Our fifth wedding anniversary was this past Friday and we decided to take a day trip, with Macintosh, up to Kernville which is on the Kern River. We thought we'd do a bit of hiking and spend some time playing about in the river. It was so beautiful up there and its definitely somewhere we want to go again.
With all the time playing about in the river we managed to get a curious Macintosh to swim! You see Macintosh doesn't mind splashing about in water but as soon as it touches his tummy he gets really freaked out and usually runs away from the water. He loves going to the beach but will only paddle so far into the water.
He's a beagle so they aren't designed to love water but I was concerned that he couldn't swim as its something he'd never tried. I just didn't want a situation where he fell into the water and panicked and drowned. I know thats the worst case scenario but thats what I always end up thinking! So with the opportunity for us to play in the river too, we decided to see if Mac could in fact swim.
What we discovered was that with my persuasion/force he could!
He got so confident/desperate to get out of the water that at times he was stretching the extent of his lead! Andrew couldn't walk as fast as Mac was swimming and the water wasn't deep enough for him to be swimming too.
By the end of the day Macintosh had thoroughly proved to us that if he ever fell into a river he would be fine and he had also proved that swimming was not his favourite thing to do. He looked beyond fed up by the end of it. He was even pulling away from the river in the hopes that we wouldn't make him swim again!
Still I'm a happy dog mummy knowing my boy can swim!
H
On Memorial Day Andrew and I took Macintosh down to Huntington Dog Beach. We had been meaning to take him there all of last year, but we never made it down there for some reason, so we figured it was high time we did. Let me say straight off the beach was amazing. There were so many dogs roaming around on it that Macintosh had such a good time.
Initially we were pretty apprehensive about taking him off the lead as he can be pretty unreliable, but the beach area was pretty enclosed and there were so many dogs that we figured he should stay fairly close by. Well we were amazed at how well he behaved! He came back to us every time we called him! Sometimes it took a little while for him to get to us but he did eventually come. He never really strayed too far from us and kept checking to see where we were. It was utterly amazing.
He also found an Irish Wolfhound to play with which made us laugh (see above for a picture). He looked so tiny compared to her, but he managed to give her a good run about. I think other owner was pleased as it suggested that she'd get some peace and quiet if her dog was tired. I know it definitely tired Macintosh out because a couple of hours later he was like this...
It was so lovely to see him having fun and it was nice walking around afterwards with a nice sedate dog! Before I end the post I have to tell you the funniest thing though. Whilst Andrew was fetching lunch from the car I was busy people/dog watching with Macintosh. During that time a dad, young boy and their dog walked past. As they did the dog stopped to do a wee, as they began to walk away I heard the little boy say, "I wish I was a dog because then I could pee wherever I want!" And on that lovely note I'll leave you!
H
This weekend Andrew and I took Macintosh down to Arroyo Burro beach just outside Santa Barbara for his first taste of the beach. Well I say first taste, he's been to a cold and wet beach in England once but that's not quite the same thing! The beach was a special dog beach so if you wanted you could let your dog roam wild but knowing Mac's ability to disappear and not come back we opted to keep him on the lead. The first thing we did was allow him to explore the sea.
Usually Mac isn't a fan of water. He doesn't mind paddling in it but if it gets up to his stomach he begins to panic and backs out. This was the reaction we expected here, especially with the waves, we assumed he wouldn't be too keen. Well we were right about the waves, he wasn't overly keen of them and tried to run away from them a lot but within a short while he was pretty much fully covered in salt water. He wasn't swimming but he was certainly enjoying running about in it. Here are a few photos and a video from early on in the sea experience.
After being in the sea the funniest part Macintosh would stroll back up the beach to where we were sitting and after a few shakes to get rid of most of the salt water he would then proceed to rub himself along the sand covering himself from head to toe in wet sand! He absolutely loved it though and wasn't bothered about getting a sand moustache either.
Here are a few more pictures of Macintosh enjoying the beach.
With the success of the first beach trip I'm now looking forward to visiting a few more dog beaches and spending some more time soaking up the sun. Andrew typically doesn't enjoy beach life as he can't sit still for extended periods, so having Mac there he's more entertained leaving me able to just chill!
H
For a few more beachy pictures just click on our Instagram accounts on the right hand side of the page. You'll even see our dinner that we ate on the beach! Very American!
