I sometimes get this idea to move to Kauai and bring Dozer and open some kind of business called “Island Dog” that features his smiling face with a big lei around his neck.

Island dogs spotted in the distance

I have no idea what this fantasy business does, I simply have an unshakeable knowing that Dozer’s happy and newly Hawaiian mug would make for fine advertising.

Anyway, I was at the beach yesterday and these two dogs were running around, tied together with a surf board tether.

Now, the inherent arrogance of the dog chain gang is the assumption that at least one of them is not a raving idiot…and that the ‘good’ one is the dominant dog.

In my case, back when I had two dogs, this would have been a terrible plan.

Pixie, my German Shepherd, was physically much smaller, but she was also about three hundred times more clever. And she lived to run off. My nickname for her was “The Bolter” as there was nothing that dog loved better than to catch the scent of a rabbit two miles in the distance and take off after it…with Dozer in tow.

Headed my way.

The amazing thing was if you called Dozer, he would often come back.

Tether them together?

Not so much.

So anyway, back to my point, these two dogs – a Jack Russell Terrier and ???. I don’t know. Maybe a white Jack Russell? Or a Jack Russell mixed with something white? – were tied together and roaming the beach. I can only assume from both locale (Donkey Beach – rough waves for anything but surfing) and circumstance (the surfboard tether holding them together) that their owner was a surfer who’d left them to do as they pleased as he rode the waves.

I saw them walking around and kind of waited for the moment when one would try to go one way and the other would have none of it and there’d be a battle of wills…but that didn’t happen. Rather, in tandem, they sensed the vibe of a sucker and came and hung with me. And they were super mellow and kick-back, which I suppose is befitting a Kauai-based surfer dog.

Unsure about sloppy kisses from a strange island dog. The SPF 500 I favor gives me the appearance of an escaped member of a Kabuki theater troupe.

I didn’t have any food, but they didn’t seem to mind. The white one (the male) content to hang out on my towel, and the bi-color female not far off. And not to imply there’s some magic power I have over dogs, when I got up to leave, they simply rearranged themselves a few feet from where I’d been, and continued hanging out on the sand. So there’s really no point here. Just I wanted to share my humorous observation about the arrogance of tying two dogs together and letting them roam. And publish these cute doggie pictures. And I suppose that has led to the realization that I could dress Dozer up like an island dog, but he’d never really be one.

Even five minutes alone on a beach could result in a wide variety of disasters:

General barking and growling at small children – He’s afraid of toddlers…and most pre-schoolers…and anyone with a really high-pitched or shrieky voice gets him amped out of his mind.

Food snatching – I tell people that living with Dozer is like living with a black bear. You have to hang all your food from the trees or store it in bear-proof containers. He’d pretty much go through a car windshield if he thought there was a slice of pizza in it for him.

With my new best friends.

Separation anxiety – If he’s left alone in a strange place, he gets anxious and starts howling and digging at the door.

General mayhem – That could run the gamut from digging a large hole right next to someone’s blanket to heading off into the hills in search of adventure to more of the food snatching previously mentioned.

In other words, even if he does one day become an island dog in name, I will never tie a surf board tether to him and let him roam freely. So you can rest easy in that regard.