Tag Archives: Lake Michigan

pet photography, weekly photo challenge

weekly photo challenge: tour guide

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We live in Evanston, IL which we think is a perfect location!  The border to the south is the city of Chicago and the border to the east is Lake Michigan.  The majority of the lakefront is open to the public with a walking trail, parks and beaches. We spend a lot of time there, all year round. The beginning of our walk always starts on the south end and we walk past two beaches, kayak and sailing racks and a playground.

The mid-point of our walk up the path brings us to a beautiful duck pond, the motorized boat launch and our favorite place on earth, the Dog Beach!

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Annie

If we don’t stop at the dog beach (a decision we never agree with), we find ourselves on the beautiful Northwestern University campus.  It has its own beach and sailing center as well as many spots to stop and enjoy the Chicago skyline.

If you ever find yourself in Evanston, we would love to show you all of our favorite places!

via Photo Challenge: Tour Guide

Our 3 Newfies, Winn

Winn’s first beach day

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We have a wonderful spot nearby that we can take the dogs and let them swim.  It’s one of Maisie’s favorite places and she has been going since she was a puppy.

Maisie swims, runs and romps around. She loves to chase other dogs, especially when they are fetching a ball.  Sometimes this is OK, sometimes not, so she is very carefully supervised.  img_3325

We introduced the beach to Annie about 3 months after she had joined our family.  She didn’t leave the yard or house for several weeks and getting her into the car was a major ordeal, so we were very careful about making sure we were following her own pace when it came to new a new place and experience.

Annie prefers to walk the length of the beach, back and forth.  She likes the sand and sometimes dips her feet in the water but she won’t go in unless one of us walks out with her. IMG_2757

It really takes two of us to properly supervise them, one with Annie and one with Maisie so I decided that for Winn’s first time we should probably leave Annie at home so that I could introduce the water and see how she swam.

I read a couple of articles on hot to introduce a puppy to water for the first time and was so excited to see how Winn would respond to the beach.  She has already started to show some skills in retrieving and had played in the kiddy pool in our yard so I was pretty confident that she would be comfortable in deeper water while discovering her swimming instinct.

When we arrived we took some time meeting other dogs and letting her explore the sand and water.

Then we ventured into the water.  I guided her toward me, then a little deeper so that she swam a few strokes, then around me and back to the shore so that she could feel the sand reappear under her feet. On our first attempt she went between my legs which was a bit awkward.

Our next few tries went a lot better!

After doing this several times we took off the leash and let her do whatever she wanted.  She loved it, we loved it, and I look forward to going back and watching her spend more time in the water. We have another beach dog!