This Old Black Lab Just Ain't What He Used To Be

We took Diesel to the dog park for the first time this summer. For the uninitiated, a dog park is a fenced in area where dogs can run off leash. To some it may seem unnecessary to have a park for that, but having your dog off leash in our town violates an ordinance, and we don't have a fenced in yard.
So Diesel seldom gets to spread his wings and let loose after a tennis ball, other than at the dog park.
When Diesel was an impossible pup we used to take him all the time because it tired him out and we could leave for hours and he wouldn't be crazy. Now that he is so good (I swear, he really is), we never need to take him. So we hadn't gotten there yet this year, but Sunday was our day (because we have to leave him all day Monday).

As soon as I take his Chuckit out of the closet he knows where we're going and starts freaking out.



The dog park is very crowded on this day but I find some room and throw Diesel some tennis balls. He zips off after them and of course doesn't bring them back (I don't know why they call him a Retriever, he's just a chaser) but he's running well and getting tired. The some crazy woman with a Labradoodle named Waldo starts up a conversation. She thinks Diesel's panting sounds like whistling which is what Waldo does and people are nervous and the vet never said anything, did the vet say anything about Diesel. I tell her no, he's 100% fine just winded and she asks to use my chuckit, she throws a couple for Waldo while Mrs. Poop takes Diesel for rehydration.

An angry Mrs. Poop comes storming over asking for the car keys because she needs to get bottled water out of the car for Diesel because the gallon jug we brought is missing. This dog park has no bowls (it used to) and no place close by to fill up water so its best to bring your own. On her way back she sees three old people have our jug that we brought. Because she "doesn't like confrontation" she sends me over to get Diesel's water. I walk over, say "can I take this back?" and grab our water. The old people don't try to stop me. Here's the weird thing. They weren't borrowing or sharing. They hadn't spilled a drop of it yet. If they wanted some, they could have filled their bowl and left it where we put it down. They didn't they just took it over to where they were sitting. Very strange.

After that we finally got some nice running and fetching in and Diesel was exhausted. I spotted an entlebucher, a very rare Swiss mountain dog, that I had seen once on "The Dog Whisperer." I wanted to find out more because it seems like the one breed of dog other than lab, that Mrs. Poop and I both might like to own some day.



If you ever go to a dog park, and you want the dogs to attack you, you should be eating food, and running. Some little girl did that and every dog in the place was after her. Then she kept picking up this ball and running with it, and every time Diesel chased her. Then she started taking pictures of Diesel. Very strange.

Finally, Diesel was so exhausted we had to take him home but before we could we almost had an incident. Every dog park has two gates, they open into a small square so that if one gate is closed, no dogs can get loose. As we were leaving, a couple was bringing in their dog. As they opened the inner gate to let their dog in, their bratty kids opened the outer gate to ask for ice cream money. Thankfully we had Diesel on the leash, and no other dogs escaped. But this is why Focks is nervous about letting Bauer go to a dog park, because people are idiots.

But the trip was worth it, Diesel had a great time, he was so exhausted he barely moved the rest of the night and he should be good to be home tonight by himself.

And I stepped in dog poop.