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The truth I do not stretch or shove
When I state that the dog is full of love.
I've also found, by actual test,
A wet dog is the lovingest.
The Dog by Ogden Nash
If you were to take Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species and test its assertions by all we have learned since including the revelations for the study of DNA, you could not help but be impressed with how much he got right way back in 1859. If you were inclined to read it with an eye for finding flaws in his conclusions you might seize upon his speculation on the origin of the whale. Darwin’s best guess in his first printing was the whale evolved from the dog. His peers in the mid nineteenth century grabbed on this and employed it in a vain attempt to bring down the whole work.
Today, we know from DNA study that the whale evolved from the Hippopotamus. Hippos are equally at home in the water and on land and in time some of the offspring of this great creature evolved into the whale and just gave up the land entirely. Well, my working hypothesis is that Hudson is of the rare phenomenon, the dog hippo. Let me hasten to admit that to date no Scientific Journal has verified my research and so a certain degree of skepticism is warranted, but I believe it is my obligation to science to tell Hudson's story.
First in the name of science I must make some concessions which skeptics will seize on in an effort discredit my views. It is true that Hudson is ¾ Golden Retriever and ¼ Poodle and both dogs are known to be good swimmers. However describing Hudson as a good swimmer is the same as saying it of Michael Phelps.
Let me give an example. We live in a 12 story apartment building with a wonderful large pool. It closes after Labor day. This year the Saturday after it closed to people in our building it opened to our dogs. The building has well over 500 units and the event brought forth dogs of all sizes and shapes. Among those present were Newfoundlands, Saint Bernards, Goldens, Poodles, Collies, Sheep Dogs, Labradors, and Setters. Humans were not allowed in the pool so the dogs could not be pulled or coxed in. A handful of dogs went in to retrieve a ball once or twice and then were distracted to play with the dogs outside the pool. One elderly Golden pulled the ball out four times for a total of about 10 minutes. Two Newfies stood in the water for an hour but never swam. Which brings me to Hudson who swam constantly for the full 2 hours. Only jumping out long enough to return a ball and then re entering the water before anyone had a chance to throw again. Most of the time I just watched. Most of the time neighbors were throwing the ball for Hudson, impressed as they were with both his enthusiasm and the speed of his swimming. I watched several young people fail in multiple efforts to tire Hudson out. Hudson was not best in class, he was in a class by himself.
In the interests of science I concede that since bringing Hudson home as a little 8 week old puppy I have considered myself to be his swimming coach. The best days of my life have been spent in, on and around water, fresh and salt. I have been blessed with 5 wonderful children, swimmers all. The dogs of my life are Coach, (Dalmatian), Frank (Saint), Teddy (Golden), Bonnie (Newfy), Goldy (Newfy) and Hudson. Coach would go in when I did then hang out on the shore where he could keep an eye on me as I swam. Frank pretty much the same. Teddy was a swimmer and I believe was also part Hippo. Bonnie and Goldy prefered standing in water trying to catch frogs.
When Hudson was one year old we took him to a lake in Maine where we rented a shore side cabin for a couple of weeks. Hudson jumped in when we arrived and basically swam from morning to night every day.
I won’t go into all his swimming exploits. Suffice it to say that it has prompted me to give him an opportunity to set what I think will be a record. In a couple of days, Hudson will begin a journey on which he will swim in a record number of venues including the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio, the Arkansas, the Platte, the Wabash, the Delaware, the Hudson and all 5 Great Lakes. But the large venues are just the beginning. We are going for 30 different bodies of water. I am making it public in hopes that the owners of other great canine swimmers will share the aquatic exploits of your swimming friend. Hudson’s goal isn’t to remembered as the best, but as the catalyst that that helped bring about what we would like to think of as the Canine Grand Swimming Tour of the USA.
Here I feel obligated to offer a cautionary note that comes to me from Steinbeck's report on his travels with Charlie. Charlie was ten when he made his great cross country voyage with his Steinbeck who reported Charlie’s greatest pride seemed to derive from the many trees that he peed on during his trip. Steinbeck reported that the choice of tree was only made after a period of sniffing and thinking on Charlie’s part. So we can only imagine the excitement with which Charlie’s master introduced him to the Giant Redwood Tree. There it was reaching 300 feet in the air its lowest branches 150 feet above Charlie’s head, a tree animals had been pissing on when the Roman Empire fell to the barbarians.
It turns out Charlie was unimpressed. In fact he gave the giant tree no interest at all until Steinbeck cut a small and leaved out sapling and leaned it up against the Giant Redwood. Then Charlie sniffed and peed. I do not expect to be required to spike our greatest inland body of water with a bottle of aqua pura from a small stream in order to cause Hudson to take an interest in Lake Superior, but Steinbeck’s experience is a welcome reminder of our lack of knowledge generally about the hierarchies on which our cold nosed friends base their preferences. To date Hudson’s approach to any watering hole big enough to swim in is essentially any port in a storm. Like the sailor with a girl in each port, Hudson loves them all. My promise to my faithful readers is that I will I will share the news as soon it develops, memorialized with photos and video
Meantime I would love to hear your dogs experiences in and around water.