I spent Christmas playing in the surf with my fierce guard poodle. As you can plainly tell from the photo, Akela just loves the water. Immediately after this picture was taken, he was able to slip out of his harness and high-tail it (literally!) to the safety of the beach umbrella about 50 feet from the water line.

The beach is at Melaqui, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

Bonus points for knowing where Akela's name comes from. [No fair Googling!]

tanstaafl.