
DATE: Friday, July 11, 1997                 TAG: 9707100236

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  129 lines

OUT ON THE WATER, IT'S A DOG'S LIFE SEA-LOVING CANINES ARE HAPPY TO SHIP OUT SERVE AS FIRST MATES TO THEIR MASTERS.

WHEN TRAVIS, a yellow Labrador retriever, goes to sea with his mistress, Susan Barco, he has one mission in mind and it's not retrieving ducks.

Barco is no waterfowl hunter. She is a Virginia Marine Science Museum dolphin researcher who studies the big mammals that swim up and down Virginia Beach's coast in summer. And Travis has adjusted his natural doggy instincts to be perfectly in tune with Barco's profession.

No longer a typical retriever, Travis seeks out dolphins on the horizon instead. Leaning over the boat's bow, the big Lab scans the water searching for the graceful marine mammals.

With one hind leg down on the deck, three legs resting on the gunwale and his head under the guard rail, Travis concentrates hard on the rippling water ahead.

All that's missing is binoculars.

When a dolphin surfaces to breath and Travis sees its fin and back break the water, he barks - suddenly and loudly. Excitedly running around the boat, tail wagging, he looks for dolphins from port, from starboard and from the stern. Then he heads back to the bow where he hangs over the side again watching intently as Barco photographs the animals' fins for identification purposes.

Travis is just one of many ``salty dogs'' in the area who go to sea with their masters and mistresses and have altered their retrieving instincts to suit their owners' hobbies and professions.

With Travis, it's dolphins instead of ducks. With other sea dogs, maybe it's a fish instead of a tennis ball or a feisty blue crab instead of a Frisbee.

Tails wagging, heads held high, sea dogs like Travis, Hunter, Ginger, Kroozer, Bandit, Charlie and Daisy are familiar with docks and they get on and off their boats as smoothly as they go out their back doors at home.

``Hunter is my first mate,'' said waterman John Meekins, who crabs on the Lynnhaven River.

Nine-year-old Hunter, a black Lab, goes out with his master every morning when Meekins checks his crab pots. Hunter watches Meekins get ready, anticipating the morning run like an ordinary Lab might anticipate a hunting trip when he sees his master bring out the hunting gear.

``Every morning it's like his first day,'' Meekins said. ``He knows the time I go and if eating gets in the way, he just doesn't eat.''

On board the boat, Hunter lies on the bow and keeps an eye cocked on Meekins. When he hears the sound of the winch that hauls in the crab pots, Hunter gets up and comes over to inspect the catch.

``He's real curious about what's in every pot,'' Meekins said.

On days when it's not too hot for a dog, Hunter returns to spend the afternoon with Meekins at his crab stand at the foot of the old Great Neck Road bridge. Back at the crab stand, Hunter will stand on his hind legs with his paws draped over the side of Meekins' shedding tank so he can watch the peeler crabs scuttle around. He barks and wags his tail with a proprietary excitement when the crabs move.

Waterman Brian Ewell is another crabber who takes his dogs to sea. Ewell takes both his Labs, Charlie and Daisy, along on the trip each morning. Charlie knows better, but Daisy still likes to play with the crabs as they are dumped from the pot.

Bandit, another black Lab, thinks fishing is the finest thing a dog can do. He often goes out with his master Mike Ney, a recreational fisherman, who works at Abner's Ace Hardware. Lying on the engine box, Bandit perks up when he hears Ney begin to reel in his line. He can tell Bandit is disappointed when there's no fish on the hook.

When Ney goes out on the water for an all-day fishing trip, he leaves Bandit behind because the sun gets too hot for the dog, but Bandit doesn't accept that as thoughtfulness on the part of his master. ``He's disgusted,'' Ney said, ``and goes off in a corner and ignores me.''

But Ney knows best. The heat and sun out on the water can be hard on dogs. They can get overheated quickly with their warm fur coats. Short-haired dogs, particularly, also can get sunburned.

Although water dogs are strong swimmers, Donald and Nicole Bostic also worry about their dogs' safety on the water. Ginger and Kroozer, their golden retrievers, wear doggy life preservers when they go to sea for a boat ride with the Bostics.

``Our dogs don't try to jump out, but we put life preservers on them in case they slip overboard and hit their heads,'' Donald Bostic said.

He is the owner/manager of Owl Creek Pet Hotel and he sells the fluorescent green and yellow jackets in his the kennel shop. ``A lot of people think it's funny, but I don't,'' Bostic said. ``People wouldn't take a kid out without a preserver.''

Dory Hoffman, a professional dog training instructor with Canine Training Unlimited, thinks life preservers are a good idea, too. She said she once knew a dog that rode a surfboard and has been told about one that rides a catamaran. Both require sure footing. ``That's pretty tricky,'' Hoffman said.

Tricky footing or not, living an unusual lifestyle is a pretty simple thing for a dog if it's brought up that way, Hoffman said. ``It's conditioning,'' she explained. ``It's a way of life. It's bonding with its owner.''

Although not all salty dogs are water dogs, like Labs, Hoffman said, the water dogs are the ones that take to it naturally. ``You won't see many greyhounds or whippets standing up out there,'' she said.

The sight of leaping dolphins, flopping fish or skittering crabs is what puts a little excitement into what is really a pretty boring boat ride, she explained.

Seeing dolphins up close is definitely what takes the boredom out of Travis's day. As soon as a group of the fast swimming creatures approach the boat and catch the momentum of the water rushing off the bow, Travis goes into high gear. Hanging over the side as far as he possibly can, he barks madly at the big dolphins swishing alongside the boat.

Occasionally one will slap the water with its tail, as if it's telling Travis to cool it. Travis gets soaked but it's no deterrent.

``By the end of the summer, he has a little bald spot on his belly from lying on the gunwale,'' Barco said.

All in a day's work for a sea dog. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by STEVE EARLEY

Travis, a yellow labrador retriever owned by Susan Barco, watches

the ghostly shapes of dolphins swimming beneath the water at Cape

Henry.

Susan Barco helps Travis climb aboard after a swim in Broad Bay.

Ginger, Kroozer and Catahoula always wear their doggy life

preservers when they go boating with the Bostics.

Mike Ney always has a willing fishing companion in his dog Bandit.

Waterman John Meekins gets help from Hunter, his 9-year-old black

Lab, when he checks his crab pots.