{"id":20782,"date":"2019-08-08T17:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=20782"},"modified":"2024-08-27T08:54:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T15:54:01","slug":"standard-rafting-gear-rusty-the-bear-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2019\/08\/08\/standard-rafting-gear-rusty-the-bear-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Standard Rafting Gear: Rusty the Bear Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you let your daughter volunteer at the local animal shelter, then you\u2019re going to end up with an animal in your home, which is how we came to adopt Rusty, an alleged Chesapeake Bay Retriever\/ Labrador mix who doesn\u2019t like water and won\u2019t retrieve anything.<\/p>\n

He wouldn\u2019t have been my first choice, but sometimes you don\u2019t choose a pet; they choose you. And Rusty did this by coming into our house, going to the basement, finding my rolled up raft, lifting his leg and peeing on it.<\/p>\n

So, welcome home, dog.<\/p>\n

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Before long we learned about Rusty\u2019s other endearing traits. Thanks to a stint as a nursing home comfort dog, during which time he was probably fed burnt toast and uneaten jello, he became, and still is, food motivated. Anything on the counter is fair game. And his past of bouncing from place to place inspired the kind of separation anxiety that gives him the power to deconstruct metal kennels with his teeth.<\/p>\n

He also has an infuriating ability to ignore his name when he is otherwise occupied. He jumps on the furniture, tries to sleep on the bed and rolls in dead things. Add to this list the need to fight other dogs, and you have a pretty good description of Rusty.<\/p>\n

As a water dog he is reluctant at best. His separation anxiety battles with his general dislike of deep water. He will swim across a large lake to follow me in my kayak, but he won\u2019t like it. And on a hot day he will go into the water up to his belly but no farther.<\/p>\n

In a less than perfect placement, a family that spends all summer boating adopted Rusty. And since we weren\u2019t going to change our lifestyle, we bought Rusty an NRS CFD (Canine Flotation Device)<\/a> and hoped he would make peace with his new life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

His first whitewater experience was on the Lower Salmon near Riggins, Idaho. He rode upfront in the raft between the kids. After the first set of rapids, during an unattended moment, he jumped overboard and began frantically swimming for the shore, as if to say \u201chell no!\u201d<\/p>\n

The handle on the CFD allowed us to lift him out of the river and set him back on the raft. More rapids followed. We all felt bad about terrorizing our dog, but the other option was boarding him while we were floating rivers and, although we didn\u2019t consult Rusty, given his separation anxiety, this option seemed worse.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, rapid by rapid and river by river, Rusty has become more comfortable on the raft. On the river, his separation anxiety outweighs his fear of moving water. When we start loading the raft, he\u2019s the first one to jump on board.<\/p>\n

We joke that he has become standard rafting equipment\u2014he even has a handle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This summer we won a July Rogue River Permit. Not all rivers allow dogs, but the Rogue does so Rusty was going rafting again.<\/p>\n

The ranger at the Smullin Ranger station, where we checked in for our river permit, warned us that the Rogue River Corridor has a bear problem. A number of groups had a bear or multiple bears raiding camps both day and night. Bears bulldoze camp kitchens, swipe unattended bags, and even climb on boats to inspect coolers. The problem is bad enough that the BLM has installed electrified enclosures in many of the most popular camps.<\/p>\n

Besides the usual bear precautions of cooking in a separate area, keeping food in bear-proof containers and keeping a clean camp, the ranger advised taking coolers off of the rafts at each camp and strapping everything together, so gear would be harder to haul off. She also said to pile dishes up on the camp table: \u201cA bear is going to be in your camp and you want to know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n