Greyt Brindle Sharks

The pool has been filled for awhile now. Our first pool party was over the 4th of July. The pups were not happy about the new level of the water. The only place they can touch bottom now is on the steps that go across one end of the pool. They played on the steps but wouldn't go out any farther.

We gave them swimming lessons that they weren't thrilled with. There was some shaking, yelping and running away. In the end it was just too hot to play outside and not get in the water. When I was swimming Miles would run around the edge of the pool thinking about jumping in. He really wanted to be with the people in the pool. We made sure we had tons of fun playing with his toys in the deep water. He finally leaped in and swam to us. Then we had to teach him not to nip us and claw us when he was in the water. A day later he was leaping in off the side of the pool and we had to teach him not to leap ON us. It is amazing to watch the prey drive at work even with someone swimming in the pool. Like a shark, the splashing and fast movement draws a greyhound puppy.

Otto was more afraid to swim at first and only had access to the pool 3 times a week so it took longer for him to get used to it. Even though Miles was swimming, Otto stuck with the safe steps. Miles taunted him by swimming around with toys just out of his reach.

Miles jumping in while Otto watches from the steps.


Miles proving that greyhounds can run on water.


After being teased by Miles for a week or two, Otto started swimming. Miles is wearing the black collar with pink, green and yellow balls. Otto is wearing a white collar with colored footprints. You can see that Otto is getting even with Miles for all the taunting.


Has anyone heard of greyt brindle sharks?

Miles dropped a large stuffed monkey into the pool. It sank to the bottom. He and Otto spent a lot of time with their faces under water looking at the monkey. Miles finally got him.


The boys love swimming after balls. They have figured out that they can stand up in the shallow end if they stand up tall on their hind legs. It is funny to see them walking on their hind legs having wrestling matches and launching themselves off the bottom to leap on each other like a couple of kangaroos.


Miles accidentally became a water rescue dog. When we were playing in the pool he would come up and grab our hand or clothes and pull us back to the shallow end and the steps. He did this so often we decided to make it a game and have him do it on command. Now we go to the deep end and say "Help!" He dives in and swims to us and grabs a rope (better than a hand) and drags us back to the steps. He loves the game and dragging a person through the water over and over is a great way to tire out a pup. It is a cute trick too.

Half Full

The pups had so much fun playing in the shallow end of the pool while we were filling it that we left it half full for awhile and had a couple puppy pool parties. Miles would run laps in the pool until his feet bled unless we stopped him.







Miles, Otto, my adult male greyhound Streak and German Shepherd Duchess playing in the water while Pinky the Italian Greyhound supervises from above.



I still dog sit Otto all day on Mondays and Thursdays so the brothers can wear each other out. More shots from their play sessions.



It looks like so much fun you almost want to join them.....


Well, maybe not....


Amazingly there was no blood drawn in this series of pictures.
Eventually the fun is over and it is time to dry off.

Interesting Guest

The pool ended up needing a lot of work so is still empty. Miles found a vole in the pool that had climbed in and couldn't get out. He wasn't sure what to make of it. When it would run he would chase it but then wasn't sure what to do with it. The tiny vole would face him and stand up on his hind legs and nip Miles nose if he got it too close. Miles would snort, shake his head and back away but couldn't resist going back in for another sniff. Miles finally figured out that he could use his paws at which point I ended the game not wanting him to injure the little guy.




Miles showing off all his grown up teeth.


Pups playing in the back yard.





The pups love Streak but Streak puts up with the pups. We found out accidentally just how tolerant of the pups Streak can be in spite of his growls and showing of teeth. We left last night to run some errands and put Miles in a crate. Streak and Pinky are usually left out since they aren't likely to cause any trouble. My husband opened the enclosed plastic crate and told Miles to "kennel up" and Miles minded. The enclosed crate is a pale tan color and had a pale tan blanket in it about the color of Streak. When I got home I saw Streak in standing in the enclosed crate and thought, "What is Streak doing in the crate? I could have sworn Roy put Miles in that crate". I guess Streak had been sleeping in the crate. Since he was the same color Roy hadn't noticed when he told Miles to go in. So giant Streak and Miles had both been locked in one crate for over an hour together. There is barely room for big Streak in there to lay down. There was no gash or any blood so they had treated each other well in spite of the very cramped quarters. Streak probably wondered what horrible thing he did to deserve being locked up for an hour with a puppy.

Streak getting puppy kisses

Empty Pool and Puppy Teeth

The Pool
We have the pool nearly empty for re-grouting right now. It would be totally empty if it hadn't rained every day for the last week. The deep end now has rain water that is nearly hip high. It was hot so Miles and I went for a swim. Swim for him, more of a wade for me. He did OK but had a lot more fun running around in the shallow end to dry off. I grabbed the camera hoping to get some photos of him running on the walls of the pool. They are banked a bit so he could get pretty sideways and was loving kicking off of them. He quit by the time I got the camera so I got his ball. It is very sloped toward the 10 foot deep end so he had to be quick to keep the ball from rolling in the water. Still didn't get any pictures of him climbing the walls but the ones I did get are pretty cute.





Mom plays a mean trick by throwing a second ball into the pool. Will have to get this one with my paw.


Uh Oh! It is getting away from me.


The ball picks up speed and heads for the water in the deep end.


What to do? Can't put down this ball to get the other ball out of the water or this one will roll in too. Notice my baby canines on the bottom are gone along with some of my other teeth. I am a bit toothless right now.


Better sit down and ponder this some more.


I know! Mom can you get the other ball for me? PLEASE!


Baby Teeth
Otto, Miles brother was here for the day and Miles lost all of these baby teeth biting him and playing tug with him. His bottom two canines came out the last time they got together and rough housed on Monday. Otto is a little ahead of Miles and already has most of his adult teeth starting to come in. I found these laying on the rug, on the bed where they wrestle and on the porch. The molars are about the size of human molars but you can see that the other teeth are smaller than a grain of rice. There were probably plenty I didn't find. The boys love to play bite each others faces and necks - I call them the Wet Neck Boys.