Sunday, September 27, 2009

A Day at the Dog Park.



In an attempt to garner more dog friends for Sullivan, Hubs and I have done several things. Even before Sullivan could navigate stairs (yes, we had to teach him how to climb both up and down stairs and it took DAYS) we brought him home to meet the family dog, Hurley. As you know, Hurley is a 20lb Jack Russel/Pug mix who think he's king of the world. He's three years old and crotchety. Needless to say, those two never hit it off. If you even mention the word, "Sullivan" around Hurley, he starts whining and heads for the hills.


Next, we threw Sullivan in the car and drove two hours to family in Maryland to let Sullivan play with "the big dogs," Tucker and Rudy. Tucker and Rudy are labradors and they are ginormous. No, really. It's kind of like Tucker was fed some sort of growth factor at birth. His Mom and Dad refer to him as, "a Grande Lab." I'll dig around to see if I could find any pictures, although I don't think they will do him any justice. Anyway, the "boys" hit it off marvelously until Tucker wanted to do nothing more than hump our clueless 6 month old sheepdog. Moving on..




In the meantine, whenever we would meet fellow neighborhood dogs, all would go swimmingly for the first 30 seconds, the sniffing, the tail wagging, until suddenly, the other dog's demeanor would instantly change as they would lunge for Sullivan's jugular. Poor Sheepie, the guy who wouldn't hurt a fly!


At exactly 1 year old, we knew it was time for the "Great Snip" and we brought Sullivan in for his operation. We thought that perhaps he was somehow emitting some dominance tactic over every dog that he met and hoped that this might cure it. It's been one month since his surgery and although we haven't noticed a difference, we were hoping that other dogs would.


Cue our Saturday at the dog park. We. did. fabulously.


Sullivan LOVED the dog park. He met SO many new friends and spent the entire two hours running laps around the large field. He chased frisbees with a couple of labs, played tug with a pug, rolled around in the mud with a collie, and had a wonderful time herding the other dogs at the park. We couldn't be prouder dog parents.


All around us we heard, "Who brought the Olde English?" "Look how nicely he plays with that little dachsund puppy!" "What a beautiful dog!" Okay, okay. So we might have been beaming with pride.


Which is much better than what Hubs said to me when we first pulled up to the park, "This could either go really good? Or really badly."


Day one at the dog park? Huge success.

11 comments :

  1. I'm so glad you all had a good time! I love taking Nuts to the dog park in our city.

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  2. Dog parks are an amazing place to socialize dogs and get them use to all different kinds. Plus they are so fun too!

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  3. I am so glad Sullivan had so much fun... and made you so proud! I honestly cannot get over what a handsome dog he is. I think I am pretty convinced now that when I get a pup, it will be a sheepdog. I just love him.

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  4. We have a dog park and my pup likes it



    be sure to read my blog tomorrow
    i am doing a showcase and giveaway

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  5. Glad to hear it went well! Have you checked out dailypuppy.com? :)

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  6. What a good boy!! Glad he had a great time :)

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  7. So glad you had fun at the dog park! We had similiar experiences with Tebow when we first tried to socialize him (other dogs either tried to eat him or use him as a play toy) but he has done fabulous at the dog park also. Yay for being a proud momma!

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  8. Congrats! It can be quite a feat to socialize dogs. Or maybe mine is just psychotic and that's why I think it's so hard. ;)

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  9. Yay! Glad it worked out for Sulli.

    I lucked out because I live in a big high rise with TONS of dogs, so Elle Woods has been around all sorts of dogs of all different sizes since she was 8 weeks old. Phew. She still LOVEs the dog park/beach though, and she's always extra tired when we come home so I love it too!

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  10. awww, he is so cute!! i love sheepdogs and I REALLY want one, but we have a smallish house and I don't know how it would work. I love that he is so sweet and gentle! I have 2 yorkies and I would be terrified to take them to the dog park because they are badly behaved around other animals!

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