Trooper Goes to the Dog Park

I'm not fond of dog parks. I feel too many patrons ignore their dogs, allowing bad behavior to ensue. (I've mentioned this before.) So I was conflicted when a new Jacksonville German shepherd group announced a meet-up at a dog park around the corner from my house. Yes, I wanted to meet other GSD peeps. But I didn't want to subject my boys to bad dog park behavior. That aside, it was my day off and I didn't have anything else planned. Eventually I ran out of excuses. I convinced Hubby to go with me and we were joined by a friend and her dog, Jaxx.

The meet-up part was a bust. Sure, there were German shepherds at the dog park. There were a bunch of other dogs too. (Surprise! People go to the dog park on Sunday morning.) But we never met with the meet-up peeps. I don't even know if they were there. No signs. No registration table. No one came forward to say "Hi, we're the new group." I spoke with several other people at the park with GSDs and they were just as clueless as I was. Stupid Facebook.

The dogs, however, had a great time. Jedi had fun at the dog park in Culpeper, so I assumed he'd be OK. I was worried about Trooper though. I didn't know how he'd behave around a group of unfamiliar dogs. And I was afraid he would react poorly to strangers wanting to touch him. Silly me, I worried for naught. It took about 10 minutes before Trooper realized he was in doggie heaven. He chased random dogs. Random dogs chased him. He sniffed butts, peed on trees, dug holes, crawled under picnic tables and couldn't have cared less about people touching him. And they touched him!

Hubby tried to take pictures of our dog park adventure. Unfortunately, low light + fast dogs + old phone = lousy photos. Here are the best of the bunch:

Jaxx and Jedi

Trooper chased his new friend

The boys played with a random Australian shepherd

Front to back: Jaxx, Jedi and Trooper

Jedi was actually still for a moment

We let the dogs play for about an hour before calling it a day. They have been passed out ever since, giving me time to blog, pay bills, fold laundry and take a nap. A NAP! Hubby and I are talking about taking the dogs back next week. Maybe we'll meet up with the meet-up group. Maybe Trooper will get over this fear thing. Maybe we'll get better pictures. Whatever happens, I'll let you know. Later, -- K