The three of us went to the park yesterday afternoon. It's always anyone's guess as to how many dogs will be there on any given day, and added to that, one would prefer dogs that are friendly and approachable. Not so with yesterday's adventure.
There were two dogs there when we got to the park, both about Savannah's size, but both dogs were way out of control, with even their owners having a hard time keeping them close. When we got near the entrance to the park, the two dogs went nuts, jumping up against the fence and pulling at their owners when they tried to restrain them. We let those owners get the leashes on their dogs before we went into the park, and then we brought Savannah to the far end of the big-dog area and we walked around there with her.
Savannah must know by instinct which dogs to approach and which to stay away from. She made no attempt to get too close to those two dogs yesterday. Gary and I walked the entire perimeter of the park with her, and she happily followed us, looking back every once in a while to either see where the other two dogs were, or possibly to see if any new dogs came into the park.
Thankfully, the owner of the two hard-to-control dogs brought them into the obstacle course area, and then closed the gate, successfully keeping her dogs away from us and Savannah. One would think that owners with dogs like those would just keep them at home in their own yard and not even bring them to a public dog park. My husband said that out-of-control pets usually have out-of-control owners, so he wasn't surprised at the owner's lack of good dog-park manners.
Savannah didn't seem to mind having the park to herself yesterday... other than those two crazy dogs, no one else showed up. Savannah stayed near us in the gazebo, venturing out into the grass every once in a while to inspect a leaf or a stray tree limb. When we thought she had enough, we just put her on the leash and walked back to the car.
This morning on our walk, I tried a new leash on Savannah. Rather than the soft pink velvet leash that she's been used to, I bought a 20-foot-long nylon leash that's the color of a rich sapphire. I thought the longer leash would let Savannah roam around more, without my having to walk in the tall grass with her. This puppy is like a cat in certain ways--- she notices every blessed little thing and she doesn't take well to change. When Savannah first saw that bright blue leash, she ran away from it. Not only wouldn't she go near it, but I had to put the pink leash on her first, and then switch to the blue one when she was busy looking out the back door at Mickey and Gatsby on the porch.
As soon as Savannah looked back towards me, however, she saw that blue leash again and she turned to stone. "I'm not moving!" is what she seemed to be telling me. Well, give me a blessed break. I decided not to give in on that one. I rolled up the new leash into a tight little swirl of blue... and then put it right in front of Savannah's nose so she could inspect it, which she did. Then I put the bundled-up leash on the kitchen floor and I sat down in the breakfast room. When Savannah tried to follow me, the blue leash followed her. When she stopped, the leash would stop unraveling. She would try again to follow me, and the blue leash followed her. This went on for about fifteen minutes before Savannah once again smelled and inspected every inch of that leash... and only then did she come to me and sit down and give me that "Are we going out?" look of hers.
So we did.... and both Savannah and the blue leash were fine. Because of that 20-foot length, you have to be very aware of every inch of that leash, otherwise you'll be tripping over it and landing head-first on the road, which is something I'm not willing to do. I think the longer leash gave Savannah a different sense of freedom during our walk... she doesn't have to stay within six feet of me, and I don't have to follow her into the grass as she goes along on her daily explorations. I wish I could have found that longer leash in pink, but with the limited number of shopping options up here in the hills, sometimes you have to take what you can get.
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