Living with a Labrador

Is that a Seahorse or a Labrador? 

I believe that many people believe I am an uncaring Labrador mom when they first witness the ‘seahorse’ maneuver performed by Brodie in the water.  I’ve concluded this through numerous conversations with strangers who witness this for the first time: 

Brodie doing the Seahorse

It looks strange, so strange.  I’ve heard lots of comments….

“He’s going under!”

“He’s struggling, is he going to drown?”

“I think he is stuck on something under the water”

“He’s having a seizure!”

The flat unemotional response from me is “No – he is just grabbing his collar”.  I don’t know how else to explain it.  Most people don’t believe me at first and stare at me in disbelief as if I am going to watch my dog drown right before my eyes!  Come on people – really???   Do you think I would do that? 

I don’t know when it started, I think at the beginning of time for Brodie, when he first entered the water in a very controlled environment…our neighbor’s swimming pool.  He loved retrieving the ball but when we put the ball away and he had nothing left to retrieve, he started retrieving himself by the collar.  Now it’s some sort of OCD response the minute he jumps in the water, he starts fidgeting around for his collar.  If he can’t reach the tag on the first couple of tries, he just treads water and keeps trying.  He is a STRONG swimmer and I have no doubt could tread water for 10 – 20 minutes or more if needed. 

On average it takes him 1-2 minutes to grab his tag from his collar and get underway for his swim.  Sometimes, as in any bell curve, it takes him a little longer.  I just wait it out; I know that as soon as he finds it we are on our way.  It makes no sense to yell at him, or give him other commands – he doesn’t hear anything, his OCD is focused on getting the tag from his collar.  No matter, people who witness this freak out within the first 2 seconds; yelling at him sometimes yelling at me. 

It always goes the same:

Strangers: see statements above

Me: (smug tone) he’ll be fine in a minute, wait it out.

Strangers: see statements above, only LOUDER

Me: he wants to catch his collar

Me: he’ll catch himself any second now….

Brodie: I got it mom – & swims away!  (that is what I believe he would say if he could talk) 

Strangers: silence; mouth-gaping-open-staring when he finds his collar and swims on his merry way   

I really wouldn’t let my dog drown and I have no reason to try to correct this behavior.  It isn’t causing him harm in any way that I can discern.  He has no other serious behavioral issues (serious being the operative word).  Why try to change this? 

The only lingering question you could have at this point is…why do we call it the seahorse?  Well, when you see it, all you see is his head above water and his front paws stirring up the water.  I believe he is trying to whip his collar around by moving the water around him along with his neck.  While I am aware seahorses do not have arms, paws or any other appendages – they do use their necks to move themselves from point to point.  Somehow this made sense at the time and the phrase stuck (credit to Louise!). 

If you should see the big chocolate seahorse on the Delta or any other open body or water – please DO NOT PANIC.  Don’t yell at me, don’t jump in after him, just give it a minute, watch the show, and laugh when he swims away! 

Swimming away

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