We went to the ocean last week, for a five-day vacation. We visited Long Beach in Washington, and Cannon Beach in Oregon. The weather forecast was for rain all week- after months and months of pure sun! But, we lucked out, it mostly rained at night, and we got plenty of chances to play on the beach in warm, sunny weather. We stayed in our travel trailer at two different campgrounds.
The dogs had a great time, they had never played in surf before. Maggie had some trouble with getting ill-feeling from drinking too much saltwater, which she did inadvertently as she played fetch. But, some Pepto Bismol seemed to remedy it well enough.
We had to be careful at the first beach we visited on Long Beach, as the current was very strong. But the dogs seemed to sense it, and agreeably played on the water’s edge and avoided swimming. Later at Arcadia Beach, just south of Cannon Beach, we were able to find a great spot with the tide coming in, where swimming was shallow, safe and fun. Kirk even joined them, bravely, as the water was pretty cold! I only waded.
Going during the week was awesome- the beaches weren’t crowded at all. I try to be very careful not to ever let my dogs bother other people or dogs at places like that. I’m sensitive to the fact that not everybody loves dogs as much as I do- especially wet, silly, fetching-crazed ones!
So I’ll only let them off leash if I’m sure we’re far enough away from others to not create any disturbance. Opportunities abounded, we were able to find lots of private spots to play fetch and swim.
And, it helps having middle aged, trained dogs too- they were both very compliant at coming when called, staying close to us, and ignoring everyone else on the beach. The only exception was a couple of times it occurred to Maggie to try to fetch someone’s boogie board when surfers passed by. I suppose, to her, it looked similar to a fetching stick in the water. But I was able to call her off with no problem- thank goodness! That could have been embarrassing! 🙂
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