June 28th Surf Clinic !!!

Hi All,

Just to let ya know were hoping for a fun surf clinic this Sunday at the Newport River Jetty's ! If you want to come see dogs learn to surf, take a spin on your bike or drive down or walk over depending on where you live !!! We will be there around 9am just take a look at this map !!!

Hope to see you all there as we will have a full fun day at the beach!

And may the 3 Celebs that past this week R.I.P. !

Rene

Loews Surf Contest in Coronado Rocked !!!

Hi All,

We went down to support our pals ( canine and human ) at the Loews Surf Dog contest in Imperial Beach CA, and man was it a blast ( a bit cold and so so waves) and the crowd was great the volunteers from Loews were super, the media was having a barking time and of course the surfing dogs all had a blast !!!

These are some links to picts, our close friends are Nani the Bernese with the O so great lifejacket, Abbie the black & Tan that got 2nd in our evnet, Buddy the Jack that place 1st in 40 and under, Dozer our bulldog that isn't afraid of the water, even Elvis left the building to catch some waves ! Everyone remember the key to any event, it's not who wins, it's how much fun we all had together as a team !!!

SD Tribune

daylife.com

The Today Show

Great shots for the AFP

Were looking forward to having our event July 11th along with the Red Carpet Party so talk us up, spread the word and lets get ready to have a dog surfing time in HB to benefit the OCSPCA !!!!

CowaCanine !!!

Dog/Cat CPR

Hi All !

So this coming Sat were off to the Loews Dog Surf contest in Coronado just south/west of San Diego downtown so if you want something fun to do come on down, June 20th to cheer all the pups on !!!

Now I'd like to let everyone know that learning CPR for your pet is So very important ! We have a great resource to use from a gal named Melanie Monteiro on page 122 of her book this is covered, she has kindly donated some of her books for our event. I also found a simple sheet you can print that covers CPR here !

Make sure you take the time to at least read and print this as you never know when it might come in handy I'm taking a CPR class for animals soon, as I travel alot and now having 3 dogs out running it's a good idea for me to have it just in case. I hate to say but when we held a clinic we saw a couple that brought two dogs to the beach and the one was 60lbs+ but the other was about 10lbs ( Yorky) if that and they let the lil guy swim and swim and he went into cardiac arrest and our pal TJ ( and the lifeguard) tried to save him, the parents made way to many mistakes that could have maybe helped save his life he was just 7yrs.

In any event BE educated and ready for anything, I say at least keep the cpr sheet laminated and in your car or back pack and make sure you know of a 24hr emergency care ( pet, NOT human, human hospital will Help Zero) close to your area, one thing I have always done when I travel is pay attention to the vets or clinics that I pass along the way just in case( I see so many people that have not the faintest clue when they pull into a new town) you will need one or might be able to help someone else in need !

1st Surf Clinic Rocked ! Dogs surfing rocks !!!

Hey All,

Just a quick note to Thank Crystal for showing up and helping out, also the gals from the OCSPCA popped in to see what was up! Also thanx to the people that showed up, we had Kia jump writ up for basicly lesson 2 that's gettin you pooch to want to jump on the board willingly ! then I pulled her for the dogs to see. Then we had Maggie step up and jump on 1st time, then her brother, then even Golie our sweet Boxer that Trisha drove down from LB ! Also our Pal TJ showed up and we had Crystal paddle with her two min pins, now keep in mind we were in 2ft of water and it was dead calm why we had not put vests on the dogs yet as it was one on one. But keep in mind we always promote using vests and we had them but since it was so shallow it was easier to have them just take turns. now all lessons from here on out will Require vests as we will graduate to the open ocean and that for sure will warrant vests !!!

I have posted the picts at this link so that you all can add to them if you have surfing dog picts ! It's an open group so you can post picks from your training, yard, lake, beach or anything that apply's to teaching a dog to surf !

Thanks again to all ( including Crystal's pal Katharine), and also to Campster.com and Kiapet.com for donating a board ea to our loaner program !

Woof Woof,

Surfin Paws

Introducing our Newest member of the team !

OCSPCA and SurfinPaws would like to welcome Crystal to our team !!

"Aloha! My name is Crystal. I was born and raised in Southern CA, where Ive always lived less than 10 minutes to the beach. After high school I volunteered at a local animal hospital and ever since I've loved working with animals. I'm currently working in Newport Beach as a veterinary technician and also attending a veterinary assistant program to obtain my RVT license. Since my work is so close to the beach, I can't help but check out the surf after a long days work. I've been surfing for 5 years, and will be for the rest of my life. My dog Flash, a dachshund also shares the same love for the water. Its always a blast riding waves with him. Well, we'll see you in the water!

Crystal Romero"

Crystal will be assisting in surf lessons the month of June getting dog/humans ready for the big event !!!

Our first water lesson will happen June 7th at 1pm at the Newport River Jetty's if you all don't know about twitter you had better sign up! We will be using that to keep updates going and such ours is Twitter.com/SurfinPaws Now keep in mind we will have some loaner foam boards for this clinic just make sure you have at least worked on lesson #1 prior as it will make things much better.. now keep in mind we spoke with Tyson the skateboarding bulldog and he's going to give surfing a shot, so our Crystal and Rene will get to help Tyson roll into a new sport !!! Ok back to the lesson, were gonna be there for a couple hrs maybe longer if it's a super nice day as we luv to chill at that nice spot !

any questions can be sent to SurfinPaws@gmail.com or just check our site SurfinPaws.com for Red Carpet or contest info. Keep in mind these are free lessons if your signed up to surf in our contest !!!

Rene

How to teach your dog to surf ! ( lesson 1, in home pre training)

Hi all ! Our event is fast approaching, yahoo! We will be holding some clinics the month of June. I have been asked by people the best way to get a dog to ride. I base these first pre-surfing tips from a bit of experience getting Kia to ride many things like skateboards, motorcycle, electric scooters, boogie boards ( she did a 6 hr river float trip in AZ 4yrs ago) kayaking and the list is long.

My first tip for people is to get to Costco and buy a foam surfboard, most any dog can ride a longboard so I say get the 7-8ft depending on your dog size but also what you can carry to the beach in your vehicle.

Ok, now you have board and ready to get your pooch to ride !

Drop the board on the grass, or on the carpet in your house, and see what the dog does many will just jump on, others you might need to treat to get on the board, the key is to let the dog jump on it themselves ( not to force them ever). Now lets say your dog gets on the board, give them a treat and TONS of praise ( dogs on boards is NOT natural) so be way excited, NEVER rush them. This might take a short time, or could take a day or a week. It's all up to your pooch. Always take and be patient, dogs build trust with positive feedback ( treats don't hurt either).

Now lets say Fido is luving to get on the board, great, now step 2 !

Place board in pool or lake ( NOT ocean with waves) now repeat the above step getting your pooch to want to get on board. Treat each time they do.

Now once dog is fine with getting on the board while it's on water time to pull-push the board around so they get the idea of how to balance while moving.

Once again this might take lots of time, or no time at all.

Now once you get to this point your ready to hit the ocean. I highly recommend for starters to hit the Jetty's at the Santa Ana river and PCH, you turn towards the ocean at Orange St. then make right and go all the way to the end, I also warn you to check the tide you want a nice LOW tide to surf. As your gonna put your dog on the board in the shallow and do the same you did at the lake or pool. Once your dog is cleared with this step, then I say go out to the white wash ( the part that bubbles up after the waves break, it's the foam part we all play in) and see about catching a wave from that point, keep in mind you really want to have your dog get on the board and you push them out while on it, it's NOT a good idea to have your dog swim out and try to hop on, our pal Peter in Del Mar has this Mastered with Nani she's 85lbs, all he does is push her out then push her into the wave and she's off. Feel free to email us via the SurfinPaws site if you have any questions !

The pictures on this Post are for you to see that what I'm explaining here will get you to the point of your dog jumping up on the board and you being able to just push your dog out into the waves like Peter and Nani do !!!

Always be safe, wear a life vest, Nani is 85lbs so in being that large the vest in 3' of water is not so critical, but Kia being 8.5LBS always has one on, I like to stress to wear one no matter what!

Rene Bruce
SurfinPaws.com

New Kia and Nani Tadem dog surfing video!

Got to luv hangin 40 paw pads !!! ( you can watch the original in blogger vid, or click the youtube version) the youtube can be watched in High Quality!