We all want to spend as much quality time with our pets as possible. Some of the best moments are sharing our favorite hobbies and pastimes with our dogs.
And when one man wanted to share his love of the water with his Golden Retrievers, he went the extra mile and used a little ingenuity to accommodate his loyal pets.
For David Bahnson, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Vermont, the two best things in life were traveling around with his dogs and kayaking. And in 2015, he found an ingenious way to combine the two: he built a custom kayak, designed specifically to hold dogs.
David modified a kayak’s baggage opening into a perfect “dog-shaped hole,” lacking enough leg room for another human but perfect for his dog, Susie. He also added a removable ring to keep water from splashing in.
“Our dogs have always loved to travel with us in cars, in my airplane, in boats,” he told Huffington Post UK. “Building a way for them to kayak with us just seemed like a logical choice, and the boats are fun to build anyway.”
When he got a second dog, Ginger, he made even more room, adding a second doggie hole to the vessel. “It’s like a triple kayak,” he told The Dodo.
With a dog-friendly kayak, David was able to pursue his favorite hobby with his loyal dogs still by his side, and the lucky dogs got a rare chance to experience a kayak ride, which they loved.
“They seem to love it,” he said. “They get excited when we’d pull the kayaks out and see that we were going. They are trained to get in the kayak themselves on command. They sit down, and off we go.”
Sadly, Susie and Ginger have since passed away, but it’s clear they got to enjoy some very special quality time with their loving owner, and that’s what really matters.
And the special doggie kayak has since been passed on to a new generation: “My wife and her friends still use the kayaks and she takes our newest golden, Piper, along with her,” he told HuffPost UK.
“I love my dogs. I love training them, the companionship. We’ve gone miles and miles of paddling with our dogs,” he told The Dodo. “They just really enjoy going places.”