Tag Archives: dog park

What Makes a Great Dog Park?

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The dog park here in town recently got remodeled… and it’s great. Not that it wasn’t nice before — a large, securely fenced area with a spigot for the dogs to have fresh water while they played. But it’s even better now. Improvement #1: an “airlock” style gate. Before the remodel, the park just had a gate for people and dogs to go in and out. Dogs who were already inside could crowd around the gate, and possibly escape when the gate was open. Now the gate opens into a small fenced area so you can secure the outside gate … Continue reading →

How Do You Help Your Dog Make Friends?

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Yesterday, I was thinking about my dogs and their social life… or lack thereof. They don’t have any super close puppy pals at the moment, though we have had them in the past. I realized that we do have two likely candidates for friendship right here in the building. Our next door neighbors have an adorable little Chihuahua mix named Brownie — Moose and Lally have met the little guy before and seem to like him. I’ve seen Lally making the play bow at him, which is a good sign. She wants to play with him. I think the little … Continue reading →

A Dog’s Social Life (or Lack Thereof)

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I read an article recently in Prevention magazine about how dogs need friends. Not just human friends, but dog friends, too! You may have seen it before: your dog has a special canine buddy. They get SO excited to see them! They act differently (in a good way) around them. Looking at my dogs, I’m hard-pressed to think of really good dog friends they’ve had. For Lally, I think the last dog she really loved was an ex-boyfriend’s terrier mix named Jester. Jester (AKA “Pest”) was the dog who showed Lally how to fetch: after watching him do it, she … Continue reading →

Sadie

It was a gorgeous sunny day yesterday, and I decided to take my dogs to the nearest dog park. We have a great dog park here in Wilsonville, Oregon — it’s a gigantic fenced in area, shielded from view by a line of trees (so the dogs aren’t seeing cars/walkers/kids playing soccer/etc). There were some great dogs at the park yesterday, too. Two puppies who tumbled all over each other playing. A dignified old Scottie dog who just watched the crazy kids running around. A boxer and a poodle mix who raced around chasing balls. And Sadie. Sadie caught my … Continue reading →

Mud Socks

I keep hearing people talk about how mild the winters are in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve had a share of sub-freezing days (that gave my Moose some trouble with his hips) that made me wonder. At least with the sub-freezing weather, the mud solidified! Over the weekend, though, we had some gorgeous days. The temperature came close to fifty degrees, and the sun poked through the clouds. So I decided that Moose, Lally, and I were long overdue for a trip to the dog park. Less than a mile from the apartment is a fenced in off-leash park with water … Continue reading →

You Should Have Seen The Other Guy?

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We have a wonderful off-leash dog park about seven miles from our new home. I’ve taken Moose and Lally to the park four times in the ten days we’ve been here! Imagine, if you will, an acre or so of land, securely fenced, with a walking path around the perimeter, plenty of sturdy water bowls, and a few benches for us two-leggers. My friend Julie calls it Doggy Disneyland. On Saturday, Moose got attacked. Moose, Lally, and I were walking the loop, as I like to call it — a bark covered path around the park. A wheaten terrier who … Continue reading →

Adventures at the Dog Park

We used to have a park in the area that would allow dogs to romp around off-leash. I used to love to bring Miko, my shepherd-husky mix, there to play with the other dogs! There were a bunch of regulars that were there almost every day. We had the clever border collie… the frisky chocolate lab who would race around and around with endless energy… the three chubby, elderly dogs with gray muzzles who always wanted to lay around and be adored… the lovable rottie… the feisty mini-pinscher… and me and Miko, every chance we got. Miko wasn’t a small … Continue reading →