The One With Too Much Sea Water

Copper’s first experience at the beach happened at the end of August, when we took her to ‘Dog Beach’ in Del Mar. As soon as she hit the sand, she couldn’t wait to check out all the other dogs, people and new smells- but when her toes touched the ocean water, she instantly froze and backed up as quickly as possible! This coming from a dog who loves running face-first into the hose water! At the end of the day, she still would not go in the water (see picture below), but she did enjoy running around on the sand.

So, we took Copper back to the beach the next weekend to give it another try. She was excited when we first arrived, but still would not go in the water. At one point, while we were walking along the beach, a wave came up pretty high and trapped us against some thigh-high rocks. Copper tried to scramble for safety on the rocks, but couldn’t get up there fast enough before the tide retreated and she realized she was fine. The next wave came and she dug her claws into the sand and took it head-on (looking totally freaked), but as soon as the wave went back into the ocean, she again realized she was fine and that was all it took to get her into the water! She spent the next half hour running towards the waves and trying to bite and bark at the foam.

Later on in the day, when we tried to take her to a different part of the beach she refused to go back into the water and kept sitting/laying on the beach. Brad and I just looked at each other thinking ‘what the heck?’, but as soon as we looked back at her, she was in the middle of throwing up half the ocean and her breakfast onto the beach. Oh. That’s why she didn’t want to go back in. We of course did the responsible thing and buried her throw-up in the sand, with a large chunk of seaweed placed on top, then promptly left the beach.

This past weekend, we made our 3rd trip to the beach and I’m happy to report that not only did Copper go back into the water, but she also did not throw any up! Way to go Copper!