Have you ever had to rescue your dog

Had a Shnauzer that was choking on a peice of ham. Had to use forceps to get the ham pulled out before he choked to death. Had to do the same on one of our terriers with a rawhide chew. Now they only get solid bones to chew on.
 
My daughter and wife and I went out one day fishing. Her dog jumped off the end of the dock and took a short swim. She tried to climb back up the end of the dock but it was to high off the water. We couldn't get her to quit trying that and just swim back to shore. I thought the dummy was going to drown before I got to her and pulled her into the boat.:confused:
 
Ruby, my lab, lives for hiking. She's always up for a bit of trail time (unless it's pouring rain or too hot to move), but is particularly fond of winter hiking, which works out perfectly as I love snowshoeing.

Last January, we were walking / snowshoeing on a trail and decided to take a detour through some woods and forge a new path across a nearby field. The temperature was unseasonably high, and the short patch of woods actually turned out to be flooded, with 2 ft. of water beneath less than one inch of ice and one ft. of melting snow. I made it through just fine, but Ruby, following in my footsteps, fell through the ice. She didn't make a sound, so I had taken another ten steps before I realized that she wasn't behind me. I ran back and found her submerged up to her shoulders, unable to climb out, and struggling to keep her nose above the ice water. Getting her out was surprisingly difficult, because I had nothing to hold on to, so pulling actually served to bring me down, rather than her up. Eventually I resigned myself to getting a soaker, ditched my snowshoes, jumped in, and lifted her - by the collar and her belly - onto firm ground. By the time I climbed out, we were both drenched and shivering. To make matters worse, Ruby had lost her new tennis ball, and kept trying to go back to get it. We had a chilly walk home, after which I gave her a warm bath. Both of us were OK and we were back on the trails the next day, but I shudder to think about what would have happened if I hadn't been nearby to help her out. I would have been inconsolable if I had let my best friend drown in an ice puddle.

Here's a shot of Ruby from today's 3-hour excursion - as always, avec tennis ball.

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All the best,

- Mike
 
almost lost my black lab "spot" on a frozen lake hiking in spring. He fell through the ice 50 yards from me and 20 yards from opposite shore. He tried to get out for 10 minutes and I had to act or lose him as he was up on his elbows trapped. Had to run to the log jam at the end of the lake where the creek was, grab a 8 ft pole for balance to self rescue if needed. Then 20 yards of frozen and rolling logs to cross and fell once with 1 wet boot to the knee and sore knuckles holding myself up on my fists with the pole that stopped me from going through the logs. Ran to the other side and called him, broke ice with thrown logs and he crashed his way to me. He got lucky and I probably would not be here without that pole. Had to build a fire and warm up before the 3 hour hike to the truck.
 
My dog is super athletic. You can throw a ball at her as hard as you can and she can catch it in her mouth. I will throw balls to her when she is 50 yards away and she can catch it.


Yeah, well one day I threw a racquetball and the thing got lodged in her throat. I pulled it out, but it was damn scary. I thought I had killed my dog.
 
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