With the weather taking it’s time getting warm, it is becoming more and more frustrating. I am just ready for spring already! This being said, at any hint of sunshine my husband and I like to hit up our new found place…a dog park!
Dog Parks
The ideas of “dog parks” are new to me. Growing up, our dogs were always just let outside to run in the yard, only to return when they were ready. It’s not that they ever left our yard, but we never felt that we had to walk them in order for them to do “their business”, or feel that they needed more exercise. They ran in our yard and that was that.
Fast forward to my first year out of college. My family got a new puppy, and my mom was going to bring the dog to Long Island to visit. It was a beautiful day and we found out about this dog park in our area. Since we have never heard of one we were not sure what to expect. When we got there we looked around and saw a large fenced rectangular area. There was nothing in it. When I envisioned a “dog park” I pictured what I would think of as a park with trails and trees and a path to bring the dog. We said to ourselves, “that can’t be the dog park?!” so we found a wonderful trail to follow with the dog. After our long walk we ended up back to that rectangular pen, and found a few people inside with dogs! So that was the dog park?! It became somewhat of a joke. “Oh these Long Islanders and their dog parks! How weird!”
Our Dog Park
So now we must fast forward again to these last few weekends. Now I am that Long Islander at the dog park (mind you, you will never again hear me call myself a Long Islander…it was only to be used as a reference in this case!).
The park is right around the corner from our house. They have two pens. One for big dogs and one for small dogs 25 pounds and under. This is the main reason I like this park so much. I would be too worried about the big dogs trampling my little 4 pound Pom to have a good time. With little dogs the worst that could happen is a few nips, and bites. We have been going with our friends and my brother in law with their dogs. It’s like a play date for our dogs!
I think to myself how different it will be when we all have children instead of dogs, but for now, our dogs are our children so we are having a blast. This past weekend my husband’s friends from his office joined us. We had at least 5 or 6 dogs with our group alone! They actually interact somewhat like real children would. Some like some dogs better than others. Some are rowdy and some are shy. My dog is a bit of a diva, but she is getting more and more social as time goes on.
As the weather gets warmer this will be a nice little activity to do on the weekend. As more people hear of our park, the more they want to join us. So what do you think of this idea of “dog parks”? Do they have these where you live? Is your dog social? If you have pictures of your dog interacting with other dogs send them my way! I’ll post them! If you want to know where exactly this dog park is then you can contact me about that also. I felt it best not to post on this page.
I had no idea dog parks even exsisted until a year or so ago. I was doing a blog about community stuff and ran across it. It’s so weird because there’s a fence with dozens of dogs in it running around. Kind of cute. I wish I would have known about it when I lived in my 2 BR apartment, my dog would have loved it. There’s really not a need for it now because we have a huge backyard but I guess it would be good for her to interact with other fellow furry friends!
A huge backyard is a huge plus! I guess a dog park could be good for the dogs to interact. I think my dog is just as happy just being with my and my husband, but as I said in the post she is a Diva! Most dogs enjoy running and playing with other dogs so it allows them to get their energy out!