Mother and I took Greta to the dog park for our very first time. We view the dog park as a treat, so we made her work for it. First she had a nice long walk, then we practiced some of her obedience skills. After that, it was dog park time.
This is a whole new social situation. I had no idea. First, the dog must socialize, and it turns out the human must also socialize. Naturally I wanted to keep the status quo. When we entered, almost every human was gathered around this one picnic table with a shade cover. By "gathered" I really mean "jammed in". I had assumed we would let Greta wander around and Mother and I would sit on a free bench somewhere. Nope. Apparently the dog park is really a human park. Everyone knew each other! They were all chatty! Everyone knew the names of all the people there, the names of all the dogs there, the names of the people and dogs that weren't there, and there is a standing joke about a guy named Mike! I almost jumped in with a joke about Mike, but wasn't sure how it would be received from an outsider, so I held back. These people were very nice. They offered space at their table, but we politely declined. Even their dogs were nice. Almost every one of them let me pet them. It was a wonderful thing.
So my question is: Have you ever been to a dog park? What was your social experience?
I had no idea we would need to socialize. I figured Greta would, but not us. I just wasn't ready. Next time I'll bring my jokes.
2 comments:
Oh yeah, I could have totally told you that dog park hour=social hour. Everyone is very friendly, and it's perfect because your dog is a great ice breaker: "what kind of dog is that?" "What's her name?" "How long have you had her?" and so forth. You get to know the other dogs fairly quickly, at least we did because there were dogs that Daisy got along with, and dogs that she didn't like at all and would try to maim. A little bit, I miss the dog park... not the dog, the dog park.
Yeah, I kinda wish I could take my dog into every social situation. It would be so much easier. And, if I wanted to leave, I could just blame it on my dog needing to go on her walk. "Oh, (sigh) that darn Greta, (shaking head, wide-eyed in disbelief) I've got to go, Greta needs her walk. (Sigh) Oh well, bye!"
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