Sunday, April 19, 2009

TERRA - DOG PARK VIRGIN

Although Terra has been going to our local park since the day we got her, and has been socializing nicely with our neighbourhood dogs, Cerdarvale Park is the local official off leash area. It is about a 25 minute walk, or a quick subway ride, from the house. And this weekend, Terra was finally introduced to it.

We took the two dogs together of course. We walked them down, with the intention of bringing them back on the subway. The plan was to dissipate a lot of Terra's energy so that she would not be overwhelmed by the subway station and the train itself. That plan worked. The walk, and then a two hour play took most of the edge off her and she did very well on her first subway ride.

She also did very well on her first visit to the dog park. She has a fan club who had yet to see her; I've been telling some of the regulars there about her and they have been anxiously waiting to meet her. On our way to the actual off leash area, we met our friend John and his two dogs, greyhound Jazz and border collie Hayley .. yes, Hayley. Seems to be a popular name for the breed. John was so anxious to see the puppy that he and his two dogs jumped a fence to see us. In the video you'll see the three border collies playing, what can be better than that?

In the off leash itself, we ran into another friend, Joan and her dog Karma; this dog is, for Hayley, sheep number one. So we knew that she would be well occupied while Terra looked for friends. It didn't her long. In the mean time she did some fetch work with me, which is coming along nicely.

Eventually she met a lovely male Rottweiler pup right around her age. At first the male would just sit on Terra, pinning her, which is a sign of dominance. But Terra is pretty self assured even at this age. She kept her composure and kept at the pup and eventually his dominant behaviour turned into genuine wrestling (and we know, from the previous post, that Terra is a pretty good wrestler) The Rottie's owner was great "You dog has taught my do to play"

So Terra's first dog park experience was successful. More, I'm sure, to come


Terra at Cedervale from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

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