There's a neat dog park in my area we went to for the first time last night. It is almost completely wooded and has a stream running through the middle of it. The only problem with this park: Totally unfenced. Luckily I went with a group of 6 dogs that are part of Xerxes' "pack." Of course there are picnic areas/grills and the like nearby. So the dogs kept running off to get food. Who can blame 'em, the food smelled pretty darned good. I was tempted to steal some chicken off the grill myself.
Anyways the two discoveries were these: X has better recall than I thought. He came back to me several times and only strayed when 3 of the dogs were foraging. And he had his first experience with being in the water. The stream is only about 2 feet deep in this area. At first he was scared beyond belief, after he got into the middle of the stream. About 10-15 minutes later and a lot of coaxing, and me having to ignore his "I'm puppy come save me" barks, he came back to the shore, a mere 10-12 feet away. After the initial scare, he was back in the water horsing around like a champ.
Maybe this is in the wrong forum but I didn't see a "brags" forum so...
-Ed