We finally took Mags to Montrose Beach today. The city has an enclosed portion of the beach which allows dogs off-leash. We've been dying to take Maggie to the beach, either here or in MI (but after the paw injury, our plans for the beach in MI were postponed).

First we got Maggie to go into the water on the leash. It was good she was still on leash the first time as the noise of her walking in the water scared her, which caused her to make more noise, and led to a minor panic. Once she calmed down, she wouldn't walk anywhere until we finally made a move to walk out of the water.

We walked around the beach a bit with her and tried to get her to go back into the water on the leash. She wouldn't go at all. Eventually I picked her up and carried her in a ways and put her down where it was still very shallow. She was still on leash and refused to walk with us through the water. We decided to see what she'd do if we took her off leash in the water. For a few minutes she looked longingly at the shore, and we both were sure she was going to bolt back to dry land. Finally, after many "let's go Maggie!"'s, she took a few steps toward us. Before we knew it she was following us around through the water, just like on land.

After a while we walked her back out onto the beach and walked around some more. Then we decided to try coaxing her into the water. Shw sniffed around some of the other dogs, and seemed like she might want to play, but ultimately never fully committed to it.

Still off leash, Kat & I went into the lake and called to Maggie. She did her little Maggie dance at the edge of the water. You could see the wheels turning as she tried to psych herself up and talk herself into going into the water, and trying to find just the right spot to go in. Sure enough, after a minute or two she walked into the lake after us and followed us out. We walked back and forth many times to get her used to it and just enjoying the experience. We were all feeling pretty brave at this point so we coaxed her out just to the point where she couldn't touch any more. And our little Mags swam!

She won't be appearing in the Olympics in August, but she gave it a great first effort. She looked like a little sea otter floating out there, doing little baby doggie paddles. She was a little nervous, but we were both there to hold her and guide her back to where she could touch down again. At one point she was paddling like crazy in probably 6 inches of water before we stopped her, pulled her feet down, and showed her that she could stand.

We got out of the water and back in with her one more time just to reinforce the act of getting into the water, and she did another brief swim.

We were both incredibly happy for Maggie, and you could immediately see a difference in her self confidence. When we were on the beach, her tail was wagging - not just swinging back in forth in tune with her gait, but really wagging. The only other time we've ever seen her wag her tail was while running like a mad dog at the park with the other dogs. She was so happy and confident, it was such a great feeling to see.

We also met a woman there with her dog who was also rescued and we were able to swap very similar stories. She had her dog about a year and had dealt with many of the same challenges we are, so it was good to hear and get some more advice.

We can't wait to get her back to the beach - if the weather holds out we'll try to go again tomorrow. Maybe we're imaging it, but ever since the beach we feel like Maggie has a whole new level of confidence and seems happier, so we want to keep reinforcing it with her.


To Carla, that's awesome that you rescued a dog from the same mill. We'd love to get together with the dogs and exchange notes. You can write us at katbrangan AT hotmail dot com.