One cool thing about being a newbie to the cabin lifestyle is that there are so many firsts.
Like getting Chipper into a canoe.
As a puppy, he easily took to hopping onto a hammock, especially when long naps ensued. Seemed logical to think as a 10-year-old he’d enjoy riding in a wobbly water vessel, too.
The two of us went on our first sojourn a few weeks back. Although he was a little tense, it worked out OK. Adding Chris – and especially a fishing rod – into the mix proved more challenging.
It clearly is in his Labrador DNA to try to retrieve that splashy thing that Chris tosses out on his fishing pole. Though Chipper listens to “leave it,” I haven’t figured out the right training method (other than distraction) to get him to chillax and actually ignore it when Chris throws out a cast.
On our most recent trip around the lake this weekend, Chipper’s first containment challenge came within minutes, when I forced him to stuff his deepest doggie desire to leap into Loveless to check out a neighbor’s Rottweiler on the shore.
Next, as we passed a no-wake buoy, he barked and PUT A PAW OUT of the canoe before succumbing to my shouts from the stern. (In his defense, it did look mildly like those fetchers used to train bird dogs. Maybe he's been watching too much Ron Schara on TV.)
By the time we got 20 feet from shore, he was done listening. He lobbed himself overboard, somersaulted underwater and used that giant tail to rudder himself to shore.
Next time, treats?
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