Beyond Exhausted

Ball-catching water baby.

I think Bella is setting up a theme for the summer. I'm realizing if she doesn't set limits for herself, than I must. I haven't heard of a dog working themselves to death, but I was watching her very closely this weekend for over-exhaustion.

The weekend was wonderful. It was a true taste of summer—each day broke sunny and warm—and was quite the contrast to our year to-date. We were visiting friends at their home on a small Puget Sound island. It began with a girls' weekend: the owner, another friend, Bella and myself.

Getting there is a bit of a chore as there are few ferries and those run infrequently. The ferry that you catch takes people only, no cars. If you have your own boat, you can go at any point, but that wasn't the case for us. We had to bring not only our own suitcase, but all the food for the weekend (and there would end up being eight of us). In addition, I was schlepping Bella's bag as well Bella. The ferry requires all dogs wear a muzzle. Luckily I had one from Lucy, but because the trip was rather spontaneous, I had only a few days to work with her on it.

I came across this video that I think is truly fabulous and wish I had had more time to do this to acclimatize Bella. Fortunately for me, my Bella-girl is quite accommodating and although she tried a couple of times to rub it off, was basically nonplussed by it. This will work well for Baja next year!

When we reached the island, we unloaded all of our things to a cart which we could wheel to the car our host leaves there. It was truly wonderful to have 24 hours by ourselves before the others joined us. Girl Time! We walked around the entire island. Bella was thrilled to be able to run loose. It took her no time at all the jump into Puget Sound and paddle around! The only accident was that she took quite a chunk out of a toe on her back left paw. It didn't seem to slow her down and I felt bandaging it would be futile considering she was in and out of the water. I left it to the salt water to keep it well rinsed and always hosed her down when she came on shore again.

She also had the opportunity to ride in a motor boat. I was concerned she might try to  leap out (too much water around her inducing dive in to swim), but she stayed put. She got plenty of  "fetch time" with us, but when the six other guys arrived, she was in heaven. Eight people throwing things on the beach and in the water makes for one tired puppy!

The last day we were there, I was watching her quite closely. I could tell she was flagging at the end of the day, but if people tossed, she continued to run. One of the guys kept throwing a ball out into the water and though I was on the deck, I kept my eye on her to see if she was slowing or having trouble swimming. She was also ingesting large amounts of salt water. She didn't get sick, but I was worried she wasn't getting enough fresh water down her gullet to flush herself out.

Last night when we finally got home, Bella crashed. She no sooner got out of the car than laid down. Got up for dinner, than down again. And she couldn't see to settle—that disturbed me. She groaned frequently and wasn't able to find a comfortable position. I finally gave her a baby aspirin. I'm sure her muscles are sore and I think her toe is very tender.

Next time we're in that situation, I will moderate her activity (and her enablers!) before she gets so worn out. She has barely moved today and tomorrow, I expect more of the same. I'm sure she'll be perky by tomorrow evening and rambunctious by Wednesday, but right now she's just dog-tired.