Day 36 - Klee Kai Party! Jefferson County Dog Park (13 weeks old!)

As a general rule of thumb, I am not a dog park person. In fact, I tend to loath them and the way people use them as a mindless way to wear out their dog without actually interacting with them. This is one of the rare times when I make an exception, though. We first went to Jefferson County Dog Park for a Klee Kai meetup last year and I was in awe at how fantastic this place is. There are four or five different areas and they are split into large and small dog areas. We use area four for the Klee Kai parties and it is HUGE. There don't tend to be many (any) other dogs when we are there (aside from the Klee Kai, that is) and they have so much space to run. It is well worth the 2+ hour drive to get there. Who knows, if I had a park like this closer to home I might not be so against dog parks.

We got a late start this morning, as I didn't get home until after 11:00 last night and the dogs (or Jedi, at least) were up and running past midnight. We finally got out of bed around 8:30 this morning. During breakfast we continued to work on pivoting to the leg, which I'm starting to name (heel on the left, leg on the right -- took me forever to decide what I was going to call that one). We also did more spoon stuff, targeting, and got some nice distance with beep-beep.

Jedi ran pretty much nonstop until it was time to leave at 10:00. As is fairly usual, when I put on their harnesses Kizzy & Jedi were off to the races. Unfortunately this was outside, where I really needed Jedi to go potty before we hit the road for two hours. This was completely futile, as the two of them had no intention of stopping. I eventually picked Kizzy up with the hope that Jedi would realize what we were out there for, but he just bounced in front of me like I had his toy. Well, so much for that. Off we went.

Because it was nap time, Jedi crashed right away in the van. He didn't move much at all until we were about five miles from our exit. There was a rest area 1.5 miles before the exit, so I figured I would stop there for myself and for Jedi. I let him out of the van and I swear he peed for a full minute. Well, that's what you get for running around like a loon instead of emptying your bladder before we left! Honestly, I was kind of impressed that he could sleep in a bumping crate with a bladder that full.  lol

We got to the park at 12:30 thanks to our slightly late departure while I tried to get the dogs to go potty, so most of the Klee Kai folks were there already. My crew was thrilled to see everyone and ran right into the fray, including Jedi. I'm still pretty sure Jedi thinks he's a Klee Kai for as much time as he spends with Kizzy, so he thought it was pretty cool to have so many new friends to play with.

When we first arrived Jedi more or less fixated on the various tennis balls and chuck-it balls that were laying around. Of course, it didn't hurt that people were more than happy to throw the balls for him. Much like here at home he wasn't interested in competing with anyone else for a ball, he'd just go find another one.

There was one dog in particular that Jedi really took to -- Tasha is a 7 month old Klee Kai puppy and they got along very well and followed each other around a lot (when they weren't actively wrestling with each other).

Jedi probably spent almost an equal amount of time visiting with people today as he did with the other dogs. He was quite popular among everyone and was more than happy to climb into laps, give kisses, and say hello. I was surprised at how many people asked what breed of dog he was, but then again, he was in the small dog area and I suppose you don't expect to see a lot of border collies there.

We had plenty of opportunity to practice recalls today with all of the distractions around, and for the most part Jedi was very responsive. In the beginning he decided he could take or leave me when he had balls and other dogs to think about, but after the newness of everything wore off he was much better about coming when called. Towards the end one of the other owners went over to the other side of the area to try to find her dog (I'm telling you, it's huge) and Jedi followed with her other dog. Yup, he's not a momma's boy. I finally walked over to the opening of that section and called him, and boy did he come barreling over then. I'm surprised he could still run that fast after being out for two hours!

We left soon thereafter as all of the dogs looked to be getting pretty tired and were mostly just standing around by this point. Kaiser and Kizzy had been going absolutely nonstop the entire time, too, so I'm sure they'd had enough. Jedi still needed to eat his lunch, too -- since he didn't eat breakfast until 8:30 I figured 2:30 was probably about right for lunch.

We said our goodbyes and went back to the van. I was parked in the grass off to the side, so after I put Kaiser and Kizzy into the van I grabbed Jedi's lunch and decided to just work through some tricks right there. We did beep-beep, pivots, 4-in (in the metal bowl), and some target touches. Once his food was gone it was time to hit the road. That was one quiet ride home; I don't think anyone moved once.

Everyone was rolling in lord knows what at the dog park. Kizzy was the only one who actually had visible schmutz on her, so she got a bath when we got home. While I was at it, and since I had to wash towels anyhow, I figured why not give Jedi a bath, too? I'm usually lucky if I bathe my dogs once a year, so this is the first bath Jedi has had since he came to live with me. I probably should have used the bathtub, which helps to contain the dogs a bit more. I was using my shower stall in the small bathroom, though, which is pretty easy to escape -- Jedi tried a few times, but did finally give up and accept his fate. He didn't seem to like it much, though, and he whined pretty pitifully. Oh well, we lived. Kaiser got to join the fun and had a bath, too. Jedi must not have been too traumatized by his experience because he tried to join Kaiser.

The dogs got to run around in the yard to air dry. I have no idea how they still had any energy left in them. We got home around 4:30 -- it's now after 8:00 and everyone is finally starting to settle. Crazy dogs. For Jedi's dinner session we went outside and did more pivots to the leg, a couple of table downs, and lots of fun teeter slamming. Still need to video one of these days to be able to post for lesson three...