Christmas Play

On Christmas Eve we decided to take the dogs over to Annapolis for a long walk and play time. Quiet Waters is a beautiful park we go to from time to time. It has beautiful hiking trails, fields, ice skating rink, and most important, a dog park. We've had mixed feelings about dog parks. I've come to the conclusion the dog park is only as good as the dogs that are visiting the park. We've taken Gypsy to parks in the past and have had terrible visits while other times, with more mellow dogs, she has a good time. So we arrive at the park and walk a few miles to the dog park area. Gypsy is quivering with anticipation she is so excited. She is doing the dog growling talking thing excited dogs do. Rim conversely, walks up to the gate calmly and as if to say, "what's the big deal with this?" After I have Gypsy sit calming her down for a minute or two, I let her go into the park. She does what she always does when she first goes to the dog park, she takes off running like a bat out of hell seeing if anyone will chase her.

Here is Gypsy running wide open with a few red dogs in pursuit. Rim did a great job of staying with the pack.

Gypsy will run for a short while and then hang out with the rest of the dogs. She used to be able to keep the running thing up for a long time but, I think age is starting to catch up with her.

Rim went up to just about everyone at the park and greeted them. He did jump up on a few folks, we need to work on that. With his big feet, Rim sounded like a heard of buffalo stampeding through the park.

It was interesting that Rim and Gypsy ended up side by side. They each would go out and greet another dog but would always come back to each other. I think they were planing strategy on who to sniff next.

After the park we headed back, over the Bay Bridge. I don't think we had driven a mile or two before Rim and Gyp were both out for the count. It was a great day of dogie socializing and exercise.