I was on my way out to spend my Christmas gift cards…I saw a young black lab playing in the park with his 10 year old boy and the boy’s Mom. Diverted by a chance for a play date!
They gave me the strangest look and angled away from me toward their car. “Hi!” I called. “Hold on a second.” When I caught up with them I introduced myself and asked if their puppy could come and play in the backyard with Kate. They smiled and said okay, still a bit wary of me, a total stranger.
Mom went to get the car from the lot, the boy and I went to my house where I put the black lab pup into the backyard. The boy decided he’d wait for his Mom in the front yard instead of going on in. I smiled at him and went into the house to get Kate.
Kate and the 5 month old puppy played for about 45 minutes. The Mom finally told me that she thought I was coming into the park to give her heck that her dog wasn’t on leash. I told her, “Not me. I think that all dogs should get to play in the park if they’re under some semblance of control.”
When they left it seemed that they were still wondering who the heck I was and why I felt so comfortable approaching them.
Funny world, isn’t it? Well, Kate had a wonderful time and so did the pup. – Darcie
You need some business cards to hand out in such a situation. It would establish who you are and might generate business.
Hi Darcy,
This happens often; isn’t it sad that the norm and expected behavior is negative when it comes to dogs. I always think I will get in trouble for letting my sweet dog play like dogs should. The whole U.S. is into leash laws…its not like this in many other countries, where dogs are part of lives and no one gets too excited. Sad for our dogs…Can’t we all just get along?? BTW, I already know the answer, just longing for the opposite..
p.s. love your posts
Well Darcie I get the same reaction with Jessie when we goto the dog park .Jessie is getting a little wiser with age ,as she now waits to see what kind of welcome she will get before she goes running into play with a new dog . She ran in 3 days ago to play with a new dog who turned agressive and wound up running for her life when the dog started to chase her ,trying to bite her . Thank God for her speed ,so today when a German Shepard gave her a stare down she wisely came back to me on her own . I don.t know if you carry DNA kits from Insigts or not, but we got our results back , and boy was I surprised at what I have ! We have a black/whites German Short Haired Pointer 90% with the other 10% made up of Visla ,Springer Spanial like Remingto and the last is terrier and Belgian sheep dog . In ahort a ranch dog with no sight hound in her bloodline ,but she shure is built like a greyhound ,41 lbs long legs and the undercarrige of the Geryhound . So we are going to train her to be a hybred flushing dog due to her lack of the nose ,so she will quarter in front of me walking a farm field ,then stop to flush ,then retrive on the gun shot ! She is no longer Gunshy ,even with my 12 ga . I have plenty of time to finish her traing ,because that is what I got her for in the first place ,so no worrys ! Jessie is fast ,agile and very smart ,and I have yet to meet anyone ,other than psossesive dogs that doesnot like her . She is a lover ,just like your Kate . Next month I am going to contact Jumping Cholla agility club ,to see when their next trial will be in Phoenix ,and start to train me to train her in Agility and FlyBall . I do not know if she can even swim ,but the way this young lady retives ,you won.t keep her out of the water and 3 doors down from me there is a house with a lap pool we can use in the summer at 110f so why not have more fun . Last week we almost lost our Mommy dog to a cave in ,under our back yard walk . At 12.30 am I let shadow out to do her thing before I went to bed , but when I stepped out side she was gone ! I searched the house ,then heard a muffled bark under our concrete sidewalk next to the house . Shadows son Gabe ,8yrs old was quite a civil engineer ,and with the heat he dug a basment under the 8ft slab to cool off in ,and it had rained last week so the soil was unstable ,for some reason she took a dive under it and the opening at the front colapsed around her leving the oening by the house ,but it was blocked by a old tree root . I tried to reach her but she was more than my arms length back. I was beside myself ,then I called the Phoenix FD who sent a truck with 5 guys . They looked and the officer in charge said to me “She can get out of there any time she wants !” I said you mean to tell me your going to leave her there and not help me ! At that point one of the younger guys started breaking breaking ground with a pick ax and long spade shovel untill Shadows nose appeared and more joined in and finally pulled her free . I just wonder if this officer sleeps well at night ,as to me he had no compassion for an 11 yr old dog with arthritus in her right sholder and back hocks and does not have the strength to dig herself out like when she was younger ,just because I was interupting his beauty sleep at 1.30 in the am ,and its not my job attitude . Shadow is safe and sound ,no thanks to him that that hole did not become her grave ! She deserves better ,after being the foundation dog for Legacy Kennels with her son”s Being the sons of CH Nell’s we Joshua a NASTRA Champion John K.