I know it seems crazy from what you know about my dog, but she is quite well behaved in the dog park. For some reason being off of her leash and fully able to interact with the other dogs reduces the crazy to almost zero. The only thing I have to be careful of are the people with totally-unstable dogs who go to the dog park anyway. Juneau is not afraid to continue a fight if she feels threatened.
We are currently in the process of selling our condo (that could be a whole other blog). Yesterday we had an open house and needed to be gone. Since it was a beautiful day, I took the dogs to the dog park in Derry, NH. The park only had about 10-15 dogs in it, which is a good amount. Sometimes it is so crowded you can't find your dog. (Mostly I lose Lucy because she is fairly small and black like 50% of the world's mutts.)
Juneau was a perfect angel in the dog park. (Yes I am shocked.) Even walking up to the park I wasn't dragged and she wasn't barking. She ran around a little bit with a Golden and then she found a deflated basketball. She then decided she could not leave this ball for even one minute. Being a Shepard, she likes to keep her herd together, (also she is clingy) but even me walking all the way across the park wouldn't make her leave the basketball, although she did whine quite a bit. For some reason picking up the ball to come to me didn't occur to her, even when I tried to get her to stand in the shade.
Other dogs came to see her and she greeted them normally. Just when I was starting to think a deflated basketball might be the key to her training around other dogs, she decided it was a resource to be guarded. A standard poodle came over and instead of sniffing her, it sniffed the basketball. Juneau growled and snapped at the poodle. So I took the ball away from her and we went home. Obviously the basketball-dog relationship had gone too far, and I certainly didn't want our perfect hour at the dog park to be ruined by a fight with an expensive pure-bred dog. Lucy was exhausted anyway, being black and 13-years-old in the hot sun for an hour.
Next week is the orientation class of the "Diamond on the Ruff" class at the MSPCA. I'm so excited to learn what to do to make the crazies less!
What a fun, happy day it sounds like you all had! (And hopefully the trip out of the condo will be worth it, too...) I wish I had more opportunities to socialize Zeke, but without a dog park or training classes, the only chances we get are on leash, on walks, and it's not helping us get anywhere. He's super playful and friendly with dogs, but I don't yet have enough control to fully trust that he wouldn't leave alone a dog who didn't want to play. I also worry I would let him off leash at a park and would just never see him again -- all of which is exactly why we NEED a dog park. Practice! Can't wait to hear how the classes go!
ReplyDeleteAnd, uh, that's Marissa. Not sure why it posted under my super-extinct google blogger account...
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