More: Though Sako is a Labrador retriever and is built for retrieving waterfowl, Sako is exceedingly proud of her job as a fishing dog. I’m a fly fishing guide, and she has spent hundreds of hours on the raft with me and my clients, and hundreds more riverside with just me, while I make casts, and she searches for muskrats. One of our home waters is the Sturgeon River, the fastest flowing river in Michigan’s lower peninsula. With its gnarly log jams, tight corners, and overhanging cedars, this river can kill, and it does. But just as I’ve been rowing this river since I was a teenager, Sako has been gleefully swimming it since her puppy days. I’ve seen her struggle with undercurrent, get stuck in beaver dams, and get caught under log jams, but nothing this river throws at her can deter her from taking a dip. Sako is the best swimmer in Cheboygan county, and maybe even all of Michigan. She was built to swim, and nothing in this life makes her happier.