I mentioned on the Facebook page on Saturday that we were thinking about taking the pups a dog park.  A guy that I work with was telling me about it so when we got up on Saturday I found the site online and read about it.  It sounded great!  The park is 42 acres, has a lake (which is getting a dock that will be used for dock diving, which of course made us think of our friends at And Foster Makes Five), offers agility classes and trails for hiking, and has strict rules that must be followed.  I know a lot of people are weary about taking their dogs to parks because of all the opportunities for something to go wrong, which I generally agree with, but this sounded so structured (not to mention you pay to get in) that I felt confident it would be a positive experience.

 Maggie was SO excited to go on a trip.  I love seeing her confidence growing each day.  A year ago, she would have been flattened to the seat in fear, look at her now!

We decided at the last minute that even though we felt really good about the place, it would be wisest to just bring one dog to check it out the first time.  So we did, and I bet you won’t believe this, but we picked Maggie Moo to be the lucky one.  The other two are so much older and lazier that we knew they wouldn’t mind a quiet afternoon alone, lounging in the air conditioning.  I’ll admit, I got a little nervous when we pulled up and saw just how many people were there.  The place, huge as it was, was packed.  We brought Maggie inside to pay and so they could confirm she was current on her rabies, and they gave us a brief tour.  Now, maybe I’m hyper sensitive to these things, but just felt like they were giving us a little extra scrutinization because of Maggie’s breed.  But being the angel that she is, she was great, even when a pushy German Shorthair Pointer rudely got in her face while we were squished inside the office.  That’s my girl!

We chose to head to the section of the park with the trails (partially because we love trails, but also because it seemed less packed) and we got down to business: havin’ fun!  I have seriously never been as proud as I was of Maggie that day.  Every dog we encountered from big to small, hyper to mellow, Maggie would look at me for cues on how to act.  She’s never been a fan of dogs getting in her face too quickly but instead of telling anyone to back off, she would just look at me and I’d tell her, “It’s ok, Moo.  Good girl, let’s go now!” and we would continue on our way.  She never got more than 10-15 yards ahead of us before turning around to check in or running back over for a quick pat.  Moo would come the second we called her, even when other dogs were right by.  Her impulse control was simply amazing!  I just can’t stop bragging to anyone that will listen about how proud I am of her.  She’s the best.  End of story.

We didn’t stay too terribly long because everything was going so perfect we wanted to make sure we ended on an excellent note.  We will most definitely be back!  They offer lots of different classes and I’m trying to pick which one I want to sign up for.  I can’t wait for them to put the dock in so we can check that out, too!  The rest of the weekend has been spent lounging around and (obsessively) checking out Your Pit Bull and You’s Facebook page to see how Maggie is doing in the contest.  If you haven’t already, I would sooo appreciate if you voted for her!  Puh-puh-please go here and “like” her picture.  (I know, begging is so unflattering, but I just can’t help it!)  We hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend, too!