Paddle-boarding!

HOW WE GOT STARTED!

When I was 13 years old my grandmother and I use to walk along the Allegheny River in Oakmont. Its about 25 min from the city. We would always watch this lady paddle-board with her golden retriever, I thought that was so cool and ever since then I always thought about doing that with Bear!

Bear and I started paddle-boarding this summer (2022). I thought it was going to be super hard but it turns out as long as your dog knows the basics like sit, down, stay, then you should be good to go! The hardest part was the balancing, balancing alone on the board wasnt hard but adding a 40 pound dog on the board made it a challenge. After a little bit of obediance work on the board, Bear learned to stay still until I gave him the OK to move around freely and that also includes jumping off to swim!

Now, lets talk about where you can buy a paddle-board, where you can go paddle-boarding, and some tips so you can take your pup!

WHERE TO PURCHASE A PADDLE-BOARD

Most sporting stores like Dicks, Dunhams, Sportsmans warehouse, have paddle-boards. I orders mine off of Amazon because I have a 4 door Honda and could only get an inflatable. I love my blow up paddle-board, it cost roughly $180 dollars and is super durable!

WHERE TO GO

I have been to a couple places already in the Pittsburgh area!

Moraine State Park

Peters Lake

Cedar Creek

TIPS

• Get your dog comfortable offland first! Blow up the board and use treats and have him walk all over it and do some obediance work!
• stay close to shore whem you get in the water! Make sure your dog has good recall because he/she may swim back to shore. This is okay because its all about desensitzing the dog to something new!
• Do some more obediance!
• If your dog loves to play fetch and swim then use that as a reward and toss a ball in the water and let him jump off! Be prepared for the board to jerk a little!
• Start off on your knees! This helped me out alot and made the whole learning experience worth it!
• And of course safety first so if your not confident with your dogs swimming get him/her a life vest!