Getting Beach sand off your feet

IF you have ever visited a beach and the weather was warm enough and there weren't too many rocks and the beach is clean enough without a lot of glass or trash that might puncture cut your feet, often you might go barefoot along the beach in shorts.

This has always been a nice experience for me over the years since I was a child in Seattle (up to age 4) and then in Southern and now northern California. What is really strange is it is still warm enough today to walk barefoot comfortably without a flannel shirt or jacket on which is very strange for this late in the year (especially between Halloween and Thanksgiving) which tends to be the coldest it gets around where I live. Once the clouds come in more by December and January it isn't quite as cold usually because clouds to some degree hold the heat and don't dissipate it off into space as much here. So, that's why the next month normally is the coldest because normally it is clear and windy. So, this year it is clear and a little windy and about 10 to 20 degrees (at least warmer than normal) all day and night for this time of year.

After a beautiful time at the beach with my dogs using my Chuckit to throw an orange tennis ball for my dogs to chase along the beach I had to deal with the sand then on my feet. It was about 75 degrees at least Fahrenheit along the beach today.

So, I was thinking coming home about sharing with you about Crocs. Crocs are a rubberized sandal that covers your whole front of your foot but you can walk through lakes, rivers or through the ocean with them. However, I wouldn't wear them for climbing around on rocks because they can slip around too much for that. But, what I have found they are good for is to walk through surf or sand and usually most of the sand stays inside the sandal.

So, one way to deal with sand on your bare feet is to put the Crocs on when you are through at the beach and just walk to your car with them on full of sand. The sand will slowly go out through the holes and you can often just drive your car or truck that way back home and wash off your feet with a hose there unless you are at a public facility where they have fresh water open air showers to get surf and sand off your body and feet from the ocean and sand.

I used to use a different method when I was a surfer in the 1960s. This method consists of sitting on your seat of your car and rubbing one foot against the other. This usually gets rid of enough sand so you are free to not fill your carpet in your car with sand.

So, if you are going to go to the beach and walk barefoot in the sand and don't have a shower available this is one way to deal with the sand. (Actually, I gave you two or more ways to deal with the sand).

If you want a chuckit for your dogs here are some sites for that:

Shop for chuckit

•  
• 
  Chuckit! 22" Ball Launcher -...
  Target
  $11.99
• ChuckIt! Kick Fetch Dog Toy,...
  PetFoodDirect.com
  $13.00
• 
  Chuckit! Ultra Rubber Ball,...
  Chewy.com
  $6.95
• 
  Chuckit! Zipflight, Medium
  Chewy.com
  $10.12

I was always throwing pine cones, sticks in the forest and seaweed branches for my dogs catch and other small pieces of driftwood in the forests and along the beach where I live in northern California like my father, uncles and cousins always had while I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. However, my daughter's corgi needed an operation on her mouth recently and a tooth removed in the back and I started to think that Pine cones and sticks might have been part of the problem. When I got my new dog (an 8 year old Yellow Lab) he was trained to fetch orange chuckit balls so my daughter's corgi began to convert to orange tennis balls instead. I find the ones without the tennis ball fur are best because the dogs don't have to have so many little rocks and dirt in their mouths while fetching the balls. Less dirt and rocks attach to the balls from the dogs saliva.

Also, I have found it is easier to actually find balls the dogs are fetching if I throw uphill on a trail like a fire road through a forest than downhill. But, I have also developed a method to throw down hill too. You just can't use as much force for down hill throws because you will lose the ball and the dogs won't get to it in time or they will run off a cliff edge or something. So, throwing uphill or on the level at the beach is best.

But, even at the beach think about how good a swimmer your dog is and whether they can deal with the ocean waves coming in. My yellow lab is good in most ocean conditions but my daughter's Corgi knows not to go in water at all because of bad experiences she had as a puppy running into the ocean and almost drowning. However, letting your young dog experience the ocean also trains them to have respect for it so they don't drown as older dogs. Because a puppy can't usually get very far without problems arising at first. So, they are pretty easy to rescue if necessary.

The other thing dogs are usually smell oriented over seeing since they only see in black and white and gray and can't see colors like humans do. So, their main sense (especially if they are outdoor dogs is there smell and hearing) and not seeing as much.

So, as humans since seeing and hearing are our first two senses usually and not smelling we are different creatures with different priorities generally speaking. What this means is if you don't keep track of your balls and look carefully where they land often your dogs will lose track of the orange balls. Even I lose one every 3 days or so of walking the dogs even if I keep an eagle eye on them every moment. This is because some underbrush can't be gone into and some covers too much ground to be able to see the balls. So, pick carefully where you have your dogs chase balls both for your safety and for theirs.

I have noticed the yellow lab primarily finds the balls through smell and hearing.