CAPTAIN OBVIOUS

After I’ve completed maybe a trillion fetches of my favorite stick in the surf, what I’ll do is I’ll drop my shoulder, throw myself onto my back, and roll around in the sand.  I do this not just once, but again, and again, and again.  In this way, I’m able to reach not only

my back, but my sides and my legs.  If I lean way back as I roll, I can even feel the warm sand on my head and neck.  Guys and girls walking by on the beach tend to stop, stare, and laugh.  “What’s he doing?” they ask, looking to Beagle Man for an answer.  He shrugs, throws up his hands, and gives them a look that says, Your guess is as good as mine.  He’s a dog . . .

But I know he’s curious, too.  Because one day I saw him look it up online.  He found his answer in an article by Trisha Snow:

One of the first things dogs do is find their spot and roll around happily in the sand. There are many theories on why dogs do this – I choose to believe the reason our dog Lucy does this is for one reason only.  Although she is a water dog, she hates being wet. The best way for her remedy the problem is to roll in the sand to dry off. 

Duh.  Seriously, Beagle Man, you really had to look this up?  Think about it.  You love playing in the ocean, too.  And what’s the first thing you do when you get out?  You grab a towel and dry yourself off.  To be comfortable.  As the lady says, just because you love being in the ocean doesn’t mean you want to run around soaking wet!

And the hose?  Same idea.  When we go up to the house at the end of a beach day, Beagle Man heads right for the hose . . . and I head for the farthest corner of the deck, behind the lounge chairs.  Beagle Man finds this hilarious.  He says clever stuff like, “Does he really think I can’t see him there?”  Or, “He spends all day in the ocean, and now he can’t stand getting a little wet?”  Again, though:  What does Beagle Man do after a day in the ocean?  Does he turn the hose on himself, with freezing water and the nozzle set on “jet”?  No.  He takes a nice hot shower, with the pressure just the way he likes it.

Maybe if I was allowed to do this, I wouldn’t have to run and hide.

Beagle Man always has a lot to say, so I’ll just pipe up in The Duck Dog Speaks whenever I can.