Dog Friendly
As I was paddling downstream towards Sandy Beach on Saturday, after doing a few more kilometres after the 4km race I passed a guy on a sit-on top who was trying to call his two dogs back which were running along the bank. They weren’t taking much noticed and one dog thought that David Brown was its owner so it started following David rather than its real owner.
As the owner shouted the dog it just kept following David for several hundred metres. I imagined it was going to end up at Ascot Kayak Club and being lost so when I nearly caught up with David I shouted for him to stop and turn his kayak around so the dog would stop and go back to its owner.
David didn’t really hear what I was saying but he slowed and being only a few metres from the shore the dog rushed over to him and attempted to climb onto his kayak. It then ran back to the shore before getting back into the water and leaping over the bow of David’s kayak like a show jumping horse, clipping the kayak as it went. I was hoping David would go into deeper water to get away from it, but it then swam around to the stern of the kayak to just behind David and started clawing and
climbing on board.
David was paddling his Time Bandit which is not the widest of kayaks but for a few moments the dog managed to sit on the back deck with David trying to keep himself upright. As I watched the dog clawing its way on board I started feeling bad that I had asked David to stop as I imagine the kayak would be full of scratches.
After it fell off I managed to call the dog and lead it away from David and towards its owner who was paddling towards us.
I’m not quite sure if it was blind or just too excited and just wanted company but it looked very happy swimming over to David. As you can imagine David looked very surprised and I'm sure he couldn't believe what was happening to him.
Apparently the kayak was okay and no paint job is necessary so I don't feel so guilty asking him to stop.
