Niko is kind of a nervous dog. He shies away from anything new that he deems scary. He hates the water, but Brian and I thought it was time to test out his sea legs.
Next summer we plan on taking some time off to travel around Alaska and some of the trips we have planned involve boats. So this Saturday we headed up to Nancy Lakes and rented a Canoe to see if we could get Niko in it.
We thought it would be a disaster. Niko would most likely not want to get into the boat, then we'd force him in, he'd pull his stiff leg move that he uses when I try to give him a bath, eventually we'd get him into the boat and he would tremble the whole time all the while trying to find a way out.
It didn't exactly go like that.
He got in the canoe on his own, with only a small bit of trepidation...
And off we sailed into the fog...
The trail consists of eight miles, fourteen lakes, and thirteen portages. Each time we neared land, Niko would get ready to dismount. He'd jump out, we'd carry the canoe to the next spot and he'd jump back in.
Inside the boat he laid down and even took a nap.
Sometimes he'd hear a loon calling and stand up, but Brian would start to gently rock the boat and Niko would lay back down.
It could not have gone more smoothly. Here he is practicing his zen canoe Buddhism. He really wants to jump at that dragonfly, but he is restraining himself. Impressive.
Niko "tundra dog" is more versatile than we thought.
1 comment:
Too bad he didn't get some swimming lessons from Milo before we left.
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