Jumping in in the middle: New puppy

Named Scamp.

First attempt at developing her kayaking abilities. Well, second really. I took her out earlier, just to see if we could both get in without either of us landing in the water, which we did with only minor snafus, but she was fairly anxious so we only stayed out a few minutes. She definitely thought about jumping out even after we were away from the dock.  I’m not sure she realized that the surface she could see wasn’t solid.  After a minute or so I let her scramble a bit over the side, but I held her so she only got her front feet in the water.  Nonetheless, that may have been enough, because the second time went better.

I left her in the van in between while I went out by myself for a short while, and thought about what might help her be more comfortable.  She couldn’t quite see out sitting on the bottom of the boat, and the bit of my seat she could use has to have been uncomfortable because it’s a cutout intended to hold a water bottle.  Decided to try folding up a small blanket and putting it in the bottom just in front of the seat, which is what she’s on in the above pictures.  The blanket not only gave her some height, but also a defined spot; it’s one she’s slept on riding in the van so it has her smell on it.

This time out she never acted like she wanted to jump out, and much of the time looked around with interest.  However, next time I need to take a couple of chew toys for her.  She got bored after awhile and started looking for something to play with, which at this point means chew on.  She watched the movement of the paddle and thought maybe it would do, but eventually found a wet paper towel up front, and I let het mouth that until we got back to the dock.

Here we are all tied up at the dock, and as you can see she was more interested in watching what was going on on shore (a dad with three kids) than getting out of the boat, which shows how relaxed she was by then.

So I’m cautiously optimistic that she may go kayaking with me when she grows up.  Possibly even with enthusiasm.