Dog Walking

It starts every morning before sunrise our routine of getting the dog off the boat and taking care of business. All dogs need a job. Happy's job is too whine and bother me. According to the experts petting a dog is good for seniors and lowers their (the two legged) blood pressure.

Happy sitting next to dock box

Happy is allowed to make his own decisions most of the time. He has to wait for me to remove the drop boards so he can exit the cabin. The cabin ladder has four rungs and one extra step and he does very good but needs a little assistance starting the climb up.

\GSD as a Cone head

After he gets up the ladder he goes into the cockpit then climbs over the side board and jumps on to the dock where I have placed a carpet and a horse blanket for his landing target. Then as I cuss I remove myself and look for him. There are small crabs that live on the rocks and they also live on the docks and Happy searches for them. 

My Oakley hat and glasses

The first walk in the morning last about a half of an hour. Then we go back on the sailboat for breakfast. Happy has kibble steamed rice and what meat I cooked the previous night.  After he has been refueled we start out for another walk. Our directions are limited because the main channel in LA Harbor blocks us from going east toward Terminal Island.

Hidden galaxy next to my sailboat

So we either head towards the beach which is a mile away or the closest park where he loves to chase the swallows or walk around the harbor.

Playing with friends

As Happy has gotten older he loves to bark at strangers and sometimes I really can't figure what the hell he is barking at. We have foxes and coyotes and this morning he must has seen one behind a screened fence and he kept barking at the fence. All of the marinas have lots of dumpsters and the closest park lots of trash cans so all day long people are picking the beer cans and plastic bottles and walking or riding their skateboards or bicycles with their booty catch. One very old frail and small woman that seems at times hardly able to walk collects the recycleables and this morning Happy started barking at her. She sat on a bench on Miner Street and waved back to us. An hour later in our walk she was still going strong but slow. 

Epic Mag as seen during dog walk

The dam dog the last two days doesn't want to stay in his bed in the cabin and yesterday he pulled out most of the stuffing out of his bed. Luckily he has two beds. 

morning nap

But when I finally get him to go to bed he sleeps for several hours. My Samsung Phone has a tracking app that recorded how far I walk. Saturday we walked eight miles. I used to use Map My Ride for that but it became too anal a project. The last time I checked it was Sunday but at time I am not often sure what day of the week it is. My watch (Garmin with GPS) and my smart phone display the time and date but I just look at the parking lot and if there are lots of cars it must me a weekend or holiday.