On the first Tuesday after Labor Day, when the chlorine has barely had time to settle and the last of the summer's sunbathers have packed up their towels, the Leawood Aquatic Center hands its keys over to a very different kind of swimmer. No lap lanes, no diving boards, no cannonball contests. Just a 50-meter pool full of splashing, paddling, ball-chasing dogs, and a deck lined with owners who have come to watch their four-legged best friends enjoy one final, glorious dip of the season.
That is the scene at Soggy Doggy Swim Time, the annual end-of-summer tradition at the city pool at 10601 Lee Boulevard in Leawood, Kansas. This year it falls on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, from 4 to 5:45 p.m., and the rules are simple: small dogs under 25 pounds get the water from 4 to 4:45 p.m., large dogs over 25 pounds take over from 5 to 5:45 p.m., and humans stay on the deck. Only dogs are allowed in the pool. Admission is $5 per dog if you register in advance, or $7 at the gate.
The event is the official coda to the aquatic center's summer season, which in 2026 runs from opening day on May 23 through Labor Day, Monday, September 7. The very next day, the pool that spent the summer hosting swim lessons, dive meets, and the Leawood Lightning swim team closes out its calendar with a party for the dogs. It is, as the city puts it, "the last swim of the season" — and it goes to the dogs.
The spirit of the event has never changed: give the dogs the pool for a couple of hours, let them run the deck, splash in the deep end, and wear themselves out before summer officially ends.
The dogs, of course, don't care about any of that. What they care about is the water — the chance to splash in the shallow end, paddle out to the deep end, and run the deck between dips.
Not every dog is a swimmer, of course. The event accommodates both kinds of dogs, with plenty of dogs content to splash in the shallow end while the more intrepid ones launch themselves into the deep water.
Leawood is far from alone in this tradition. Dog swims have become a popular end-of-summer ritual across Johnson County, where public pools close to humans and open to canines for a few hours each September. The events are designed for safety by separating dogs by size, so little dogs aren't sharing the water with much bigger ones.
For the humans, the appeal is simple: a chance to watch their dogs have the run of the pool, and to see them go home happy and tired.
That, in the end, is the whole point of Soggy Doggy Swim Time. It is a chance for Leawood's dogs to soak in the last splash of summer, to run free on a pool deck that for months has been the domain of humans, and to go home exhausted and happy. For the city's parks and recreation staff, it is a fitting way to close out the season — a final, joyful lap before the pool is drained and the gates close until next May. And for the dogs, it is the best kind of goodbye to summer: one last swim, one last fetch, one last day of being the only swimmers in the pool.
Registration for the 2026 event is available in advance through the city's website, where owners can reserve a spot for their dog at the discounted $5 rate. On the day itself, the fee rises to $7. Either way, the price of admission buys something no amount of money can measure: a dog's tail wagging in the deep end, a contented pup resting on the deck, and a community that knows how to send off its summer in style — one soggy dog at a time.