baby's first swim!

Look at her go! This morning we took Mags on her first trip to the Big Dog Park over at Minnehaha. We really needed to get her in a huge open space with hiking and have her off leash to test how she does before we take her to the lake later this month. And she was a CHAMP. Her recall was solid, and she even did some sit/stays with other dogs zooming by her -- seriously great behavior.I'm not gonna lie, we had visions of letting her off-leash and watching her run away into the woods forever. But that wasn't the case at all -- she'd run ahead and then stop and look for us and make sure we were coming before she carried on. What a relief!But the best part was that she finally got in the water! She had never swam before, and she was chasing a dog and before we knew it, she was in the swamp. Now, I should clarify that normally, this area in which she's swimming, is just a big path. But all this rain we've been having has flooded the whole area, and with the current as strong as it is in the river, this was a good place for the dogs to romp. And yes, it was mostly Goldens and Labs out there frolicking, but it was so fun to see Mags get in on the action.And when it was time to go, she totally followed us (with the help of the treat bag). I suspect she'll be sleeping for the rest of the day, which is FANTASTIC.If you've ever been nervous about taking your dogs off-leash anywhere, I highly suggest this park as a good place to start. It's mostly fenced, and the areas that aren't are surrounded by cliffs and the river, so there are natural boundaries. Good luck!