We’ve been getting creative at tiring our puppies out since social distancing started. While our little dogs are 100% cool with just chilling at home with us during the day, our Australian shepherd’s Petunia and Myrtle are missing their friends, their pet store visits and nursing home visits. The water at the beach is still a bit chilly for Mable, cons of having no hair, but floofy Petunia and Myrtle were more than happy to play in the freezing cold water!
So we decided to visit our favourite private beach for a romp for the girls. To say that they were excited would be a huge understatement. We arrived at the beach and they basically jumped out of their skin ready to run! Petunia has been to the beach a fair amount of times during the summer and fall of 2019, so she hopped right into the water. She immediately started digging up shells and catching waves. Eagerly waiting for me to throw her Frisbee, sitting pretty and whining with anticipation.
Myrtle was still young the fall of 2019, she was 12 weeks old during her last beach visit and wasn’t the hugest fan of water back then. When we first arrived she was a bit nervous of the waves, but eventually she came up with the courage to jump into the water. Being 8 months old now, she hesitantly followed Petunia into the water. At first she’d chase her in but get a little uncomfortable but within 20 minutes Myrtle was digging up shells, and very adorably following the bubbles in the ocean.
One thing we always do when arriving at a new place with our puppies is test their training! It’s incredibly important that you make sure they are listening before they run off together, especially in a new place where they could easily get lost. Our routine when we arrive new places is to first let Petunia off leash to practice her recall and practice some other commands, and let her explore for a minute while Myrtle remains on a leash. Then I’ll place Petunia in a down/ stay while Myrtle practices her recall and other commands, then explores by herself for a minute. Once we know they’re listening well, we release them both and let them play! We have taught them both to auto check in with us and they’re good at it, but none of the less we still practice their training throughout the time that they are off leash.
We stayed at the beach for about an hour with no people in sight, it was a perfect and sunny spring afternoon. The girls were exhausted from running off leash through the sand and through the water for the entire hour that we spent there. We had two perfect passed out puppies on the way home!
Social distancing at it’s finest! We’re constantly trying to find new trails and places to let them run and explore during this strange time.
Pro tip: If your dog doesn’t mind the rain, there are 90% less people to worry about if you walk in the rain! Rainy walks are perfect for exploring new trails that are typically busier. You can really get a sense of what the trail is like with nobody around, we’ve been loving our rainy spring walks lately.