Andrea has been back here in California staying with me for the month of November. She had been trying to convince me to take Moose swimming since probably the start of summer. I always shot the idea down because we had no good way of transporting him to and from without making a total mess of my car. Well, thanks to Mom and Dad for picking out a collapsible dog kennel that fits snuggly in back seat... and thereby removing my excuse.
Some friends had described a beach near Halfmoon Bay to Andrea a while back. A beach where dogs can run off-leash (sort of a rare beach to find). So we set out on Saturday to get Moose his first experience with the ocean. We even convinced our friend, Samara, to bring her dogs along as well.
As we were driving out to the coast, the weather wasn't looking very hospitable. In fact, it was raining for most the drive. But as we arrived the rain let up and eventually the sun came out and everything worked out rather well.
Moose was more or less content to run around in the sand and did some splashing around in the water, but he wasn't enthusiastic about actual 'swimming'. He certainly got more comfortable with the water as the day progressed, but it may have had more to do with the tide going out and him being able to touch bottom.
Samara's dogs (Charlie & Sophie, the 2 Boston Terriers in the pictures) were either scared of the water, or too chilled to the bone to even think about going all the way in. It looked like they still enjoyed themselves. They had a game where they would wait for Moose at the edge of the water any time he went out to fetch a toy. When he got back with it, they'd take off like a shot thinking Moose would follow.
There were also a number of other dogs that came up at various points. One especially lively Pointer mix started wrestling with Moose and then tried to coax him way out into the ocean. He thought she was a lot of fun until that point.
Sophie, the one with the black face, is an extremely enthusiastic digger. She always gets scolded when she tried it at the school, but this is the beach! Samara let her try and dig to China. Moose was there for moral support, and Charlie tried to help out but just seemed to end up with sand on his face from standing behind Sophie.
Here are some final shots of when the tide started really going out and the sun came out. By this point, Moose would chase pretty much anything I could throw out into the water because it was shallow enough for him to bounce off the bottom.
Overall it was a big success. We spent 2-3 hours at the beach, then left the dogs in the cars to pass out as we got some lunch. Then of course it was back home for mandatory bath time. We'll have to do this again and see if Moose can actually learn the doggie paddle.
