Ann Shaffer
What do you get when you combine 1,005 pooches of all shapes, sizes and furriness with 1,985 humans and all the water in the Goodman Pool?
The Capital K9's Dog Paddle, a benefit for the Madison Police Department's K-9 Unit, which ran for six hours on a warm, sunny Labor Day. The dogs splashed and yapped. The humans stood around with big smiles on their faces, happy that, for once, their canine friends had the run of Madison's beautiful public pool.
The hardcore retrievers took over the deep end, diving fearlessly off ramps after their favorite balls. The more timid pranced around in the shallow end, providing an endless array of doggie spectacles, including a 200-pound great dane going nose to nose with a 5 pound shih tzu and a border collie herding a very wet wiener dog. Meanwhile, contests and a variety of informational and commercial booths kept the humans busy.
View photos of the dog swim in the gallery at top.
