Week 12 - Dog Park Experience

My first ever dog park experience.

My friend Betsy and I brought our pooches out this week.  We chose an overcast but lovely, 50 degree winter day.

A little background, Betsy has a beagle, Katy, that is adorable and well behaved.  Unless there is food involved, then her listening is a bit more of a crap shoot.  She is on a special diet due to food allergies so is always hungry or eager for different food providing options like trash cans and friendly people...)  My lovely critter, a 10 pound Alpha male maltese, Theo, is an OCD-ish dog that loves people but does not play well with other animals. He has some anxiety issues and a bit of a Napolian Complex as well (hence why I havent brought him to the dog park before! lol).

Hartford Park has an off leash park for dogs, located within the 31 acre Harford Park. The area for dogs (off leash) is about 5+ acres and includes a stream that dogs are allowed to splash in and a dog-friendly drinking fountain. There was a steady stream of social, well-behaved dogs running free when we arrived.  I kept Theo on his leash but was able to graduate him from 3' to about 20' of line by the time we left.  He is a smart dog and finally figured out that picking on the giant dogs is probably not in his best interest!  This park must be as close to paradise, for a dog, as is possible.  I would swear that all of the dogs had smiles on their faces!

The downside to this experience was that my dog came home COVERED in burrs! I spent about an hour Googling how to remove burrs and another hour picking/cutting out the burrs and bathing the dog.  Still after all was said and done, it was fun for all of us!  At one point one of the dogs there, pooped out an orange sock. Not many places you could discuss that and have people laugh with you then share their ugly stories with you.  Like the time we had guests and my dog came prancing into the middle of the room with someones hot pink underwear in his mouth! lol