Dog park success!

With all this glorious time on our hands, Emmy and I went to the dog park twice over the weekend.  Emmy is not the friendliest of dogs and I’m always worried that she will be mean at the dog park.  On Saturday she was her usual self at the begging and didn’t let me out of her site.  I think she is terrified that I’ll abandon her at the park.  I have to walk around the paved circle to get her to start to socialize.  It’s a lot of laps for me and I look a little strange while other people are socializing.  We spent about 45 minutes there and she finally started to loosen up and approach other dogs.  She even found another antisocial dog who she stood next to.  Is that still considered being antisocial?  Bi-social?  Whatever.  The other dog was not interested in her and she was not interested in him, but they stood in harmony together.

She did so well that I was excited and wanted to take her again on Sunday.  She was patient when I took off her leash, but as soon as it was unhooked she jetted right into the park and looked back at me from 30 feet away with a face that said, you coming?  After a while, she really got in the mix.  I met a couple of other dog owners and relaxed a bit.  It was good training for the both of us.  She got herself dirty, played with other dogs, stayed away from the ones who were rough housing, and didn’t get run over by the gangly great dane puppy. 

Something that my Dad pointed out later in the day when I was telling him that Emmy is really starting to show her age when it comes to running around a lot, was that he noticed that instead of making a spectacular jumping catch like she would have in her younger years, she watches the ball or Frisbee fly over her head and then with turn to chase it.  My little girl is a senior citizen dog now and knows that she needs to save her joints.  She religiously gets her glucosamine supplements for this reason. 

This is her laying on top of me to get me up on Saturday morning.

Just watching the other dogs.

A lot of times she is too nervous about the other dogs to have her head down in the bucket to drink water.  We're making progress here.

Still being antisocial.

Hanging out with the other antisocial dog.

On Sunday she was tired from playing ball and lay down in the mud.

She didn't even wait for me to go to bed!

Happy woof!