How to keep cool on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK

Rafi had another 1 to 1 training session today, he is doing so well I am really pleased with him. It was also lovely to be in the dog barn for the session as it was so lovely and cool. Before we left I got him a cool coat which you soak then put on the dog just like any other dog coat but its so cool its lovely!
Straight after training we went to Therapaws for a swim. His third swim session and he couldnt wait to  get in. The first few times he went down the slope then as he grew more confident he went in from the side. It looked as if he was waiting for  the judges to score his dive, Bless him. I would have given him a 9.9 as it was a little splashy!

Attempted Drowning.

This morning I took Rafi to the dog swimming pool again. We arrived just in time for our session, having been stuck behind a slow moving vehicle all the way there.
This is Rafi's second session and he remembered it very well hardly waiting for me to take his harness off and give him a shower. Once he was in he swam brilliantly. jumping from the side and walking down the steps, all to fetch his turtle toy.
Then in comes a golden retriever puppy with only one thought on its mind..... Dum Dum Duuummmm!! Murder!
Whilst Rafi was swimming the retriever lept off the side of the pool straight on to Rafi, it then twice tried to climb onto his back  pushing poor Rafi right under the water. It was decided to get the retriever out to let Rafi have one more swim before we got out for the end of our session.
Please note:
 1)Rafi was unharmed and unphased by the events.
2) The retriever was not being nasty it merely wanted to play, but was twice the size of Rafi.
3) I was very traumatised by the whole situation, my poor Rafi!!

Just keep swimming

Today I took Rafi to the swimming pool, it was his first time in a pool. We were very early, due to my husband needing to borrow my car and having to drop me off. Whilst we waited for our time slot in the garden to the side of the pool area 5 large breed dogs came in, Rafi is very over zealous with other dogs as he hasn't really had a great deal of contact with  them, he began with the 3 second sniff rule and was fairly well behaved, infact it was only when a large golden retriever, who was only 3 years old himself, wanted to play bow and be a bit boisterous that things got a bit ott. We kept the 6 dogs in the same area but not able to actually touch.
They had the time slot before Rafi's  so we watched them playing for a short while then as it was hot we went and sat in the shade. The pool owner came out and chatted to me for a while, we have known each other for a good 13 years as Skye used to go swimming there too, she told me that the owners of the bigger dogs had invited Rafi to join their session for the last 10 minutes as they had been playing beforehand. We went in, Rafi had a quick shower then we put him in the pool. His first two laps were wide eyed and high paddling with his front legs until we found a squeeky toy frog for him to retrieve, at which point he put a huge smile on his face  curled his tail over hos back and swam beautifully  all round the pool all by himself! I kept the long line attached just for safety, if he got out of the pool and someone opened the door or something.
After the 5 had gone we continued swimming in our own slot and were joined by a pretty tri coloured border collie.
The slots are half an hour, but with the ten monutes in the slot before I decided to get him out early, its tiring swimming and a new experience for him meaning he had a lot to process too.
We ended on a great swim and booked up for next week.