Another warm Sunday means a good time to visit the Altona Doggy Beach. On this occasion we were joined by Olivia with Arthur and Kathryn with Ziggy.
Arthur the German Shepherd is at first glance massive and a little confronting. But the second you meet him you just know he’s a big softy. Watching him bound around the beach with the other dogs was a show of his true nature. At three years old he’s still a puppy at heart.
Arthur looking grand.
Bill and Arthur Meet
While it looks like Bill is terrified and running from Arthur, they are just playing.
At one point Arthur was playing with another dog, or at least trying to play with another dog, when the owner looked horrified at Olivia and asked “Will your dog bite my dog?” Olivia responded in a natural way “No, will your dog bite my dog?”
Not the dog owned by the person who asked will your dog bite mine,
the puppy’s owners were a little hesitant, but saw Arthur was a softy.
Finding the question absurd as an observer of the dogs’ behaviour I was thinking perhaps it was the other owner’s first time to the doggy beach.
Having experienced our first time a few years back with Adam and Eve you can understand the hesitance in letting your dog run free on a beach full of other dogs. At any time there are easily more than 50 dogs running around the park. On a good day like Sunday there would have been at least 100.
So like the woman who asked the question, we could also understand Kathryn’s initial hesitations about even coming. Her puppy, Ziggy, had never been off the lead and hadn’t had a lot of dog socialisation since his days at puppy pre-school.
But the second Kathryn arrived and from the vantage point of the edge of the beach she could see all the other dogs running around. Her fears that Ziggy would bolt off and disappear forever (a fear we all have the first time) she could see were unfounded as no dog was more than 100 feet from their owner and always returning regularly to check on them.
So from that point Ziggy was off the lead and he stuck by his mummy like glue. He was a little nervous himself as he approached us. Not sure what to do when Bill ran up to say hello but seemed to quickly remember him.
Kathryn with Ziggy
Bill and Ziggy say “hello”.
So the doggins and their owners wandered the beach for a good hour or so while the dogs dashed off to say hello to others, and went in for a little swim.
General puppy play
Other found stuff
Scrappy dog and his little friends
I wonder if she has a dalmatian plantation?
You just know the floaty is for the little pug!
A Pug
Gorgeous Puppy
I love the number of families who come to the beach. The whole pack.
It was a fun afternoon, we said goodbye to Olivia and Arthur and headed over to Creme in Altona for a late lunch. Ziggy was a people magnet with many a person coming up to chat about how cute he was.