{163 days old}

One Sunday this summer there were ALOT of danes at the "dane convention".  Here's a video showing most of them.


And here's a video of Darwin doing some wading.


 

{149 days old}

Since Darwin was so well behaved on the 4th of July and her spay day was coming up, we took her to Marymoor the next day.  We found some of the dane group, but Darwin still seemed a bit pooped from all the excitement the day before.
{Sirus checking on Darwin}

But then a new little harlequin puppy showed up and Darwin perked up.

After some play time with the new guy, Darwin and I met up with her bff Juneau for some water time.

First we tried to use the rubber chicken to lure her in... no luck.
Aileen had better luck with the tennis ball!

Once she was in, she realized she actually liked it in the cool water versus baking on the steps.

Me, wanting to test her out a bit, threw the tennis ball out which she willingly fetched (and she doesn't usually fetch).  So on the last throw I throw it a bit farther out, not realizing the ground falls away pretty quickly.
{we're ok so far}

{uh oh, where'd that ground go}

{oh no! no ground!}

So she sank, and then swam back very quickly and out of the water she went.  She would not go back in after that.

Juneau on the other hand looked at Darwin like, "swim girl swim"!

I was worried she'd be traumatized after that experience, but it turns out she wasn't!  woo hoo!

{140 days old}

New park!  We decided to try out a new park after going to Marymoor a few times.  This time we headed over to Magnuson Off Leash Park which is the only park in Seattle with a beach!  I brought some bubbles with us for Darwin to chase.

We made it down to the water area to see if Darwin would get in the water.

She wasn't really sure of it, so Jason had to walk in with her so she'd go in.

We were impressed that she was willing to go so far in... still hoping that we'll get her to swim, and like it!

{fyi: Magnuson Park *update 2*}

I don't know if there are any Seattle readers of our blog, but just in case there are I thought I should pass on this message.  There is some guy bringing his 3 pit bulls to the water area of Magnuson off leash park, and releasing them to attack other dogs.  It's happened twice around 1130 on Friday's.  One dog died as a result. 

9/25 incident FRIDAY 11:30 - noon

11:30 AM at the beach... female with adult boxer and boston terrier.. pits all attacked boxer.. man just stood and watched and didn't do anything to stop it! After a long while... the man called the dogs off... boxer died at the vet 2 hrs later.. terrier survived.. severely injured. No report filed yet as the owner is too distressed..

10/2 FRIDAY 11:30 - noon

Man with his two huskies... one pup and one adult. Pits all attacked

adult husky... again, owner watched and did nothing. owner of husky pulled the dogs off... dog had broken leg. Owner has filed a report.

WE BELIEVE THAT THIS MAN MAY BE TRAINING HIS PITS FOR FIGHTING BY COMING TO THE PARK, WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO BE ALONE AT THE BEACH, THEN LEASHING THE DOGS ON THE VULNERABLE DOG!

If you see this person, please try to get his license plate number and call animal control immediately (206) 296-PETS [7387].

DESCRIPTION: White Male early 20's heavily tattooed arms.. shaved head...

with White Female - early 20's med to heavy build long brown hair

DOGS: 3 PIT BULLS 1 white or gray, 1 brindle, 1 10month old brown

VEHICLE: very old silver pick up truck.. with damage to the right rear

Our neighbor who Darwin has playdates with in the garage just told us about this last night, and she's thinking about going down to the park (without Riley, their dog of course) to try and get pictures of this guy.
It's unbelievable that someone would be that cruel to first of all train their dogs to fight, and secondly to have them attack innocent dogs at a DOG PARK.  
It's sad that a breed with an already bad reputation gets an even worse rep by bad owners. 


***update 1: It seems that this guy and his dogs have been at Marymoor park too.  Someone in our Marymoor dane group sent a message today that an older man's  little terrier dog was the victim 2-3 weeks ago.
There are comments going around that people are skeptical that this is a true story as no one has officially reported these incidents to police and that there are no witnesses who have come forward.  Also that this could all be some ploy to rally attention to the breed as a breed ban is being debated in Bothell.
If these are fabricated stories, it's an awful thing to do, just to get publicity for a breed ban.  It's not affecting just Bothell, but every dog owner in the Seattle area.  
My family owned a pit mix and he was a very loving dog.  If anything he was more scared of everything than scary.  In fact in a fight with our neighbor's dog (they both jumped the fence to get to eachother), our dog was the one who needed to be taken to the vet.  And not to say the other dog was mean and vicious or the owners were bad owners, it just goes to show that not all pit (mixes or not) are bullys.***


***update 2:  Another attack has happened, this time at Edmonds off leash park.  Here's what was said on Yelp and the Mountlake Terrace Blog.  The dog owners were able to get a license plate number and report it to police.  Hopefully these people will get caught and their dogs can be rehabilitated and not put down for their owners bad judgment.***