The unexpected lake experience

The other evening, after doing too much sitting around the house and a tiny bit of cleaning the garage, Alan and I decided to walk Dakota and Jaffery to the lake. Now, in all honesty, they have it pretty good. We have a large fenced in yard, Alan faithfully walks them each morning, and they have their own twin mattress. However, we all had been doing too much of nothing. Let's be honest, it is June in Minnesota, winter will be here before we know it.

We headed toward the lake. Dakota led the pack, pulling like there would be no tomorrow. Jeffery pranced at our side, ears back and nose up. Aside from Dakota walking us, it was a pretty great walk.

We got to the lake, attached their long training leashes, and let them go out in the water. Jeffery has always loved the water. He loves baths, loves the kiddy pool we have in the back yard, and runs out in the rain like its puppy treats falling from the sky. He even picked up on swimming right away. He doesn't swim for long, however always swims to the end of the 20 foot leash, and back to shore a couple times.

Dakota, on the other hand, is very hesitant and cautious around water. He hates rain so much he will hide in the basement all day, even at the sight of a single drop. Instead of playing in the kiddy pool, he drinks from it. If he hears the sprinkler come on, he hides, and when at the lake, he usually gets in till the water is touching his belly, or splashes his face, freaks out and wants nothing to do with it.

Yesterday's trip to the lake wasn't any different. Jaffery started his laps; Dakota cautiously headed into the shallow water, sniffing around, but careful to not get too far out. Between watching the puppies, Alan and I watched the boaters come in and load their gear onto trailers. It was really nice to get out of the house. After a bit, Jaffery was done with is laps and started whining, indicating he was ready to go. I looked over at Dakota and realized he was inching into deeper water. Alan had also noticed, and went a little in the water to give Dakota a little more leash. We looked at each other and smiled, knowing he hadn't been in the water this far before.

Suddenly, Dakota started running back toward us. Once he was near the edge of the lake, we saw it...
Dakota had caught a fish.

(Now the fish wasn't madly flopping around, so sure, Dakota grabbed a dead fish. However Dakota catching a fish is a way better story.)  ;)

He tossed it in the air, pawed at it, grabbed it again, and started prancing around; showing his prize. Now it all made sense. Dakota had not gone into the slightly deeper water to explore and possibly swim. Nope. He saw the fish and wanted it.

Dakota and his new found friend.

Of course, we told him to leave the fish behind. While he wasn't happy, he surprisingly left it there. However, seeing all the commotion, Jaffery was again interested in going in the water. We stayed a bit longer, having to tell them both, multiple times, to leave the fish.

We started back for home, experienced a beautiful sunset, and returned to make supper. Lucky for us, fish wasn't on the menu.