A Dog’s Day at the Beach

I’ve never had a service dog until now. I’ve had numerous other dogs over the years, but this is my first actual trained and registered dog. Ryland came to me from an organization in California called Guide Dogs of America. I’ll admit it…. I’m old, I’m opinionated and grouchy sometimes. I guess it’s the curse of being an aging Marine Corps artilleryman. Deaf as a post, and the older I get the less social I become. I saw those grizzled old veterans shuffling around town when I was a youngster. I never realized that I would become one myself when I got older.

Today was Ryland’s first trip to the beach here in Maine. I’m in the Downeast area of Maine and my house ain’t very far from a nice stretch of semi sandy beach called Roque Bluff. Most beaches here in Maine are fairly rocky. The ones that have a lot of sand are swarmed with tourists like fleas on a hound. But Roque Bluff is almost remote. It’s a tucked away little jewel that not a lot of tourists seem to know about yet.

The walk down to the beach

The walk down to the beach cuts between hedgerows of ragossa rose bushes and other types of thickets. Since I’m a hunter by nature, I always notice the slightest movement that appears not to flow in a normal manner. Have you seen it yet in this picture ? Maybe it’s hard to make out…. So I’ll blow it up for you.

Fawns in the thicket

I spotted a pair of fawn deer rustling in the brush… grazing. They didn’t see me at first, but I noticed them. They must have been this spring’s yearlings because they were still covered in their spots on the coats. Finally when the pair saw me the scooted off in the heavier brush with their tails flagging. Ryland of course, has never seen deer and since the fawns were her size she wanted to play with them naturally. She couldn’t get to them because the brush was thick and I had her on leash. This was just another of her newest adventures in Maine. Before it’s over, I’ll have her out in some pretty wild places in the backwoods.

Ryland doing her thing

Ryland was doing her dog thing, stopping to sniff everything that wasn’t nailed down or permanently sticking out of the sand. From what I understand (correct me if I’m wrong), these service dogs are trained by inmates in a prison. They do a really good job, but I’m told that in between the training sessions the dogs are kept in a kennel. That may or may not be true, but Ryland is being introduced to a lot of new stuff for a dog. And she goes nuts about each new experience I introduce her to.

Me and Ryland on the beach

The thing is with service dogs, the rules don’t apply to them quite the same way as with other dogs. There were signs along the beach that no pets are allowed. I imagine it’s because sometimes a pet will take a massive dump in the sand, and nobody wants to step in dog turds and have sand and poop stuck between their toes. I’m not used to having a service dog so I’m still testing the boundaries a little bit with this. So — I carefully walked along the way to see if anyone would say anything about the dog being here. Yep. A Park Ranger did approach and politely reminded me that pets are not allowed on the beach… but as soon as he saw Ryland’s service dog vest, he said “Oh. Never mind, you’re good to go.” He was pretty nice about it and we had a short chat. Now a lot of folks would have a melt down about something like this and say it’s not fair that I can have a dog in a “restricted area” and they can’t. Well…. Ryland is not a pet. She is a working girl. Over the years as I’ve gotten older I have become pretty antisocial. It happens sometimes with old Marines who have been there, done that and “seen the elephant” as that saying goes. Ryland’s primary purpose is to prevent me from strangling the heck out of people who get on my nerves. I’m not fragile. I’m not feeble. I don’t want or need to draw attention to myself in any way, because I’m not special.

But with modern society going down the path that it has these days… well — let’s just say that I don’t get along with most folks and leave it at that. I have a certain way of viewing the world and it doesn’t jive with modern man’s perspective. I’m a dinosaur basically and the world has changed around me…. And not for the better in my opinion. When you view the world through the sights of a rifle, it gives you a different outlook than most other people have. Things start looking an awful lot like nails and you feel you’ve been given a really big hammer. An outlook like this is sort of socially unacceptable, so I have Ryland to keep me on an even keel.

At any rate, Ryland is a big help getting me to the outside world once again. I had become accustomed to being alone with my thoughts to the point I stopped going anywhere there were people gathered. She has been able to help me semi function again in some social situations that I had stopped taking part in. I’m still standoffish and stubborn. But I’m finding that I can suppress the urge to pound the snot out of people these days. Today’s trip to the beach we hiked all the way to the far end where we had the place to ourselves without any interaction with anyone and we were not disturbing them either. See that picture ? Those red arrows are pointing towards how far away the other people were, and I was pretty happy with that.

Other people on the beach

Typical of any Maine beach, there are always rocks to climb around on. Most beaches are flat and sandy and smell of heavily salted air and dead things. Fish rot in the Sun when washed up on shore. Seaweed holds bacteria and start to take on a distinctive malodorous scent, but Maine is different. The sea smells here are pretty mild and it doesn’t give off an aura of rot like warmer places do.

Ryland wading in the surf

I’m not going to wax nostalgic and make any fantastic claims about how awesome this state is, but once you get away from the throngs of humanity, you can generally find a bit of peace and quiet off the beaten path.

Typical Maine beach

Sitting on the rocks this afternoon in the warm sun, I felt a little tension melt away if only for a short time. Ryland certainly enjoyed taking a break on a flat rock with me, tucked away on the far end of the beach free from the noise of other people and traffic. Nothing but the pounding of the ocean against the rocks in short rhythmic bursts.

Ryland