Going to the Dog Park

When Ollie was a puppy, our vet instructed us to introduce him to 100 people and 100 dogs in the first few months of his life.  This way, he explained, Ollie would not be afraid of either.  We decided the best place to check both of those boxes was the local dog park.

It worked! Ollie knows no stranger - every new person he meets is his new long lost best friend.  And while he gets along well with other dogs, people are his #1 focus.  He usually shows only a mild interest in other dogs.

Eventually we stopped going to the dog park because, 1). it was about a 20 minute drive from our home, 2). we lived on 5 acres where he could run and hunt to his hearts desire, 3). he barked a lot at the other dogs (very annoying), and 4). he did not listen very well when we were there.  

Now that we are in our apartment Ollie doesn't have the freedom to run like he used to so I try to take him for 1-2 walks a day to keep him active.  

But the other day while Zack was in tutoring, I had some time to waste and since it was a beautiful day and the dog park was just down the street, I decided to give it another try...and he loved it!!!

Today was another gorgeous day so I decided to take him again. We were there for about 45 minutes and he ran just about the whole time!

A lot of butt sniffing going on

Ollie was in hunting mode here.  Shortly after I took this a lady yelled, "Oh my goodness, he's got a mouse in his mouth."  Thankfully, it was her dog and not mine!