The Dog Park

After a busy Saturday, Luke and I decided today was Veg Day. I got bored and decided it was a good day to take Charlotte to the dog park. I thought she would be more well behaved, knowing how Ham likes to bark and gets so excited.

So Charlotte and I went, and she was so nervous, she was drooling the whole time, making it look like she was rabid. After about 45 minutes of walking around and sniffing other dogs, she finally would chase the tennis ball. All in all, I was very impressed with her, save the few minor incidents of jumping on people. Apparently she is more enamored with people than her own species.

We saw two puggles at the park, and after Char being so shy, I thought, maybe this is more Ham's speed. So I came home and hooked Ham up to go. He was doing his nervous barking when we pulled in, and was pulling on his leash to get into the park. But as soon as he was in and the leash came off, he got quiet, and didn't leave my side the entire time we were there. For those of you that know Ham, it was like he turned into his good twin. You'd have thought I had the poor dog on sedatives. He drooled the entire time out of nervousness, and every time a dog came near, he lowered his tail and tried to hide behind me.

I have NEVER seen my dogs so chicken around people or other animals! It was like they were overwhelmed by the euphoria of dog park, and didn't really know what to do. Hopefully next week they'll do better and actually play with the other dogs. I think I'm going to take them both at the same time, because if they're this chicken, I'll have no problem handling both of them.

There's definitely the variety of dogs at that park, and it amazes me that they all get along so well. When I took Ham, this guy brought these two giant Bull Mastiffs (they were sooo cute!) and this little dog came up to one of them and started barking, and this mastiff just cowered to the ground. It was so funny! But there wasn't a single fight, not much barking, and just a good time. We need more of these places around the valley. I'm thinking this is going to be a Sunday ritual for us, one I think the dogs will love us for.