APAWLO Pets

Water confidence is one of the most overlooked skills we can teach our dogs 💦

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ve probably seen that one of the things I like do with our own dogs, client dogs, and almost every foster dog, is spend time building their confidence in and around water.

Water confidence is about SO much more than swimming. It’s all the micro skills that come with learning to navigate unfamiliar environments, safely enter and exit water, work through challenges, and follow and trust their handler’s guidance. As dogs learn to move through different water bodies, they’re also often developing body awareness, confidence, resilience, and problem-solving skills along the way.

Some dogs take to water immediately. Others take more time and require a more gradual build of up difficulty. The goal is to move at the dogs pace to help them become confident, capable swimmers who can safely navigate different water environments.

But what if you don’t ever intend to have swimming as part of your dog’s regular routine? Is it still worth spending time building water confidence? 🤔

The way I look at it is the same as how I look at crate training. Even if you don’t intend to crate your dog regularly, I still believe it’s a skill every dog benefits from learning. There may come a time when they need to be comfortable spending time in a crate (vet, emergency, forced rest due to injury etc.), and having that skill already in place can make a stressful situation so much easier.

Your dog may never become a regular swimmer. But if they ever fall into water unexpectedly, need low-impact exercise as they get older or recover from an injury, or you’re looking for safer exercise during a heatwave – having a dog that knows how to safely and confidently navigate water can make a huge difference.

Is your dog confident in water? Is is something they naturally enjoyed, or was it a skill you had to develop too? Let me know!👇

Soggy kelpie club 😍🩵

Scout LOVES swimming, probably more than she likes working cattle 🤫😂

Kelpie owners - are yours water lovers too? 💦

If you’re a small brand, you’re all too familiar with the daily requests for freebies 😅

Sure, it can get irritating - especially when they don’t even follow you, or you get hit with the “Hi [insert different brand name] team!” 🙃

There’s a HUGE difference between a thoughtful partnership proposal and generic, lifeless DMs sent to every pet brand under the sun.

A gifted collaboration can absolutely be mutually beneficial – when it’s the right fit for both parties! And I’m all for creators reaching out to brands they love to see if they can create something fun together 🫶

But if you’ve never followed the small business, never engaged with their content, never purchased from them or shared their products, AND your message looks like it’s been sent to 100 other brands without changing a single word... it’s hard to see why that business should invest in you.

I know most creators aren’t trying to take advantage of businesses when they DM asking for gifted products. But it’s important to be aware of what you’re asking a small business to invest and make sure there’s alignment in what value you can provide.

Trust me, we LOVE finding new creators and getting them involved! But your account is still very early in its journey, with limited content, inconsistent posting, or low engagement – it’s difficult for a business to justify that investment.

Likewise, not every gifted collaboration will be the right fit for every creator. A product doesn’t automatically equal fair compensation, just as a social media account doesn’t automatically equal marketing value.

Small businesses, creators - what are your thoughts? 🤔

Most of the pics are by the wonderful Katrina | Jumping Jacks Photography🇦🇺 💛