Monday River Madness!

Who Loves the Hot Weather? We Do!

After our failed morning hike I had to make it up to the dogs some how, and with the weather being so gorgeous a high of 85*F (for the Willamette Valley in Oregon this is great weather!) I decided to take them to the river!

My husband and I believe in exercise, and lots of it!

We are very dedicated to the health and well being of our animals (don't forget the cats!). Since we live and eat healthy we believe that they should too! We take them out for a walk or playtime no less than twice a day, and our walks tend to be rather long. Most of the time however they get out more often than twice, we like taking them both with us if we can. We also really enjoy challenging them in different situations and showing off our beautiful well mannered pups - we love meeting new people and want to be good breed ambassadors to those around us!

Today however I just wanted a fun time at the river with my dogs.

Lets go mom!!

So as soon as I got off of work I went home, packed up the dogs and off we went to our favorite swim spot!

Supplies that I take with me even for short trips:

• Snake bite kit - no rattlesnakes here, but we'll be doing hiking in Eastern Oregon later this summer and I want it to be a habit.
• Leashes
• Collars with ID - my dogs never go without their tags!
• 100' Leash (when swimming) - there is a strong current on one side of the river and I keep the dogs hooked up just in case they get caught in the current.
• Favorite pocket knife - you never know when you might need one!
• Poo bags - be a responsible owner.
• Sunscreen - Dante hates it, but his nose gets burned so I have to remember to cover him too.
• Towels
• Toys! - Dante's floating Kong, and Ziva's tennis balls!

We park at a state park (I have an annual pass) and its a bit of a hike to get to our spot but the dogs love smelling the trail!

You may notice that if you look closely Ziva has a carabiner on her collar. This is not normal, I'm trying something new - I brought along the carabiner because Ziva is not as strong of a swimmer as Dante. So I put her harness on and the carabiner will end up attached to her harness so that I can more easily lift her out of the water as needed if she gets tired.

Besides I just like carabiners - you never know when you might need one to help stow away gear or if a leash clip breaks and you need a quick fix.

Please do not attach your dogs to one leash unless you have absolute control over your animals at all times. 

Their are some dangers you need to consider if you are going to attach your dogs to the same leash:

• It is very possible that they could become injured:
• Stronger one can drag the weaker one.
• Weak one can hold back the stronger one - in the case of swimming.
• Potential drowning if entangled.
• Inability to escape a problem or threat.
• You can become entangled too!

The place that we go swimming has a little island for the dogs to get out and dry on, or take a break from swimming. Usually the one taking a break is Ziva, as she seems to get colder quicker than Dante. We do have to watch out for goose poop though! Ewww!! On a good note, the dogs have so much fun playing they don't go looking to eat it.

Usually I don't feel the need to have the 100 foot leash attached to Ziva, I keep her in the shallow waters and toss her ball far from the current. Dante on the other hand is a strong swimmer and likes working harder for his toy - exercise makes for happy dogs!  My dogs start acting out and getting really antsy if they don't exercise (you should have seen Dante when I got sick this last winter!) I also noticed that with Dante he'll begin to mope around the house in a kind of depressed manner if he doesn't get in some solid exercise time. This doesn't happen often - like I said we're very dedicated, but for a while we were fostering a kitten that needed fed every 2-3 hours, and it was during my finals week at school! Unfortunately I was wore out and the dogs suffered a little bit of cabin fever. (story of the kitten here)

Ziva loves running through the shallow water!

I use the 100' leash to keep track of him - just in case he gets caught in the current.

Happy boy!

Come on brother!

Action Shot!

Happy and Tired