The Dog Park

It was a beautiful day yesterday and we took Savannah to the local dog park. Getting her into the car is always a challenge... she balks as soon as we open up the car door and then turns to stone, and the look on her face is pure fright. My husband picked her up, though, and put her on the back seat of his car. Easy for him to do at this stage of her puppy life but she will soon be too big for him to pick up. (I'm guessing she's between 45 - 50 pounds now.)

Once Savannah is in the car, she's perfectly fine. She sits there on the seat and looks out the window, studying every little thing that she sees, from livestock to trees, from birds flying overhead to other vehicles on the road. It's getting her into the car that's the problem, but we're hoping this will pass.

Yesterday was the second time she's been in a car for something other than a vet visit, so we're thinking that the more 'joy rides' she gets, the more comfortable she'll be with the whole idea of getting into the car, and sooner or later she'll be jumping into that car with a big smile on her face.

The dog park near town is magnificent... one look at the three separate fenced-in areas and one can tell that a lot of planning went into that property. There is a one-acre plot for small dogs and puppies; a four-acre plot for large dogs; a one-acre area that is set up with equipment similar to that of a canine obstacle course; plus there is a separate area with a huge aluminum sink so you can bathe your dog before you leave the park. Both the small-dog area and the large-dog area have a gazebo and a swimming pool. (The pools are only to be used by the dogs... not their owners.) There are water stations with hoses to fill up bowls with fresh water.  Lots of trees were left on the property when they cleared it for the dog park and it all has a very serene look to it. There are double-entry gates to each of the separate areas so getting in and out of each section is secure enough that a dog doesn't have the chance to just bolt out of the gate and run off into the woods after a rabbit.

When we got there yesterday, there were two dogs in the large-dog park..... a Brittany Spaniel and a Black-Mouthed Cur/Beagle mix.  The spaniel was jumping into the pool (chasing a retrieval toy) and the Cur was barely getting his paws wet at the edge of the water. (Both of the swimming pools have shallow edges so the dogs can walk into and out of the pool if they're not of a mind to just jump in.)

Savannah did not jump into the pool after the spaniel, but she did wade in from the side, all the way up to her chest. When she realized that she had to start swimming, she turned around and walked out of the pool. I brought her towel with us because I had a feeling that she would test the water there, especially after having that experience in our neighbor's pond up the road.

We were at the park for nearly two hours and Savannah explored every inch of it. When we decided to go home, Savannah followed us as we walked towards the gates. By that time, the Brittany Spaniel had left and the Cur was nearly brave enough to get into the pool. When Savannah saw that we were close to the exit gate, she must have realized that we were about to leave. Well, she turned herself right around and started walking... and walking... and then we had to follow her, all the way to the farthest part of the large-dog park. Clearly, Savannah was not ready to go home.

When we caught up to her, I put her leash on and then all three of us walked back towards the exit gate again. I told my husband that we'd have to work on the "Come!" command with Savannah before we brought her back there..... and maybe taking her into the small-dog area would be better while she's still a puppy because she would have less space to roam.

I cleaned Savannah off with her towel before we got her back into the car... she loves that big towel, standing there and just eating up all the attention and trying to lick my face with thanks as I rub her down. Driving back home, Savannah sat on the seat and watched the scenery again, but then curled up in an exhausted heap in a corner of the back seat, clearly tired from her adventure. I don't think she stopped moving for more than a minute at a time for all the while we were at that park.

We're thinking that Savannah is afraid of getting into the car just because of her limited experience with any sort of vehicle. With her previous owners, when they brought her to the vet for shots, they put her in an open crate in the back of a pick-up truck, just as they did when they brought her to us that day we adopted her. Being in the back of an open truck, inside an open crate with only bars on the crate bottom (rather than a flat crate-bottom), Savannah must have been very uncomfortable and frightened, to say the least.  I don't understand that whole country-thing about transporting dogs in the back of a truck.

When we got home yesterday, Savannah fell into a deep sleep for three hours. She didn't even stop at her water bowl when we got into the kitchen... she just went into the TV room and spread her puppy self on the carpet near Sweet Pea's cat-cave and went to sleep. (The cat-cave being the puppy crate that Savannah no longer fits into comfortably.)  Not a peep came out of that puppy till dinner time.

I've noticed that when Savannah has a lot of activity, such as the other day with Lupin up at Jim and Judy's pond, or yesterday at the dog park, that level of energy takes a while to disappear. When she woke up from her nap yesterday, Savannah was clearly ready to go back to that dog park and start all over again. You could see it in her eyes... "Let's go! Let's go back! What are you waiting for?!"

On more quiet days, when it's just Savannah and myself in the house, with regular walking during the day and the only off-leash time being inside the house, she is a more sedate puppy, becoming once again the 'old soul' that I think she is in her puppy heart.