By Tanya Steele
The Healesville outdoor swimming pool has held a “Dog Day” for the last day of summer swimming.
On Monday 13 March, residents were invited to bring their dogs along to the pool for a swim to celebrate the finish of the pool’s summer season.
Rachel attended with Tyson, who is a 12 year old water loving canine and said she was glad the event was held in Healesville.
“We’ve swum at the Belgrave dog swim session before, but this is our first time here,” she said.
“Tyson likes to swim in the creek nearby usually, so this is a bit different.”
Pool manager Annie Regan said they had tried to organise the event last year, but with the weather and long weekend, it didn’t come together in time.
“Last year we wanted to do it, but we didn’t get organised in time, with extra staff required and risk assessments and all that,” she said.
“So this year from the start we went right, we are going to do it and have planned for it all season.”
In previous years, Belgrave and Lilydale outdoor pools have held a dog swimming session on their last day, but this was the first time Healesville joined in on the fun.
Around 20 dogs plus their families arrived for the session, with mixed reactions from the dogs themselves.
Some were highly enthusiastic in the water and others were not so sure, taking some encouragement from their owners to dip a paw in.
Staff were concerned leading up to the day it might be too cold for a good turnout but it was a lovely balmy day with patrons and pooches alike soaking up the sunshine with smiles and wags all round.
The pool staff were excited to host the event and had extra lifeguards posted on duty, with a pool reserved for any humans not keen on swimming with the four legged cohort present.
Lifeguard Annie brought her dog Octavia along and had previously attended the Lilydale Pool dog day last year.
“This is really a good turnout for Healesville, there are a lot of dogs here,” she said.
One dedicated human lap swimmer was unperturbed by the canine chaos, swimming her regular laps despite few dogs even following her lead up and down the pool.
Ms Regan was thrilled the event could take place and hopes to continue the dog day next season.
“We’ve been so excited and it’s been great,” she said.
