{"id":33,"date":"2009-01-25T18:53:11","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T00:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/?p=33"},"modified":"2009-01-25T18:55:03","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T00:55:03","slug":"dog-parks-and-the-joy-of-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Dog Parks and the Joy of Running"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shelby

Shelby with the dirty ball<\/p><\/div>\n

It is amazing how dogs can recognize words…like “Dog Park.” When I ask the dogs if they want to go to the dog park, Shelby and Bandit will jump into the car, no questions asked! Shelby particularly, knows exactly when we are getting near\u00c2\u00a0Lincoln Dog Park in Aurora, our home park.<\/p>\n

Today, we were going to the new dog park at Krepps Park in Morgantown, WV.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It is a beautiful park – wooded with rocks.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Not like Illinois terrain!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The boys ,\u00c2\u00a0 as usual, upon hearing the words “Do you want to go to the Dog Park?” were in the rental van instantly.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 As I neared the park, I noticed the cars parked on both sides of the road near the colliseum…oh yeah, WVU Men’s Basketball game!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Cars had filled the parking lot of Krepps Park, but I was able to find a spot on the street directly across from the fenced in dog area.<\/p>\n

The boys were so excited to get out of the van and into the park!\u00c2\u00a0 I let them in, and unfortunately, a woman with her dogs were just leaving, so no one was there to play with.\u00c2\u00a0 Bandit started running, and Shelby looked at me, waiting for the frisbee.\u00c2\u00a0 I did not bring it with, because I wanted him to run and play – and besides, I kept hitting the trees with the frisbee last time we were here!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But, with no other dogs at the park, a bored Shelby finally brought me a stick to throw.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We had a few exchanges before Shelby found the deflated basketball.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 What a treat!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Shelby grabbed this wonderful thing and ran around, shaking it and bringing the dirty thing to me to throw!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 My jeans and boots were covered in mud, but Shelby was focused on the ball and wanted nothing to do with other sticks or Bandit or anything else.<\/p>\n

Bandit, on the other hand, had a look of total joy in his eyes as he ran around the park, nearly bowling me over as he usually does as he runs towards me.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Bandit has so much more energy than he used to have.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Now that he is relatively stable with his epilepsy meds, he has started to run more, and even tries to herd other dogs who come to the dog park.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 When Brian with his dog Custer arrived, Bandit went into herding action, barking and trying to get Custer to run.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Custer would have nothing to do with it, and Bandit ended up running into him!<\/p>\n

We were there about 45 minutes, and my gloves and jeans were already filthy from Shelby’s dirty ball.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I wanted to make sure that we got out of there before the basketball game ended – that would be a traffic nightmare!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But, the boys were not tired yet, so I decided to take them for a run offleash on the trails of Krepps Park outside the dog fence.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Shelby was in his element!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 He loves to run, and he also gets the joy in his eyes as he runs ahead, but when I call him back, he is ears down, full speed ahead!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Bandit was much slower, running ahead a little, then waiting for me to catch up.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Shelby runs ahead, and started exploring off trail.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 When I whistle, he returns, and when he is far ahead and I\u00c2\u00a0yell “Shelby, come!”\u00c2\u00a0 he runs, no holds barred, as fast as he can – really a beautiful sight.<\/p>\n

They enjoy the run so much!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 When running, I feel they are truly at one with their primevil selves.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 They run, they are free, they run for the sake of running!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I love that look of joy in their eyes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is amazing how dogs can recognize words…like “Dog Park.” When I ask the dogs if they want to go to the dog park, Shelby and Bandit will jump into the car, no questions asked! Shelby particularly, knows exactly when we are getting near\u00c2\u00a0Lincoln Dog Park in Aurora, our home park. Today, we were going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,16],"tags":[19,18,5],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-park","category-shelby","category-west-virginia","tag-dog-park","tag-shelby","tag-west-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mylifewithdogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}