{01sept2010: wordless Wednesday}

tug at the dog park edition.... guess who won?

{14july2010: wordless Wednesday}

Fun at the Westcrest Park edition:


(this 6month old fawnequin was almost as big as Dar is!)


  
  
    
     
   

{29june2010: park time}

I don't know if it's the acupuncture making Dar's qi (chi) flow or the cool temperatures we've been having but her energy level is OUT OF CONTROL.  Our hour plus long walks don't tire her out at all so I decided to take her to the dog park after work yesterday.
Westcrest park is a great one because it has the off leash play area and a trail that loops around so between play sessions we can walk the loop to rest her from playing and still get exercise.  (There are even trails outside of the off leash area, but we have yet to explore that part yet.)

Darwin was playing with this husky who decided to try and hump her... I told his owner she'd get him off, but his owner back there quickly put his leash on him and took him away.  I felt bad for him.




There was another Dane at the park too!  It's funny how quickly Darwin will run over to say hi to another Dane.  They played a quick game of bitey face (they look so ferocious), but Darwin got distracted by that little pug in the background who kept biting her ankles.  Each time she got bit she'd almost sit on the pug and the pug would keep going after her.  It was kind of funny, but I'm sure Darwin didn't think so so I took her away.


Even an hour and a half at the park, play time and walking four loops didn't tire her enough and she was up at 530 this morning wanting to get out and do something.

Thanks for all your suggestions on the fireworks + barking issue.  We ordered a Thundershirt to see if it will help.  Almost all the advice that was given was to ignore the barking and praise her when she stops.  But we can't just let her bark since we're in a small condo and her barks are really loud.  It's especially a problem if she barks late at night when our 3 year old neighbor is most likely in bed.  We've been working on our "no bark"/"shh" command, which works sometimes, but we still haven't perfected it.  She was barking this morning at some random noise outside, so after our "shh" or "look at me" commands weren't getting her attention I took her to the bathroom and put her in there for a bit (I was in there brushing my teeth) and we let her out after a while.  I've been watching a fair bit of It's Me or The Dog and Victoria seems to use the "removal" technique quite often (removing the dog to another room for a few seconds when they bark) and I think I'll be trying that out with Darwin, especially for her barks at random noises.

{11jan2010: dog park weekend}

Now that college football season is officially over (thank goodness) til next fall, it means Jason is free to go to the dog park with us on Saturdays.  To start off the (college) football-free weekend, we took Darwin to Westcrest Park in West Seattle.  
As soon as we got there there was a bigger female fawn dane that Darwin played with for a bit.  

It was pretty rainy all week so the ground was nice and muddy, which Darwin loves to run through, but she also managed to slip alot in the mud trying to make quick turns and one time ended up face planting and getting a mouthful of dirt.

We met this cute little bulldog who was obsessed with a stick... barked at anyone who came near him though he really wanted them to play tug.

Jason teased him by stepping on one end of the stick so he couldn't run away with it.

A black lab found another big stick and Darwin was more than happy to try and steal it away.

She also participated in a game of three way tug with another lab and a pit bull pup.

Her Marymoor friends Bettis and Kendall showed up too!  It was the first time Bettis and Darwin actually played together!  Usually Bettis wanders around and doesn't really play, but this day he was having a lot of fun harassing Darwin.  At one point they both jumped up and chest bumped each other, resulting in Darwin falling down.  hehehe.
{Come on Darwin, let's play!}

{Ok!  I'll play!}

hahaha I love Bettis' face in this one.

{hahah Darwin, I got your ear!}

Someone else wanted to join in on the fun:

After all that playing, Darwin was ready to go home, which she's taken to letting us know by first staring at us, then jumping on us.  What a brat.

Sunday I took her to Marymoor where we met up with the dane group and she got to play with some of her best buds.

{13dec2009: park weekend!}

Saturday:  Westcrest Park
3 way keep away!

10 month old goldendoodle

Friends from Marymoor, Beddis and Kendall

Older merle female, who wasn't that into young Darwin trying to play with her.

Dinky... his poor mom was peed on by some rotweiler. eww.

Darwin, Dinky and Willis!

This is only our second time to this park, but there were a ton of danes there!  Darwin had a blast!  Though she was a little cranky towards the end so we had to leave.

Today we took Darwin to get a Christmas picture with Santa Claws at the Seattle Animal Shelter.  She was surprisingly well behaved, well, she was pretty excited by the other dogs around and being some place new, but she didn't bark at Santa and sat nicely for a photo.  They are supposed to email us a copy so I'll post it later.  I will say it's not as good as Bess and Heffner's but not bad for our first one.
Then we took Darwin out to Marymoor for more play time.
Oscar Darwin and Bella

Bella Oscar Otis and Darwin

This poor dog was dressed in leopard print pj's and a coat.  It was cold out, but I don't know if it was THAT cold!

We also ran into Norman

And on our loop around we ran into him again, and Darwin was chasing him and he ran straight into his mom and knocked her over.  Poor thing.  

{15nov2009: weekend parks}

Jason's out of town for work, so it was a girls weekend for Darwin and I.  I decided we needed to branch out and try a new park and headed over to West Seattle's Westcrest Park.  It was a fun park with good play areas and a path that loops around the park.  There were also gates that lead you to other trails around the park.  Darwin got to play with a lot of new friends and we even ran into another dane, Willis, who we had met outside our office a few months ago when Darwin was just a tiny pup.  

Yesterday it was raining and cold in Seattle so of course Darwin had no desire to be outside.  Of course since we do live in Seattle, she'll have to get used to the rain, so I took her to Marymoor to test a theory.  Juneau's mom thinks that if Darwin got to play in the rain she'd get used to it.  I started her off in her coat to ease her into it.

After a few minutes, she was wrestling with another pup and her new coat was filthy (great) so I took it off to see if she would handle being coat free in the rain.

After a while the rain stopped and Darwin was content running through mud puddles and rolling around.  As we were leaving the rain started up again and so rather than leaving, we did another lap around the park and she got some play time in with a new friend.

She seemed to forget about the rain which was good.  Of course this morning when it was time to go outside and it was windy and rainy, she paused for a bit before going out.  Maybe a few more times playing in the rain will do the trick.