Dog Park!

Every day at lunchtime, I take dogs to the Dog Park.  This involves Lottie and sometimes Pascha, Skye,  Tango and Pony.  Lottie's first visit was her first week with us, and she didn't have the confidence she has now.  At one point she was running too far away from me and the other dogs, and she couldn't find us, and kinda paniced.  I was calling her and waving my arms, but of course she couldn't see or hear me.  I did it anyway, habits are habits.  I sent Pascha and Tango, the border collies, out to collect her, which they did, and she was so happy to be with us again.  Then a big ol' brute of a dog came up and wanted to play with her, which she was happy about, until he got too rough with her.  She is active, but very gentle, and he was too much.  He was pushing her down into the mud, and I had to step in and save her twice, which was annoying me because the brute's owner was standing there with us, talking to me, and doing nothing to stop his rude dog from frightening the poor handicapped puppy.  I told the owner that Lottie couldn't see or hear, as I went in to push the brute off of her and allow her escape, and his comment was, "well he doesn't know that."  I guess if his dog is rude AND stupid, it's okay somehow.  Finally I had to literally pick Lottie up and carry her away to keep her safe. 

But after her first couple of visits, Lottie's natural confident attitude took over, and now she is a crazy thing.  She bursts into the park at full speed, chasing the border collies, then running to the first person or dog she can find.  She meets and greets everyone in the park, both human and canine, no matter how many are there.  She makes the rounds.

Lately, though, she has taken to greeting everyone, then gets bored and starts chasing her invisible friends.  Everyone at the park seems to think this is amusing, but I would rather see her play with REAL dogs while she's there.  All the the dogs run and chase each other, and Lottie will join in, but if the action slows she gets distracted with the shadows or energy or vibrations or whatever it is that she chases and barks at, and she's off digging and barking at the ground.

Today, however, was great.  There were just a couple of dogs in the park, and Pascha and Tango.  I was throwing the bumper for the border collies, and Lottie was chasing with them.  Only one time she started to look at the ground, and I threw the bumper past her so the border collies would rush past and distract her, which they did, and she took off after them.  It was nice to have her play with other dogs the entire time.

Only one scary thing happened today, and that was the empty park bench that she came upon as she was at the far side of the park.  She freaked out and started barking, running backwards!  I waved my arms and got her attention, and she ran to me and stayed by myside for several minutes while she kept her head toward the scary park bench.  This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder what she sees.  Obviously she saw the bench, but why was it scary?  There are lots of benches around the park, what did she see scary in this one?  I don't think I'll ever know, but it is interesting to observe and wonder. . . .