On the face of it, Bruno was the perfect dog. Tall, dark, handsome – the envy of all the male dogs in the neighborhood and the object of desire of all female dogs (Note: Not using the B word because some consider it pejorative). However underneath this veneer of perfection, Bruno hid a dark secret – He was mortally afraid of water!
And in a seaside town like Lagos, this presented a problem.
For the humans of all other dogs took them to the sea for a walk every day, but try as he might, Bruno’s human Martin, could never make him come even 100 meters close to the water. This caused tremendous embarrassment to Martin on a daily basis, with his ‘well-wishers’ taunting him that he had no control over his pet. This hurt Bruno no end, but he was a servant to his fears, and there was little that he could do about it.
And now, it so happened that Martin’s friend Gilberto who was a chef, came up to him one day, and said, “I don’t know about you, but I am sick of you being shamed by all and sundry because of your dog’s unhealthy fear of water. It’s time we did something about it.”
The very next day, on his daily walk with Bruno, Martin took a different route. And much to Bruno’s surprise, Martin took a pit-stop at his friend Gilberto’s restaurant. Ten minutes later, Martin came out, and Bruno forgot everything… For in his hands, Martin was carrying a plate, and on the plate, was the most heavenly piece of fish that Bruno had ever seen, or smelled. It was a grilled sea bass, fresh out of the water, cooked and seasoned to perfection, and now, it was calling to Bruno.
But Martin seemed to be ignoring the salivating Bruno completely. He started walking, and Bruno automatically started following him. His senses under attack from the fish, Bruno did not notice that they took a left instead of a right from the intersection, and were now walking away from the town, and towards water. Pretty soon, before he had even realized it, they had reached the sea.
Martin waited for Bruno to catch up, and then, very calmly picked up the fish, and threw it… far into the sea.
Bruno went berserk upon seeing this, and not waiting to think even for a moment, ran into the water, to get his paws, and teeth, into that perfect fish.
And it was only when he finally caught up with it, and took his first bite, that Bruno realized where he was. He started panicking then, but then, took another bite, and settled into an easy rhythm in the water. He could keep doing this the entire day.
jagahdilmein 
One way of solving the fear. Maggie loves to swim but wasn’t too keen on one stretch of beach when we were on holiday, so I had to go paddling and she happily followed me in.
Ha ha ha. As long as it works. Thank you so much Di.
🙂
THat was a great way of getting rid of this fear of water.
Ha ha ha. Thank you so much Akshata