Dog Beach

So, this is a post a long time in the writing. Our trip to dog beach was about 4 months ago and it’s taken me this long to sit down and write about it. If I thought that the day of “lady walking the pretty dogs” was bad, it had nothing on Dog Beach day. This one took me months to write about and weeks to heal from and not just physically. I broke my finger that day. Well, to be really clear, Dempsey broke my finger that day. Actually, if I were honest a squirrel broke my finger that day. No, Dempsey broke my finger BECAUSE of a squirrel that day. And that wasn’t even the worst part. If someone had been video taping Dempsey and I, we would for sure have gone viral. See the thing is, Dempsey goes crazy at Dog Beach. He COMPLETELY LOSES HIS MIND. I don’t know what it is. The sand, the moving water, the other dogs and he can’t, he just can’t. I knew this before we went, but, I thought "hes older now, he won’t be as bad, he goes to Doggie Day Camp all the time and does just fine, how bad could Dog Beach be?" Pretty bad I found out. Getting out of the car, the craziness begins and I have flashbacks to the first time I took him there. He was pulling me so hard that a guy riding by us on his bike shouted out “who is walking who? You need to get control of him!” Thanks bike guy. I took him to boot camp, hes been through two trainers and learned to walk on a leash since bike guys insightful and profoundly loud advice so I blindly thought this time would be different. I do not know why I didn’t just get right back in the car then. If only I knew that 20 minutes later I would be crawling back to the car a wet mess of a human, I would have shoved his furry butt in and taken off like a bat out of hell, but, I was hopeful. Hopeful that once he got his first sniff of wet grass and peed on his first tree he would calm down. I slung my purse over my shoulder, put my favorite hat on my head, secured my sunglasses on my nose, took off my flip flops and off we went. I kept him on the leash for the entire walk/run/drag to the water. I figured once I saw how he was behaving with the other dogs I could take him off the leash. We got to the water pretty unscathed and he seemed pretty happy, he wasn’t all that interested in the other dogs and was mesmerized by the water, which we were standing in about mid calf deep, but, I was still leery about removing my connection to him. Would he run around like crazy or would he just stay with me and fetch his ball I would calmly throw a short distance into the water? My daughter who was sweetly standing nearby with her quiet and majestic Great Dane (follow us on Facebook to meet Dempsey’s best friend Grayson the Great Dane) suggested that I take Dempsey’s leash off, “he will be fine, mom”, “he’s not going to go anywhere mom”, “your paranoid mom” soooooo, because I care what my 21 year old child thinks of me, I did. At first he had no idea that he wasn’t tethered anymore, he was just cavorting around and timidly walking a little further into the water, but, then it HIT HIM, he was FREE, he turned and looked me straight in the eye, I looked him straight in the eye and then I swear he mouthed the word..L A T E R. With that he turned, his butt went down and he TOOK OFF. First, straight down the water line to the next group of people playing so nicely with their dog. Within a split second, he had grabbed the other dogs ball, spit it out, jumped on the women, knocked down a child, sniffed three dog butts and ran through a mans legs, he left them, in shock, I might add and ran to the next group of people causing about the same mayhem. It was about then that he realized that he didn’t have to stay near the water! There was an ENTIRE beach full of people that were there just to MEET HIM!! He ran up the sand through a couple of families, over towels and blankets, stopping only long enough to check out coolers and food baskets. He jumped over a baby in a carrier, over a lady laying on a blanket reading a book and then ZOOMED back down to the water, just far enough away that I couldn’t reach him. I would like to say that I calmly, tried to call my dog back, that I opened my purse and pulled out his special treats I brought with me just for this occasion. That the plan in my head before we got there, went right into action. But, sadly, no. See when I say that Dempsey loses his flipping mind, I have to admit I know where he gets it from. At first, when he told me “later” I froze, I think I may have screamed “NOOOOOOOOO” I took a step in the direction he ran, at the same time as I was taking a step, Mother Nature decided to send one of those shoreline waves that hits pretty hard, my front foot never hit the sand, the next thing I knew I was neck deep in water, trying to keep my eyes out of it so I could see where my dog was, I tried to get up, but, another wave came onshore, because I was struggling to breath and yell DEMPSEY, I forgot how to stand up, I’m pretty sure I tumbled over. I know that for a minute I was watching my dog from an upside down view, I gave up and started crawling towards his direction. Now, mind you, my daughter and majestic Grayson are standing a safe distance away from me and Dempsey, I caught a glimpse of the horror on both their faces as I was trying to crawl out of the ocean. At the time, I assumed that the horror was about Dempseys behavior, but again sadly, no, my behavior again, was topping his. I crawled about 3 feet up the sand and tried to stand again, but, my clothes were wet and heavy and my purse, filled with ocean, weighed a ton. I stumbled and clawed and then was hit in the ass by the next wave washing up on shore, it sort of propelled me further up the beach and with a facefull of sand I almost stood up. Dempsey FINALLY noticing my distress comes running back to me, I grabbed him while he washed my face of ocean and sand and used him to stand up. I somehow managed to get his leash on the same time my hat floated past me up the beach, I grabbed it out of the water, and shoved it back on my head. I looked over at my daughter who was laughing so hard that she was crying. I flipped her off and started up the beach, with water dripping off my head, my sunglasses askew and my pants falling down. I stopped long enough to drain the water out of my purse. I kept my eyes straight ahead, I literally pretended that an entire beach full of people did not see what just happened. As I was cussing Dempsey out, a cute little squirrel decided to run from the trash can to the rocks on our right. Apparently, Dempsey had not used up all his energy on his mad dash. For some reason I barely had hold of his leash, it was just hanging off my ring finger and twisted around it, I was just trying to see out of wet sunglasses and get the hell out of there. When he took off after the cute little squirrel his leash twisted and pinched and pulled my finger. I screamed, my hat went flying and my purse, my wet purse, crashed to the ground. I pulled the leash off my finger then lunged to grab it with my other hand to stop him from going after the squirrel which in turn knocked me off my feet. So now, I am wet, covered in sand and fully stretched out holding just the tip of Dempsey’s leash as he insanely barks at a squirrel who is now nowhere in sight. I have no idea how we got back to the car after that. We are suppose to go to dog beach again...I’m not telling anyone when…