Going Swimming

As well as walking another suggestion for keeping Holly moving was swimming.

I investigated hydrotherapy pools in the area and decided against them. Holly loves water and swimming but because of her age and the cdm there were so many rules and conditions that would apply to using the hydrotherapy pool. But there were three that really made the use of a pool not suitable for her.

The first one was that she would have to wear a life-jacket. She will grudgingly wear a harness on the occasions that we go places where she needs to be on a lead all the time and I think that attaching it to a harness is easier for the whole day than having it on her collar. So I was not convinced about a life-jacket.

Second one was she would need to be attended by the physiotherapists, well Holly has never been too keen on people she doesn't know and generally just gives them a wide berth and ignores them.

Thirdly I would not be allowed in there with her as it would be classed as a medical therapy session and not a fun swim session. While Holly doesnt really like strangers she certainly won't go with them and leave me behind. She knows all the people at the vets and they still have problems getting her to go with them so a group of strange physiotherapists are going to have no chance at all.

So when I thought about those three things and added them to the fact that a 15 minute session plus parking charges was going to be around £30, I decided to abandon that route.

We stuck with going to a local watersports and wildlife park where they have two lakes, one for wildlife and one for watersports. Parking is 60p for 2 hours and Holly could run, paddle and swim as much or as little as she wanted and if the weather ever got warm enough I could paddle with her. She knows the turns the car makes to get here, and many other places as well, and every time we approach she starts to sing with anticipation of a good walk with space to run and the opportunity for a paddle or swim and occasionally the option of sharing an ice-cream at the end of the walk.

looking across the watersports lake towards home