Dog Park Fun With Lucy

Tibby had a play date yesterday with Lucy.  You might remember Lucy from here and here.

I picked Lucy up from her house and we headed to the dog park.  As we left Lucy's owner called out, "Oh  by the way, Lucy sometimes gets car sick!"  I had Lucy sit in the front seat and she was fine.

Let's recap Lucy's history:  Besides Tibby, she has never played with any other dogs.  She is about 4 years old.  She has never been off leash.  If she goes outside she is on a tie out or has a gentle leader on.  Let me say that again - She has NEVER been off leash.  As in EVER. 

As we walked up to the dog park gates, I was thinking about that and having second thoughts about this experiment.

Did I mention that her owners were at first afraid to let Tibby play with her, because she is 'mean'.  Yeah, so maybe I should have thought about those things before we got to the dog park.
But then again, I like to have adventures.

~

We went into the dog park and there was a HUGE lab plus something playing fetch with its owner.  The lab had an e-collar on, so that made me a little nervous.  Turns out he was super-duper friendly!  Yeah, a lab.  He kept bringing his ball to me and then his owner would have to walk all the way back to get the ball.  It was, as it always is to me, interesting to see how Tibby interacts with a new dog.  She was very good.  She wanted to play with him, but when I called her off, she came to me.  I was better than another dog!  Yeah!  Lucy did her own thing.  She was fine.  It was sweet to see her realize that she was off leash and could do what ever she wanted.

Tibby would have liked her to play a little more, but Tibby was respectful and didn't annoy her (too much!).  They did get in some good zoomies!

I loved seeing Tibby come to me away from 1) a new person 2) a new dog 3) her friend Lucy.  If it was a choice between going to any of those OR following me.  She chose me!  Apparently she does love me.

So Lucy can now - play with another dog, ride in the car and go to the dog park.  In other words, she is a normal dog and not 'mean' at all.

I put the zoomie pictures into a slide show.

Dog Park Playdate

A friend from work and I met at the dog park for a play date with our pups.  It was really fun.  We had the park to ourselves for the first hour and 1/2.  Then the woman with 9+ dogs showed up.  The same woman from This Day.  Yes the same dog was there.  It didn't chase us again - by itself.  Seven of the dogs got together in a pack and chased Tibby.  It wasn't nice and so we left the dog park.  Cleo, my co-worker's dog is only 10 pounds and she would have been a little snack for the pack.  Tibby likes to be chased and chase, but when the pack chased her I could tell it was different (not play).  She had her tail down and the fur down her spine was straight up.  She was acting stressed and she wanted to be picked up.

I'm not exactly sure how many dogs she has, because she was at the far end of the park with a few (on leash) and then the rest were running in a pack, but I counted 9.  If you have 9 dogs - fine, that's great for you - but have some control over them or at least watch out that they aren't chasing/ growling/snapping/barking at other dogs and people.  The dog park is huge - 4 acres at least and she was at the far end of it, while her dogs were at the other end of the park.  When we left the park, her fox hound and jack russell were trying to get out of the gate with us.

Ok rant over - on to the pictures.

Cleo, Cesar and Tibby.

"Mmmm smells stinky!"

Cleo likes to have her back rubbed.  Cute!

Run Tibby!  Run!

Rest time.  It was warm out there.

Tibby and Cesar.  I discovered how difficult it is to take pictures of black dogs.

This was one of the woman's dogs.  This one didn't chase Tibby.  It was a nice dog.

Right after I took this picture the pack came running over a hill and chased Tibby.  It was scary, because they chased her around a corner.  Also, very frustrating, because there isn't a lot you can do against a fast pack of dogs. 

Ultimate Wobble Board

Tibby jumps up into the hammock when I'm rocking in it.  She does it all the time, but I've never been able to catch her doing it.  A few weeks ago I was picking up her toys and I threw her green tug into the hammock.  The next thing I knew Tibby was in the hammock too!  Then I had go get the camera and recreate it :-)  She likes her toys. She has pretty good balance!

Garage Sale

I spent yesterday morning at a friend's house with Tibby.  We were having a garage sale.

It was a great socialization experience for Tibby.  She saw at least 100 new people of all shapes and sizes.  She also saw that not every one wants to greet her.  Some people can walk right by her.  She didn't know that people could resist her cute powers! 

When I was taking this picture a guy asked me if Tibby was for sale.  NO!!!!

Just hanging out.  It was a very nice day.  Cloudy and a little breeze, so nice and cool.  I had a coat on the whole time.  It was great until it started raining pouring after lunch.  We got wet!

"Hello.  I am cute.  Pet me."

If people noticed Tibby (99% did LOL!) they said this, "Oh, what a cute little puppy!  What kind of dog is he?"

Me "She's a Tibetan Terrier."

Them, "A what?"

Me "Tibetan Terrier."

Them confused, "Oh?"

I had the same conversation with 50 people.  My friend that was having the sale said we should just make a sign that said, "I am a Tibetan Terrier.  My name is Tibby. And I am NOT for sale!!"

I had to take this picture, because it proved my friend wrong.  She kept saying that Tibby had a 5 foot rule - she had to be 5 feet from me or she started to freak out.  Mostly the 5 foot rule was true.  If I went to check on something away from the table Tibby would start whining and the farther I got away from her she would start to bark/scream.  But look at this picture!  She is farther than 5 feet away.

Who is that dog on the deck to the left?  Why that's Lucy, Tibby's jogging buddy.  We thought that the girls would both be able to hang out on the deck together, because they interact nicely every morning when they run together.  However, I quickly realized that Lucy does not know how to play nicely.  Tibby was giving her lots of play cues and then back off cues, but Lucy didn't get it.  I decided the play date was over when I saw Tibby telling Lucy to get away from her or play nice, but Lucy kept jumping on her and getting more and more excited.   

  Lucy is way too rough and she doesn't know how to play.  Probably because she has never had the opportunity to play with another dog.  Like ever.  This was her first play date and it lasted less than 3 minutes. 

I look like a puppy!

Lucy is a 4 year old border collie/spitz/farm dog cross.  She recently had all her fur shaved off.  She looks weird now.

"I getz you and you little doggie too."

Lucy is not a bad dog and I think with time and practice she could learn to play nicely with Tibby.  Unfortunately, her people don't have any interest in training her or socializing her.  They think she is an "old dog" and can't learn anything and what is the point she is so old.  She's only 4!

"Why iz you smiling Tibby?"

"Cheese!"

Playdate Fun

"Ah, fresh Spring air."

I like this picture, because all of the dogs are doing their own thing.  Tibby is zooming, Benji is just standing around and Zoe is focused on her ball.

Peek a boo

Sneaking or stalking?

"Yeah, I totally agree."

Tibby sat on the swing with me.  She was trying to get away from Benji.  He is such a dog.

"That was fun.  Let's go home."

Dirty Fun

More pictures from Sat. play date with Zoe and Benji.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

"Hey Tibby!  Is this a race or a chase?"

"Chase!"

Amazing Perfect Hiking Day

Today was a gorgeous day.  There are only a few days like this in Minnesota, so when they come around it's important to really enjoy them.  I had today off from work and....  But really I should go back to the beginning of the day when Tibby went missing.  My Mom takes Tibby running every Mon., Wed. and Friday morning.  She picks Tibby up at 5:30am and drops her off at my house again around 6:15am.  This morning I woke up at 7:30am and there wasn't any Tibby.  I started to worry.  These are the things I worried about: My Mom has had a heart attack and is lying on the side of the road, Tibby ran away and my Mom is chasing her through the town or Tibby was hit by a car.

Nice way to wake up.

I called my parent's house.  I guess my Mom didn't feel like running Tibby back to my house, so she just kept her.  She dropped Tibby off on her way to work.  My Mom said that Tibby sat on my Mom's lap for about an hour.  So really Tibby was grandparent-napped!

And I'm sure they didn't feed her any breakfast (while she was sitting on my Mom's lap) - ha ha yeah right!  Lucky dog.

So we went hiking with Zoe and her Mom.

It was amazing!

Perfect day.

The mosquitoes aren't out yet and it isn't too hot or too cold yet.

It was about 60F.

Of course, there are wood ticks.

Yuck.  I guess Zoe had 7 ticks on her.  I found 2 on me and 1 on Tibby.

So far.

I gave Tibby a bath - because she rolled in something super stinky!!!! - and brushed her hair out very carefully, but it's hard to tell if there are any more ticks with all of her hair. 

The one I found was by her nose.  It will be interesting if that is the only tick Tibby ends up having, because she has Frontline on and Zoe doesn't.

I feel like they are still crawling on me! Ewwww!

Yes?

This is Tibby's surprised face.  She is always sticking her nose into grass or leaves and then jumping back surprise!

Yes there was green!

Happy

Water break.

The story continues tomorrow......