Rivelin valley swims

Jasper loves a good swim. I bought him a child’s paddling pool and he’s spent the last two weeks jumping in and out of it and begging us to throw his ball in the water for him. I’ve never known a dog love water so much. I’ve even turned the hose on him to cool him down and he’s been surprisingly happy about it.

He’s still a puppy, only eight and a half months old. He only learned to swim a few weeks ago. I took him down the Rivelin valley where a tannin-rich stream rushes through a wooded gorge. There used to be a series of mills along the valley where people ground flour or made cutlery on smooth grindstones. There are several disused millponds fed by the stream, and though they’re murky and dank, Jasper was happy to wade around in them. I threw his ball just a little further into the pond each time, and he took his first swims out into the deep water. Bless him. He did very well for ages, and then he suddenly lost his rhythm on a particularly long swim and started splashing the water up with his front legs, which astonished him so much that he chickened out and turned back to shore in a panic. He stood on the beach howling at his ball. It took much encouragement and praise before he would go in and get it again. That was enough for one day.