I always worried that I might have to one day with the guy to the left. His very first winter when his lake froze over I took him out just to frustrate him a little. I did for a little while but he sniffed around and found the one spot close to shore thin enough for him to dig through and in a minute or two he had a hole just barely big enough for him to get into, lie down, and be up to his heck. He looked back at me so proud of himself. There were a few other times I let him get in holes that were within ten feet or so of shore that I was sure I could get in and out of if I had to to see if he could figure a way out but he always did it by breaking a path back to the bank. I always thought I should try getting a big sheet of styrofoam to put in my kid brother's pool to see if we could find some way for him to get back out the ice on his own if he did go in somewhere I would have trouble getting him but I never did.
I had him in Seattle visiting a friend once and we wound up going to his company picnic which was in a park that had a small stream that ran into the sound. Felix and I had always had a little game we played where I tried to find a stick that was small enough for me to throw into the water but too big tor him to get out. Even though I never won I am not what you would call a small person. I did manage to toss some pretty good sized cabers into the drink and when one was big enough for him to do a little log rolling/surfing he would haul it out to deeper waters to play with before he brought it back. This stream had several actual trees that were headed out to sea he he spotted one went for it. I did worry a little that he might actually think he needed to bring it back and be unwilling to come out until he did. On the other hand while he was splashing around having a grand old time I saw my chance to go over to where the food was a get something to eat. I was keeping an eye on him all the time but from a table a little ways off. As I was eating and he was playing a small crowd started to form on the bank pointing and wondering what was going on. After ten or fifteen minutes he decided he needed to find me again and started back to shore so I went over to meet him.
Crowd: Is that your dog? Me: Yeah. Crowd: Weren't you worried? Me: No, he was just playing. Crowd: What if he had gotten into trouble. Me: I would have gone in to get him and he would have rescued me.
I had Felix out playing lake tennis just on the other side of the boat ramp from where he is in this month's avatar when these people drove up with three pickups full of goldens. I think 7 in all, none of them actual puppies but none of them very old either. Amazingly with that many of them they hadn't figured out the ball and racket trick yet but had just been throwing sticks for them. Since when I had Felix I usually had almost as many tennis balls as towels in the car I went back and got a bunch for the newcomers. Felix was perhaps just a bit too competitive when it came to retrieving things from his lake. Even though he could really only get two at a time in his mouth he would still after he had his go to the nearest rival, dunk him and force him to give up the ball. Once he was juggling three back to shore though it slowed him down enough that the others could work around him for awhile. It always required one sacrificial golden though. If you just hit a dozen balls out into the water with no competition he would be content leave the extras out there until he came back for them. I could yell at him not to do it but he knew I wasn't going to come out there to do anything about it so he didn't have to hear me. Most of the time when he was in the water I was only allowed to make suggestions. Part of the old adage about ordering a lab, asking a golden, and negotiating with a Chesapeake.
that's awesome. i would, too!
swoon
