On Saturday September 10th, 2011 the Humane Society of Greater Dayton in conjunction with the Wilson Park Pool in West Carrollton Ohio held it’s annual “Doggy Dive Festival” fund raiser event.  For the fourth straight year, the Wilson Park pool closed out the pool season (it officially closes after Labor Day weekend) by having a special day where pet owners are allowed to bring their dogs for a swim in the pool.  A $5.00 donation per family is all that’s required – but you can always give a little more for this worthy cause.  🙂

We have two Labrador Retrievers and a Rottweiler, and look forward all year long to the Doggy Dive – thankfully this year the weather was quite pleasant.  Not only is it a lot of fun for the dogs, it’s a great photo taking opportunity for me (albeit very challenging).  Here’s some of the better photos I got from the event:

Hans(back) & Lady (front) – our litter mate Labs:

Lady is the “fearless” high energy type – here she is diving after a water toy:

Lady with my wife Karen:

Hans:

Playing with the water toys was fun…..

…but wrestling with each other in the water is even better!

Caesar our Rottweiler isn’t quite as at home in the water as are the labs, but Karen did manage to coax him in for a swim:

He didn’t stay in too long though:

“Thanks mom for taking us to Doggy Dive!”

All the photos were taken with my Canon 5D Mark II, and my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens, mated to my Canon 1.4 Extender.

I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as the “kids” enjoyed the event – hope to see you there next year!