Our Dogs Are Just Fuzzy Kids

BREC, the Baton Rouge recreation department, opened their first dog park last weekend and it just happens to be very close to the house. So we decided to take the dogs out there Saturday to play and socialize. Y'all will be proud to know that I trimmed the hair around their eyes so they could see and didn't butcher them in the process.

Our visit to the new park was not without some drama. There was a big ol' pitbull there when we arrived. He was on a leash but at the opposite end of that leash was a pretty small woman. I am pretty leery of pits since Sneauball got mauled by one just over a year ago so I tried to make sure I kept our three away from him. Well, the pit's owner headed in our direction as we were talking to another couple and the woman let him off leash. E and I got our puppies out of that area quickly. Don't you know not 15 minutes later, even though he was back on his leash, the pit attacked a golden retriever and bit the golden's male owner in the scuffle. I was pretty pissed because I knew that woman couldn't handle that pit even on-leash. The poor woman who owned the golden was distraught. I told her to make sure and get the pit owner's information, at least her license plate number, so she could report the bite. The pit's owner had the audacity to ask the golden's mom how she knew that it was the pit that actually bit the husband. What???? I told the golden's mom not to worry as she had a park full of witnesses that had seen the incident.

Once that horrid woman and her pit left, the park was peaceful and we felt comfortable letting the puppies off-leash. We got the biggest chuckle as we realized they are truly no different from human children.

We learned that -
* Sophie is the child that can't let one parent or the other get out of sight. She was following E, Sneauball, and Nate around when all of a sudden she realized that I wasn't with them. I had stayed in the center of the park leaning against a big oak tree in the shade. I looked up just in time to see her running full blast at me. She jumped up on my leg as if to ask if I was ok. As soon as I reassured her that I was fine, she turned around so she could see E. I told her to go meet Daddy and she took off like a shot but she kept a good eye on me until they came back.
* Sneauball is the child that is just a bit neurotic and wants to make a friend so he has someone to follow around. For the longest time he trailed behind Nate but then he befriended a border collie and hung with him for a while. When he wasn't following another dog around, he was my little velcro boy.
* Nate is the social butterfly child - totally independent with the need to meet and greet every human and dog in the park. He is also the kid that, upon seeing a scuffle, screams "FIGHT!" and runs straight toward it. He had to check every inch of the park perimeter, most of the time at a full run with a huge smile on his face. He loves to run free and that is the perfect place for him to do it. We do need to work on the "come" command, however, because he totally tunes us out when he's running. He also has absolutely no interest in Frisbees. E threw one toward him and Nate just watched it whizz by. His expression said, "Hey, something yellow just went by. Cool. Well, I'm off." as he kept running in the opposite direction. I think E was a bit disappointed. :-)

It was dusty in places so both Bichons are now a bit grey. But they had a ball. Nate didn't even mind the car ride home so much. The fun evidently helped him not get carsick.

I'm pretty proud of BREC. They've done well with this park and will be opening several others soon. We'll keep bring the pups out there as long as it remains fun for them.