A real retriever

Long-time blog readers may recall that Dempsey used to be afraid of the water, staying on shore and barking at the waves.

Last weekend, just for kicks and giggles, we took Dempsey back to the St Croix river, tossed in a tennis ball, and watched in amazement as Dempsey jumped in, swam out, and got the ball! Dempsey is finally becoming a real retriever!

Sort of, anyway. You may notice in the video below that swimming alongside Dempsey is Paul, the paranoid parent, who was afraid that Dempsey might swim away, or get tired and drown, or get knocked unconscious by a piece of driftwood, or bitten by a rogue Asian carp, or whatever else Paul was neurotically obsessing about that day.

We didn't get videos of the whole afternoon, but every time Doreen lobbed the tennis ball into the river, Dempsey would dutifully swim out to fetch it, followed closely by Paul.

If Dempsey was embarassed by Paul's overprotective parenting, he didn't show it. He kept happily fetching for two hours, until Paul got tired, and Doreen had to drive everybody home.

What a good little dog!