Sunday, August 31, 2008

August 31 - Avon Lake dog park

We had people coming over in the evening, and we wanted to wear Kodo out a bit before they came over to minimize the jumping and nose-goosing that always accompany visitors. So we decided to try taking him up to the Avon Lake dog park. It is the closest one I know of- only about a 20 minute drive.

It was a really nice layout- the fenced-in area wasn't huge, but it was well kept-up, with lots of trees for shade, nice benches for the people, and a water fountain with a dog-height bowl. When we got there there were maybe 10 dogs in the enclosure already. Several of them gathered at the 'airlock' to greet Kodo as we came in. I was expecting him to be intimidated because of his last experience, but he was fine. Happy tail, head up, lots of greetings sniffs, then he was off wandering around without a care in the world.

He made two particular friends while he was there. One was a smaller sheltie or spaniel-type mix with a lot of energy who kept tearing around in circles while Kodo tried to chase (her?). There was also an Ibizan Hound there (that is exciting by itself- I don't think I had seen one outside of a dog show before?). She was very friendly to us, and kept trying to entice Kodo to romp with her. It was funny to watch- he would start running after her, then she would pour on the speed (sight-hound build, enough said!) and leave him far behind. She would take these tight turns and he would have to struggle to catch up. But when he got close enough to her, he would shoulder-charge her like a tank. Not sure if it was intentional or just puppy clumsies. I was a little worried that he would knock her down, but he didn't and they both seemed to be having a ton of fun..

Most of the other dogs ended up leaving, so we decided to call it a day after an hour or so. He didn't want to leave, but all the running around had tired him out pretty well so he went into bear-rug mode as soon as we got him home. Not enough to calm him down for the evening, as we found out later, but still good exercise and social time.. :)

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