Finally after many hours, we arrived in Gold Beach on the southern Oregon Coast. We're here for an agility trial being held at the fairgrounds. We were told there would be electric and water and on the website it looked roomy. It was not roomy at all - in fact it was pretty tight quarters. Our big rig is very power hungry and the power available was only 110v (15 AMP), whereas our rig is happiest with 50 AMP. Not a real big deal but that meant we would need to run our generator to cook, use the toaster, air-conditioner, vacuum, etc. So we just used a broom instead of the vacuum and since it was cool out (only 64) we didn't need the air conditioning. So we just had to use the generator at meal times which didn't really seem to bother anyone.
After getting set up, we felt the dogs deserved a romp on the beach. The beach is just a short walk away but it is down a hill so we drove. From where we could park it wasn't too far to the beach.
The three big dogs of course know all about beaches. There is no better place in the world for them than on the beach. The second we stepped on to the beach, Sparkie's nose went way up in the air. We looked around and didn't see anyone on the beach except for one person a LONG way down. So we let Sparkie and Wazzu off leash. The leash was barely unhooked from Sparkie when she took off at full speed. She ran and ran and ran and ran....all the while looking smaller and smaller until she was just a tiny little dot. There was no use yelling for her as there was no way she'd ever hear us.
The wind was blowing about 30 miles an hour. We weren't prepared for that - it was cold!! Wazzu stuck right near us of course. All we could do was wait and hope that Sparkie would miss us and come back. A short time later she came running back to us just as fast as she had gone.
What great exercise for her! (She did this four more times while we were at the beach today.) Now we could try to take a short walk. We were really good at walking three dogs on the beach but four proved to be especially challenging. The girls got to be off leash but the boys had to stay on leash. We quickly found out that dogs don't walk in a straight line! The long lines kept getting all tangled up. And to make it more difficult I was trying to hold Boogie's line and take pictures at the same time. It was hard!! And since it was late in the day the lightening was very difficult so the pictures didn't turn out all that great.
Boogie didn't know anything about the beach but he figured he'd just follow the other dogs and do whatever they were doing. Sparkie knew just what to do and started playing with Wazzu.
That's all it took for Boogie to think he had this game down!
This running around stuff is really fun!
Boogie seemed to know they were trying to avoid him but that didn't dampen his enthusiasm at all.
The big dogs favorite game on the beach is chasing the stick in the water. Unfortunately for little Slugger, he didn't get to play as it was just too hard with two long lines. He was one unhappy little boy. We thought maybe when the dogs ran out into the water Boogie might not follow as he might be afraid of all the moving water. But he didn't bat an eyelash - he went full speed ahead right out into the water.
In fact, he was actually quite intrigued by the water.
Oh, now he notices the guys are playing on the beach again. Can't get left out of the play!
The girls had a great time. Poor Slugger wasn't a happy camper - I felt really sorry for him. Boogie on the other hand probably had the best time. The beach is a perfect place for a puppy! Here are a few pictures of Boogie enjoying the beach for the very first time.
By the time we got back to the RV, which was just a couple minutes away) Boogie was totally dry and clean! Sparkie was wet and cold - poor Sparkie. Hopefully they are all tired and will rest nicely this evening.
Debbie
8/3/07
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