Kayaking with Tierce

Today, Mischa and I took Tierce to First Lake, one of the Nanaimo lakes south of the city. We had never been there before and ended up driving longer than we thought. However, it was a fun outing.

Kayaking with Tierce had some problems to be solved. He’s come a long way from the four-month-old puppy who I popped in the front hatch with ease:


In fact, it seems like the front hatch is now kind of cramping his style:


This could end up being a problem, because kayaks have this little issue concerning balance. It’s really easy to tip one over and I can’t have Tierce doing cartwheels while I’m paddling. At one point, Tierce was balancing on the top of the kayak, which ended up badly for him, as he tumbled into the water after slipping on the top.

So, we put him in Mischa’s kayak, which has a wider front hatch.

Later, I tried to make a bed for him on the kayak, but it made the kayak too top heavy.


The interesting thing is that Tierce didn’t overbalance the kayak when he was balancing on it himself so much as being in the “bed”.

So, at this point, I think I have a few options:

– stick a non-slip surface on the kayak so that Tierce can balance on the top easily. However, for sea kayaking, this is not the safest idea.

– teach him to lie against me on the spray skirt or in the cockpit while I’m paddling. Not a lot of room there, plus, there’s the danger that he and I could get stuck in the cockpit if we were to capsize.

– let Mischa take him in his kayak’s hatch, since it’s wider than mine

– figure out a way that he can sit and lie comfortably in the hatch without needing to wriggle, get up, turn around, fall out of the kayak, etc.

I’ve been searching on the Net for ideas, but haven’t got very far. I’m going to see if there are some creative things I can do with waterproof foam padding.

5 Comments

  1. From the baby stage, to the teenage years.. what a very handsome boy Tierce has become!

    a shiba near water??? say it isn’t so!!!!!!!! =)

    Nikkos Mom

  2. Yeah, there is no black mask on his face. That’s good. With that black mask he didn’t look like a purebred Shiba.

  3. I think shiba puppies are the reason why shibas are popular because they are so damn cute. That picture of Tierce kills me. SO adorable.

  4. I vote Misha’s Kayak.

    All purebreed shibas are usually born with a black mask that fades as they age. I still had some of my mask when I was almost 6 months old.

    And trust me, I am all Shiba.

  5. This is so exciting to see! I am now curious to see if my Daisy would be interested in sitting in the Kayak with me (on a lake, so no real “scary” waves or anything to worry about)! She’s always so curious about the water, and what is on and around the water, but she just doesn’t like the whole swimming thing to much…

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