Dutch Shepherd Forum

Elizabeth is a school teacher, so she always gets a week off for Spring Break, and I had a bunch of use-or-lose vacation days I needed to burn through, sooooo... Trip to the beach! We also had a bunch of free points with Hyatt so I found one in Sarasota that accepts dogs and off we went. We had a great time! Lots of outdoor dining down in Florida, so Hilde never left us.

Now, Hilde has never liked water. During hikes in the woods, she is curious about streams and ponds, but has never put a toe in. We've been to the beach before. She walked right up to the edge of the waves, but sprang back at the slightest touch. I thought I'd give it one last chance this time. I didn't want to FORCE her into the water, but wanted to see if she could get over her fear.

There's a great dog-friendly section of beach in Venice called Brohard Paw Park, so we went there the first day. It's a really great place. Lots of dogs there roaming free, like a dog park, but somehow the vibe is totally different, probably because the owners and other beach-goers are mingling about rather than just huddled together in one spot. There was some doggie interaction, but not anything like a typical dog park. Most pups were focused on their people.

We walked along the beach, watched other dogs taking dips, and tried to encourage her to follow us into the water. No luck there. She would only linger just out of reach of the waves: The following video shows that I even tried to use one of her favorite toys (a random stick) to coax her in. The results are obvious...

She seemed content romping in the sand with the occasional break--in MY chair! Gulf of Mexico:1, Hilde:0, but we still had fun.
On our way out of the park, we passed a small lake that was completely fenced in. We discovered the reason for the fencing:

The next day we went to De Soto National Memorial Beach. It has some short hiking trails and quiet beach access where a river meets Tampa Bay, so no waves. It was quite hot, so I was hoping the cool water would be enticing. Well, after lots of positive reinforcement, we got to here: Progress! She seemed to get comfortable, so we slowly went a little further. Eventually I noticed she started the dog-paddle motion, so she was ready. Lots more trips in and out of the water, but we finally got an official swim! Here's video of the second lap. She clearly wasn't thrilled about it, but wasn't petrified either.


Success! We repeated the swim quite a few times and she got more and more comfortable. As an aside, she became quite obsessed with chasing after all the ubiquitous lizards everywhere we went. I'm afraid to say that several lost their lives that week. Here she is on the hunt along one of the trails at this park:

After the success in the Bay, we went back to Venice a couple of days later to try out the Gulf again. A storm system had passed through the day before, and now the waves were MUCH calmer. We brought out a high value toy (Chuckit Flying Squirrel) and went to work. In no time, she was out in the water for short trips: She did it over an over, never getting tired. I think she really liked it. On dry land she will eventually get a little bored with the squirrel, but not here. We repeated this over and over until I got tired.

She did get a bit of a surprise one time when she was a little too exuberant. She dove right off the little shelf at the water's edge and wasn't prepared to have her head underwater! She gave up on the squirrel until she cleared all the water out of her nose.


One of the best results of all this swimming is the opportunity to get some hilarious mid-shake pictures! After a day full of swimming, it's nice to just relax on the beach with a little sand on your face and soak up the sun:

Wooohoooo! Glad she got to swim in the ocean! Looks like an awesome trip.

Finally had a chance to watch your videos the dock dive was unavailable
Rest of the videos were awesome. Looks like she had the best vacation ever!!

It really was a wonderful few days. It can be a challenge taking a pup on a trip like this, but this one was fantastic.

I'm not sure why the dock dive video wasn't working; it plays for me fine at the moment. It's kinda heartbreaking to watch her go from exuberant leap to, "Nope! Forget that squirrel. Why is my nose full of this stuff!?!?" Thankfully she recovered quickly and forgot all about that incident.

Ha ha ha I tried the dock dive again and it worked that was cute. Oh boy, herd I go, oh no, changed my mind, and you are not fooling me with that again!