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Friday, June 24, 2011

Dog Park Behavior: How Tanner's Maturity Plays Out at the Dog Park

by Carrie Boyko, CEB
© Carrie Boyko
Tanner Fetches As Oliver Cheers Him On
As a youngster, arriving at the dog park was always a similar episode for Tanner--3 victory laps around the perimeter of the 5-acre park was about his usual celebratory action. 


Walking to the park from the parking lot was similarly an exercise in high-energy as I repeatedly gave the message, "We'll get there when you stop pulling." Tanner always led the threesome to the park with extra vigor, excited to run with off leash abandon.


With maturity, Tanner no longer needs to run laps, yet he is still quite competitive about the race, although in shorter spurts. Rarely does another dog beat him to the ball if I bring the "chucker" along. When running with a pack of invigorated dogs, Tanner still keeps up or leads, at least until he feels the need to check in with me--an affectionate behavior that i find endearing.


At this point he is generally ready to spend his park time following me around as I check on Oliver and visit with our acquaintances that are also regulars at this local park.


This past weekend, though, Tanner showed me the Greyhound in him once again. A hound arrived to play--lithe and fast. When he engaged Tanner in a tag game, his owner started throwing a tennis ball for them. Tanner took off from behind like a Corvette on steroids, overtaking the hound in order to bring home the prize. Behind me I heard a "D@*#! That Golden is fast!" I laughed to myself, knowing that this is merely a hint of what he once could do.


"That's okay, Tanner I rather enjoy having you tag along with me as we visit around the park." The new blood, Oliver, is now the one who is tough to keep up with, yet his goal is much different:


"Which human shall I meet next?"
© Carrie Boyko
Oliver Kisses as He Finds Affection
 All Over the Park
Join us again as we participate in the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop. Readers will enjoy finding new blogs and articles from all sorts of pet bloggers. The rules beneath this badge are for bloggers, and have been copied from the site of Life with Dogs on June 21st, just to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. Readers can move on to the listings below. Enjoy!



Link up your pet blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below. You only need to add your link once to be seen on all the Saturday Pet Blogger Blog Hop Linky Tools for that week. Note that if your blog is not pet related your link will be removed. Also note that only one post per blog is acceptable, and links promoting giveaways that are unrelated to the pet blogger hop will be removed. This is a community building exercise and not a promotional vehicle – please treat it as such.
  • Grab the “Saturday Pet Blogger Blog Hop” button above and include it in your Saturday Blog hop post so that your readers will know what is going on. *Note – posting is optional. Feel free to just link and follow.
  • Follow your co-hosts listed in the first 3 slots of the Linky Tool.
  • Follow as many other blogs on the linky as you’d like.
  • Take a moment to comment on the blogs telling them you’re from the blog hop.
  • Follow back when you get a new follower through the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop.
  • Make friends and grow. ♥
I love that last rule!






4 comments:



Kolchak Puggle said...

I love the park because you get to see your dog's personalities. Felix wants to run and jump and play, where Koly wants to smell everything. I did my heart good to see Koly play yesterday with two boxer puppies.



Katie said...

Looks like a lot of fun!



melfr said...

Tanner sounds like a fun dog. My Jasper is a Sheltie and when there is a good game of chase going on he can keep up with an Irish Setter, German Shepherd and Labs. He tried to keep up with a Greyhound once. I suspect his cries were ones of frustration as she ran circles around him. Now THAT was fund to watch!

Stopped by on the blog hop. Nice to meet you Tanner!



Autumn and Jasmine the Maltese said...

It would be good if we have parks like that here.. we do have dog friendly park but we need to be on leash everytime and the park actually has path that we need to go through.. not really a great park thou...


btw, We came over from Saturday Blog hop day and hope to be friends with you :)


Autumn & Jasmine

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