I’m spending a few days at Lake Arrowhead, which is a great getaway for my family — and for Callie Golden Retriever.  Callie loves to swim here, and she loves going for boat rides and fishing from our boat.  It took a little dog training to get her to swim for her floating Frisbee without getting into the boat traffic, but she’s learned well.  It also took a little dog training to get her to stay away from the edges of the boat — I’ve been a little nervous that she might jump off, because she loves to swim so much.

It’s fun, at Lake Arrowhead, to see how many dogs enjoy boating, as well as swimming in the lake.  You see dogs balanced on canoes and kayaks.  And it’s not unusual to see a boat speeding along at twenty-five miles an hour with a dog sitting proudly — all by himself — in the bow.

This morning on my walk with Callie, I watched a couple — and their Yellow Labrador Retriever — launch their kayak.  The Lab hasn’t quite figured out how to jump into the kayak, but with a little more dog training, he will.  So his dad had to lift him in, but then he settled into the caboose seat and looked like he was very happy there.  It reminded me a lot of training Callie to “jump up” into our SUV.  It’s my current dog training challenge., but we’re getting there.

So it seems that dogs make great boaters, too.  Doesn’t this look like fun?