course the retrievers were the kings of the water. So, I guess my clientele would be limited. But I can dream anyway. It still seems like a good idea to me, although I question if there is enough of a market to make it work. Perhaps a larger city would be needed to make it viable. But it's nice to consider....
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