Once Jemimas paws started really bothering her I began to actively look for water of any kind to take her swimming. This reduced the impact damage from exercise plus she loved it. I would look over maps to scan for what looked like an accessible water feature and then visit to try to locate it.

The most successful locations that I found were Hayling Island beach, which was a 40 minute drive away, a nameless local pond which was off the Milford road and about a quarter mile walk along a path, and finally a spot on the River Wey reached by way of the road next to the Elstead church and then a path once you reached Military Of Defence land. Jemima came to know all three places very well and would always go ahead and get to the favoured spots well before me. There she would wait although she sometimes ran back to me before returning to the waterside as though trying to hurry me along. If we were lucky that day there would already be sticks strewn about left by some previous owner and dogs stick throwing game. So the challenge would then be taken up – I would throw a stick into the water and both Jemima and Jesse would launch themselves simultaneously and splash down before paddling as fast as they could to get to the stick first. In the early days it would be Jemima who would win the chase but as Jesse grew stronger, and Jemimas ears started becoming itchy when filled with water, Jesse would often come out on top. It was always a battle of brute force, Jesse, against guile, Jemima. On land Jesse could pull Jemima along in a straight tug of war with no problem but she would often outwit him by twisting and turning and changing her centre of gravity. Jesse would over time learn to keep his head low and just hold on. In the water however the twists and turns usually meant a dunking at which Jesse would let go of the stick and Jemima would swim back with the prize. The difficulty was then getting a stick out of her mouth. Both myself and Jesse would chase her to no avail so I would have to find another stick. This would usually do the trick and she would try to snatch the new stick from me before I could throw it into the water.

So the game would continue for perhaps an hour at which point we would turn tail and head home exhausted but happy. Those were some of the good days and would often be just the tonic for a sullen Jemima who had perhaps not been walked for a few days for being lame. As she grew older she would quite often be very down about being rested for lameness so I would make sure to perk up her spirits with swimming trips.

Puddles were also well received on walks. Upon seeing a puddle Jemima would perk up and start forward towards it picking up speed until she hit the edge of the puddle at a gallop and would crash through it. Upon reaching the other side she would normally be over excited, her tail would tuck beneath her legs, and she would spin or loop round and crash through again. Sometimes this would trigger Jemima to charge at Jesse who would respond by running back through the puddle with her. If the weather was warm eventually Jemima would just lie down in the puddle and bask for a few moments – sometimes she would even roll over. Water was just too much fun and I never grew tired of seeing her swim or crash through a puddle.