Beach Excursion

This morning was beautiful. Since Guinness is doing well on walks at the local park with the 20 ft. lead and is responding to “Come,” I thought we would try the beach. After our last foray at the lake (see Dec. 3, 2005), I needed to wait until I had better control of him and until the summer crowds were gone. As soon as we walked off the beach sidewalk onto the sand, he went crazy, breaking the 20 ft. lead and racing down the beach. But he came when called!!! I took off his pinch collar and snapped on his leather leash to drag. He did great! Three times I tested him with “Come!” before proceeding to the next area of beach where people might be present. Each time, he came when called! Well, it took three calls before he turned around, but he CAME! We moved on, and, fortunately, no one was around. We found a stick to play fetch, and he enjoyed playing the game. He has not learned to drop the object when told. He prefers to play tug before releasing it. Also he was so excited that he behaved a bit bonkers. After I removed it from his mouth and raised my arm to throw it, he jumped to take it from me, but clamped my hand, puncturing the skin. Ouch! I tried a new trick: as he returned with the stick, instead of fighting for it, I threw a second stick. Thus he dropped the first one and ran for the second. Naturally, he dropped it in the lake, forcing me to wade in to pick it up for the next throw before he returned with the second stick in mouth. This altered game worked very well. I practiced calling him to come to me and ran from him to make him chase me. It was great fun! After 10 minutes on the beach, I was afraid to press our luck, so we packed it up to head for home.

On the beachwalk, we met an elderly man walking with a gnarled walking stick. He asked if Guinness could have a treat. I said, “Only if he will sit nicely for you.” He sat, saw the treat, lost some control, but he did OK and was awarded two treats.

The elderly man and the walking stick reminded me of sweet Hershey. Hershey roamed the beach leash free, never running up to anyone on the beach. Of course, he always came when called too. His attention was focused on his own business of sniffing every interesting item on the beach and playing fetch with a stick in the lake… unless he saw an old man with a stick style cane. He thought that the man intended to throw the stick for him! More than once, I had to call Hershey to come to me as he pranced towards a fragile stranger.