Patrick & Golden Retriever Ricochet ‘Ricki’ Ride the Waves . . .

The video below shows Golden Retriever Richochet ‘Rip Curl Ricki’ and Patrick in a August 20, 2009 CBS News clip. They were practicing in Del Mar for their big debut, and it was looking like the dog days of summer — the dog surfing days, anyway.

Golden Ricki

This newest project for Ricochet, however, presented a unique challenge: training to surf tandem with Patrick Ivison, who suffered a spinal cord injury as a result of an accident when he was only 14 months old. Patrick was diagnosed quadriplegic, but he is able to surf using an adaptive surfboard. Ricki will be using this success in her upcoming surf competitions/fundraisers for Patrick.

Although Patrick has excelled through the years in both school and adaptive sports (adaptive surfing is his specialty), he recently decided that having a service dog would help him achieve greater independence as he approaches his college years. Paws’itive Teams, a local non-profit organization that places service dogs with persons with disabilities, caught wind of Patrick’s story and matched him with a Golden Retriever named Kona.

Patrick also participates in an intense physical therapy program funded through Help Patrick Walk, which helps him build strength by exercising parts of his body he can’t move or control on his own. Since starting his therapy, Patrick has been able to do things he never thought he could.

The costs of training a service dog, and specialized physical therapy are steep, however – that’s where Ricochet’s knack for surfing and fundraising comes in. Ricochet will be carving waves in San Diego for the next several weeks to prepare for the Helen Woodward Surf Dog Surf-a-thon in Del Mar on September 13, 2009 as well as the Surf City Surf Dog event in Huntington Beach on October 11, where she hopes to share a wave with Patrick.

Ricki is the youngest surFUR on the San Diego Dog Surfing Association Team, and is also a member of the Golden SurFURS team, which is composed of all Golden Retrievers! Check out the many Golden SurFURS in the video below. It is a true delight.

Learn more about Golden Surfing Dogs & see more surfing videos here.

Advertisement

Golden Gardeners Photo Contest: Winners announced!

We have just selected the winners in our Golden Gardeners Contest. Folks needed to submit their best Golden Retriever ‘gardening’ photos and complete the following sentence: “This is my Golden’s idea of gardening . . .”

Below, you can see our 1st place winner, a wonderful trio of photos submitted by Donna Johnson. To see all the fabulous winners and experience their stories, be sure to click here.

Golden Retriever Tye

Golden Retriever Brooklyn

Golden Retriever Delta

This is my Golden’s idea of gardening . . .

Brooklyn says: “Ah.. I love the fresh mud dad just filled this new planter with for mom to put pretty flowers in. I heard mom say she would also like to add a good size tree right in the middle. I can help in that area but I may need to round up some help as it has to be a pretty good size hole I would think for a big tree.

Delta learned quickly from watching her Great Aunt and took her turn trying to get that hole deep enough for my new tree. And then there’s our little Tye, so innocent and I’m sure his thoughts were nothing but thanks to the girls for giving him a nice big hole to lay in!