SUP pup: Ochi's first paddle board adventure!

It’s a big day for our little husky.

Ochi went on his first ever inflatable paddle board excursion with me over the weekend!

I absolutely love paddle boarding. This is my third summer with my ISLE “Pioneer,” and every time I make it out to one of northern Arizona’s water sources, I’m reminded why I took the plunge to buy this thing. Worth every penny.

Back when Ryan and I had Yukon, I had always wanted to train him to paddle with me. Yukon was absolutely terrified of water, and teaching him to paddle board always seemed like a Herculean task.

Ryan and I always planned on spending an afternoon getting Yukon accustomed to water and paddling, but sadly, we lost him way too young, and those plans never ended up coming to fruition.

But, when we got Ochi, I knew I wanted to resurrect those teach-my-dog-to-paddle-board dreams.

My friend Lindsey, also a husky owner, texted me last week to ask if I had a paddle board because, well, she was looking into getting one and teaching her husky, Logan, to paddle.

And… would I like to join?

Um… yes!

I’d actually just got my ISLE SUP out of the repair shop (more on that later) so joining Lindsey and Logan seemed like a really great no-pressure situation in which to introduce Ochi to his new lifestyle.

I’ve done a good amount of reading and research into how to train a dog to paddle board.

A lot of it involves treats, inflating your paddle board at home, and slowly testing it out on solid ground.

But, knowing that I have a husky — a breed notorious for being afraid of water, resistant to treats and bribes, stubborn as all-hell, staunchly opposed to listening and morally opposed to adhering to known commands — I figured all the training in the world wouldn’t be useful with Ochi, and it’d be way less frustrating to just wing it.

So, that’s what we did.

Lindsey and I picked the Narrows day-use area of Lake Mary, figuring the paved parking lot, easily-accessible boat launch and close-to-town location would make our feat a little more achievable.

*He couldn’t stop exploring the paddle board on dry land.*

Ochi wasn’t afraid of the electric pump, and seemed to deeply enjoy walking all over the paddle board before, during and after the inflation process.

I put Ochi in his float coat and his booties for the day. I wasn’t sure if he’d had experience swimming before (the shelter we got him from had photos of him enjoying a kiddie pool, but better safe than sorry) and I figured his booties would protect the surface of my paddle board from getting scratched up.

I clipped Ochi’s bungee leash to the center handle of my SUP, and leashed my SUP to my ankle.

The last thing I wanted was a husky in a life jacket, leashed to a paddle board, lost at sea.

*Ochi splashing around in the shallow water of Lake Mary!*

The excursion was already off to a great start: Sure enough, Ochi LOVED splashing in the shallow water of Lake Mary.

He splashes in his water bowl at home enough, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

I gave Ochi a little bit of time to paddle around near the shore and play around with mounting and dismounting the paddle board.

While Ochi was super happy to play in the shallow water, the deeper water was a bit more of a challenge. He did really great swimming in his float coat, but I’m really glad I had it because he did seem to be a bit hesitant in the water once his paws no longer touched the ground.

He kept attempting to swim back to shore, but once I started helping him up onto my paddle board, he caught on pretty quickly.

*Ochi testing the waters close to shore with Lindsey and Logan in the background.*

Ochi clumsily rolled off my paddle board twice while we were still close to the shore.

It didn’t take him long after that to learn to sit and lay down for stability, and we made it away from shore and out into the lake without any issues at all.

Ochi spent most of our trip laying down.

*But he did sit up a few times to enjoy the breeze!*

We spent about 90 minutes out on the water while our pups started gaining a little more comfort sitting, standing, laying and maneuvering. Luckily the Narrows is just that — narrow. So we didn’t have to worry about floating too far away from shore.

Ochi cried a lot during the excursion, but if you follow me on social media, you also know that Ochi is a very vocal baby.

He cries over just about everything.

I was a little worried that once we got back to shore, Ochi would declare himself done with the paddle board forever, but surprisingly, he was still content to jump up and down on it (while the fin was still attached, ugh) while I worked to