Dog park happiness (Dogma)

    • Gold Top Dog

    Dog park happiness (Dogma)

     Happy, happy! I don't usually have good things to say about dog parks. Too much craziness. But Eko has been bouncing off.the.walls and driving all of us (including Sasha) nuts. He doesn't like to play with toys that much.

    Yesterday morning, he woke up especially full of it and  I took him to the dog park. We'd been twice before in the evening, and while nothing bad happened to him it was a rowdy bunch and not something I feel comfortable with.

    The morning group is awesome!!!

    Mostly women, later middle ages, with well socialized dogs. They have no tolerance for dogs that don't belong at the park, and also avoid the place on evenings and weekends. They are the nicest group of people and most of them are there M-F. They know each other's dogs. Woo-hoo!

    I went again this morning and a man brought an 8 month old American Bulldog. He hadn't been in a long time because of the evening crowd, and said last time he was there he saw a nasty fight that had people injured trying to break it up. Indifferent  His bulldog was huge, but totally sweet and a respectful player, and Eko was thrilled with him. He also played with a sassy chi/jack russel mix which pleased me greatly. I don't want him growing up thinking small dogs are prey or live action toys. He went down to the ground so that the little dog could reach him and play chewy face. Yay! *sniff* I had a proud mama moment.

    I'm going to try and take him most mornings, M-F. My boy has a posse now. Cool 

    • Gold Top Dog

    That sounds like a great experience!  I think you'll really enjoy it too, I love having a morning routine!

    • Gold Top Dog

    That is a great story! I know I was going at a certain time and the same crowd was always there and they were terrible, but I changed my time and it was a whole different story. Congratulations!  You go, Eko!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Yay! I've always found the morning group to be much better than the evenings. Another good time to go is in the afternoon - not really crowded at all. Saturday mornings are pretty good too - I leave before too many crazies come in - usually around 3-4 when they are all waking up.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Its so great to find a good group so you can relax with your dog and not feel on guard.

    We normally have only good experiences but this past Saturday some boxer sniffed Dublin and lunged at him growling in a very aggressive manner.  It was a sheet of glass iced up mess we were standing on and I had trouble grabbing my dog.  The lady thank god got hold of her dogs collar in time because Dublin acted unlike I have seen him before.  He started showing teeth and was snapping at the boxer.  I was so scared.  It ended fine but for sure if I see them again I will make sure to head off on the hiking trails quickly.  I don't want my dog who is super social to feel threatened in his most happy place in the world.  A few times like that can ruin it for us both.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Nothing is better than a dog park posse.  We've got ours and it's like you describe - friendly and welcoming but we make it clear when a dog isn't behaving appropriately for the group so that we're able to keep the atmosphere light and fun for everyone.  Ben gets to play with the same dogs every day, I like that he has "friends" of a wrestling/chasing/first one to the tennis ball wins sort.  We schedule our day around meeting up with them, it's wonderful.  Every so often, a new dog joins and all the existing dogs teach it what it's like to be part of a huge pack. 

    I'm glad you had a positive dog park experience, and that Eko did too.  Burn off some of that puppy energy, little man.   

    • Gold Top Dog

    Totally agree!  Here to the M-F morning crowd is the best - and it is the only time I will take Wes to the park.  It is nice to see the same people and dogs daily and makes it really easy to monitor when a newbie may arrive and be able to nip any potential issues in the bud...  Glad you are having fun!!

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    • Gold Top Dog

    Funny - I went to the park twice yesterday - I left the first time because of a dog fight (and the fact that G was happier to go running up to it than come when called.... so much for a good recall when you don't practice it!)  We came back later in the night and this girl who owns one of my FAV dogs ("BettyLou";) greeted me like we were old pals.  She was so sweet and we made plans to get the dogs together again today. 

    Nice people and sweet dogs make up for the bad experiences, sometimes.