Do you have a water loving dog? Or maybe your dog’s like Nomii, who didn’t like water, but now loves it.
Last summer, we bought a kiddie pool for Nomii but he wouldn’t get it or even drink from it. However, seeing other dogs have so much fun with dock diving, we decided to give it another try this summer and see if Nomii will change his mind.
He did, and even earned his North America Dock Diving (NADD) Dock Master title.
There are many dock diving events and I will do a summary of what these are next time. But in this post, I want to talk about Nomii’s learning journey.
Step 1: Reintroducing the Kiddie Pool
This summer, on a hot hot day, we bought another kiddie pool, filled it a third of the way, and left it alone while we played Fetch with Nomii in the backyard.
After a few short throws, we started throwing the ball into the pool and encouraging him to get it himself. Took a few attempts, but he eventually overcame his suspicions, climbed in, and actually did lie down in the water after some prompting.
Step 2: Trying swimming
Once he was regularly jumping into the pool by himself, the next step we did was to introduce the idea of swimming…which meant we needed a pool or a lake. A lake was closer to us so off we went.
Well, he wasn’t really swimming – more hopping around in the shallows, but he became more and more confident and would hop right around or past us instead of trying to climb up into our arms.
We considered it mission accomplished.
Step 3: Lessons
We found a dock diving trainer and took some private classes. By the end of the first class, he was jumping into the water by himself from the ramp. He was extremely overstimulated and crying, but he kept wanting to jump in over and over again. I couldn’t tell if he loved it or hated it. But at the next lesson, it was obvious he was just super excited and couldn’t wait to get into the pool over and over again.
After 3-4 lessons, we went for our first trial, and last trial of the year. That’s when he jumped far often enough to earn his Dock Master title.
Do note that swimming in a lake and swimming in a pool are completely different experiences for the dog. The color’s different, the clarity’s different and in a pool, it can seem bottomless because it’s all blue. The important thing is to take the lead from the dog, and make sure that it is enjoying the experience.
Equipment
You don’t need a lot to get started with dock diving. To help Nomii float, we put him in a Ruffwear life jacket. He didn’t care what he was wearing as long as he was allowed in the water. And then you need a bumper, which is essentially a float toy that’s long like a stick, or any other tool that is (i) meant for water play; (ii) can float; (iii) won’t disintegrate in the water; and (iii) is easy for your dog to grab hold of. Nomii started with the Chuckit Amphibious Bumper in size small.
Life with Nomii 
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