I put a long rope on his collar along with his leash. Kurt and I walked him down to the lake. He was pulling pretty hard because he knew he was headed for the lake. The plan was to walk him to the beach and unhook the leash so he just had the long rope on. He didn't want to wait to be unhooked, he just wanted to get in the water. Kurt had his swimming shorts on so he went out and unhooked the leash and walked out with Magnum. Magnum went right out and started swimming. :-) He didn't swim very long before he came back in to shore. He wanted to go back out some more but I thought we should start slow so I hooked him back up and tried to walk him back home. He saw some ducks on the lake, though, so he *really* wanted back out in the water. :-)
We got him to walk back home with us and rinsed him off. While we were out in the yard, I let him sniff around to see if he needed to go potty. He walked out to the edge of the yard where he usually goes poop but he just wanted to get back down to the lake so we went back to the house.
So far so good. He hasn't seemed stiff or sore since his swim. I'll watch him tomorrow and see how he moves. If he seems o.k., we'll go for another short swim to start building the muscles in his back legs again.
It was so nice to be able to walk him a little bit again.
He does not like this puppy we are watching at all. I have the puppy in the dining room and Magnum in the living room. They are separated by the kitchen, which is in the middle. Kurt wanted Magnum to meet the puppy so I told him to pick Zeke (puppy) up and just let Magnum see him. Well, Kurt put Zeke up to Magnum's nose and Magnum almost snapped poor Zeke's head off.
I took Zeke and carried him into the living room so Magnum could just see him while I got something. Then we left right away. I walked back through the room again and this time stood holding Zeke for a minute in the kitchen, out of "Mangum's space". Magnum was fine with all this.
The next thing we tried was taking both dogs out for a short walk. We kept them separated with Magnum in front. We walked in the direction of the lake and Magnum knew it. He whinned and pulled the whole way. When we turned around, the puppy was in front. Magnum was fine with him.
Then we went back to the yard, keeping the dogs separate and let them just sniff around. Magnum got close to Zeke but not close enough to sniff him or anything. He was fine with all of this. So, we will try to gradually introduce Zeke to Magnum as Zeke is now part of the family. We will want him to be able to come over along with Pierce and Snickers when Jeff and Diana come to visit.
He also needs to make friends with Jack, as Jack will probably come for visits too.
Magnum was a very happy dog today! It was the first time he has been in the water since we've had him, and so begins the rehab part of our recovery. Finally!!