Off Leash Park

Today Kiwi and I ventured out to the dog park for the first time in a VERY long time. It was +2C today, absolutely lovely! It was very busy there today and I always enjoy seeing her interact with other dogs and people. She is such a good dog when we are there. Well other than picking up garbage and carrying it around like some sort of prize (examples include kleenex, ripped up tennis balls and twigs). She has always had a tendency to stay close. She will stop and sniff some other dogs pee for a while but once she realizes that I haven't stopped for her she will run as fast as she possibly can until she is a ways past me, then stop and sniff some more pee for a while and we repeat this. She gets quite concerned if she gets ahead of me and can't see me. She looks for me frantically until she finds me and is very happy.

She is usually pretty friendly when people want to pet her or say hello but today was quite skiddish. Not sure if she was just playful and acting silly, or if she just wasn't keen on being petted by strangers today. She didn't really play with any of the dogs there today though she did a lot of butt sniffing.

I try not to hold any prejudices against certain breeds of dog. We have seen rottweilers, dobermans, pit bulls, labs, pugs, poodles, schnauzers, mutts, etc. at the park and never had any real issues with any of them. I am pretty confident that people with problem dogs will not take them to a public off leash park. After doing our puppy and beginner obedience classes I am confident in the ability of dogs to sort out their differences. There may be growling, snarling, etc. but it is usually more noise than anything.

We have had two experiences with a certain breed of dog that have made me somewhat unappreciative of that breed. Maybe they are just two dominant males of that breed, but I am starting to not like bassett hounds. Today there was one that just didn't want to leave Kiwi alone. He was chasing her and tried to mount her (sign of dominance) and she was running away as fast as she could (she did well considering her legs are about 3 times as long as a basset hound's) with her tail tucked between her legs. She is a pretty submissive dog and will usually just roll over and let the more dominant dog sniff her, but this one she was just running away from. We kept walking and finally he went to join his owner. But on our 3rd or 4th lap around the park we caught up with them again and the same thing. Thankfully we were just about ready to go home by this point.

Oh! There was another dog there today named Kiwi. It was a black lab puppy. Seemed strange to hear someone else calling their dog Kiwi. Not sure I have ever heard of that dog name before...