Pawcurious: With Veterinarian and Author Dr. V

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Off the Grid: Surf Dog Kills It

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Yesterday, Brody and I had our rescheduled surf lesson with Evan the Surf Instructor. It went great. Brody is a natural. His handler, on the other hand, needs a lot of practice. I had no idea how much work it was to push a dog into a wave.

I would have had a fuller recap for you by today, but as you may have heard, some doofus in Yuma managed to power down the entire county of San Diego for the day.

As we were leaving the beach, I remarked that there sure was a lot of traffic, even for 4 o’clock. An awful lot.

I peered up at the sky. Planes were still landing. That is good. But the traffic lights were out. That was bad.

My husband punched angrily at the radio buttons, getting nothing but static. One lone AM station was still on the air, and all they could say was this: “There is a major energy outage across Southern California. We have no other news at this time.”

We looked at each other. This could only mean one thing.

Zombie apocalypse.

So instead of working on getting the photos together, I had to dig out our emergency equipment once I realized this thing could drag on until the next day. No power. No lights. No computer. For a blogger, this is all sorts of bad. I had to sit, and stare at the sky, and contemplate stuff. Way too deep for a Thursday night. Fortunately my iPhone had just enough power and a cell connection for me to tweet my displeasure, which was enough civilization to at least keep me calm.

Our city powered back a good deal ahead of the rest of the county, around 9:30 or so. And because I love you that much, and because I’m so proud of Brody’s progress, I stayed up extra late just to share a few of my favorites with you all.

It was ridiculously beautiful out that afternoon. I mean, like, I can’t believe my good fortune in living in San Diego beautiful, power grids notwithstanding.

We wasted no time getting him on the board. Note: This is, without a shadow of a doubt, a 2 man job MINIMUM. It would be utterly impossible to do solo, not with a 75 pound behemoth like Brody anyway.

Being a good V family overachiever, he tried to stand right away.

But you fall off less when you lay down, at least as a beginner.

Translation: “Uh oh!” “BIIIIRDD!” “I got the leash.”

Evan, thinking to himself that he has a really weird job sometimes.

Brody thrashin it

Brody absolutely shredding it. SUPERSTAR.

A moment of pride.

Due to the power explosion, I have to postpone the Eukanuba giveaway I had tied into this for another couple of days, but I figure you all will understand. It’s a really fun one, too. I’ll have it up in a few days.

Evan, Brody and Dr V

Sorry guys, the surf instructor is not the giveaway item. But thank you for this awesome lesson, Eukanuba. It was fan-tastic. I’m feeling much better about Sunday now that I know I have a natural on my hands!

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Comments

  4. OBVIOUSLY, a great day at the beach! I knew Brody would be a natural! I AM disappointed that Evan isn’t the giveaway – after all, he’s the perfect bachelor – good lookin’ AND he loves dogs! Thanks for shaing the beautiful day, Dr. V!

  7. awesome pictures. Brody in the last pic is perfect. Looking so proud of himself — or still looking at a bird? Brody rocks!

  8. BEAUTIFUL pictures!! Glad you two are having fun learning together. That is what being a dog mom is all about. Great job.

  10. Great photos! Gorgeous surf instructor 😉 Good, good dog!!!!! Coolest dog mom ever!!! Brody does appear to be a natural, though it never occurred to me that a bird could be a problem for a dog on a surf board. Hmmmm. Hope Brody knows that, as awesome as he is, he can’t walk on water. Glad it was a fun day, despite the zombie apocalypse 🙂

    • The reason we are both laughing in the last picture is because I had just said to Evan, “My readers are gonna LOVE THIS.” lol He was a very good sport.

    • I was just coming in to say the exact same thing. MOAR PICTURES OF THE INSTRUCTOR KTHX!

  13. Wait, no freaking way, is that Common Loon??? Off Coronado? That IS a loon. holy shmokes.

    Instuctor/Insmucktor, that’s an awesome bird.

    • I love your readers. Admiration for the dog, the instructor, the writer AND the loon! LOOOVE it!
      Hang ten, Brody!

      • Actually, I think it might be a cormorant, most likely a Brandt’s Cormorant, as loons are only in CA during migration and it’s a bit early for that. Brandt’s Cormorants are in the waters off of CA year-round and are know for their “snake-like” neck

        • I thought it was a cormorant too, at first, (I was thinking double-crested), but then I noticed the red eye (loon’s have ’em, cormorants don’t and too far from the camera to be a flash reflection), and I swear that’s a white ring around it’s neck, not a water splash. But the chest is too dark for a loon, now that I look a third time. And the forehead is too slopey. So now I’m going with mysterious only known sighting ever of loon/cormorant hybrid.

          Or Brian should **focus** on the **bird** next time.
          See Jes? Wildlife biologists can be just as loopy about animal characteristics and pet breeders.

  14. Can you tell if Brody enjoyed it? I think it’s awesome you get to do cool things like that with him. We have few dog friendly beaches here in SC and they are 3 hours away so my Molly hasn’t been there but once.

    • He jumped on the board readily, wagged his tail and seemed happy so I took that as a go. When he got tired and bored, we stopped. 🙂

  16. What a gorgeous day! I love the photo of Brody catching a wave – that is too cool!! My dog doesn’t like it when her feet leave the ground (not much of a swimmer!) It’s always nice to have such a handsome instructor too 🙂