Wow, you might be getting sick of reading about Maggie at the park, but I'm not sick of seeing it or living it!
We went to the park this morning to let the steam out before I had to go in to work for a long day. The jogger with the Weimeraners was back, as well an older man and a Lab in the distance. We went in and played fetch right away. The older gentleman left shortly after we arrived and then the Weimeraners passed by as the owner made her next lap. Both of my dogs went bounding up to say hello. They all seemed to recognize each other this time, did their greetings and then returned to their respective families. Nice! Chicken for everyone!
We began to wander around the park, Maggie was endlessly into her new retrieve toy today, which was helpful because sometimes she loses interest in retrieving without a little competition (and Etta is no competition, she seems to feel Maggie is foolish for continuously bringing back something I threw away!).
We got up to the top of the hill and a couple with three Standard Poodles arrived. One of them did not have a very good recall so I worked on keeping my dogs focused on me. They made their way up the hill and two of them played fairly well. One of them was not interested in saying hello and snapped at Etta, I think he grazed her with his teeth because she scooted away and yelped. From there she would not go near him and was very polite to him. I actually like this because Etta can be a bit of a snot sometimes if she thinks she can bully a dog. She will also escalate if someone snarks at her. I like seeing her respect another dog's wishes for space.
One of the dogs managed to steal Maggie's toy and took off with it. The owner said they "don't like to chase her so it might be a while to get the toy back". I was not overly happy with that, after all, my dogs and I were enjoying a lovely game until their dog stole our toy! Go get my toy! We did get it back and I did my best to move my dogs away and told them over my shoulder where they could get their own!
We practiced a little obedience to give Maggie a break, some heeling, a stay, a drop on recall, all looked really nice! More chicken!
The little Black Lab Fantasia showed up at that time. They played together on Maggie's first visit. I was quite pleased to see her owner put her in a stay, then ask if they could play. She and Etta had a great time running around, then she focused on Maggie's toy, too. Apparently this thing is really special! I heard Maggie grumble under her breath a few times as Fantasia tried to take the toy from her, but she was not letting go of the toy to do anything else this time!
Maggie collapsed onto her toy a bit later and I realized we had been playing for quite a long time, so we headed home tired, a little bit dirty, but pretty pleased at the variety of the dogs we encountered and the variety of the reactions we had. Six dogs to greet is a big day for Maggie and I am quite happy with her progress.
