Thursday, June 25, 2009

Dog Park Drama and the King of Pop

My dog is crazy. Clark is a lab mix (the guy we got him from said corgi mix, but he looks like a miniature lab so I don't buy it.) and he's 35 pounds. He's 3 years old and is the most hyperactive dog I've had in my life. My aunt and uncle have 80 pound black labs back in MD and Clark has always bee used to playing rough with them-- he came home with grass stains every day he was over at their house, haha.


So, Mister Clark doesn't exactly have a "filter" where he can behave like a normal dog and be nice and sniff a little bit and then be cool. No, he pulls himself on the leash so hard that he chokes himself, starts drooling, and automatically jumps on anyone and anything that's exciting to him. Once he gets the attention he needs from people (or dogs, or squirrels, or anything for that matter), he will calm down but that doesn't generally happen for a while. For the last three days I've been testing him a little bit to se how he interacts with some of the other dogs in our apartment complex, because this whole time I've been so embarrassed that he just jumps all the time. He now has three new best friends: Samson, Static, and Copper. My neighbor Marcy has two kids (Auston and MaCaelob) and a chocolate lab named Chaco-- Clark and Marcy's kids get along SO well but Chaco is jealous of Clark being too close to the kids so she's not very fond of him. We've been trying to get them used to each other and we're hoping Chaco will get over it soon.

So today I took Clark to the dog park with Marcy, Auston, MaCaelob, and Chaco. It was the first time in a long time I had taken Clark to the dog park (he had a throw up incident the first time he went because he was so excited, so I've been hesitant to take him again). Anyway, we went to the dog park hoping that Chaco would feel a little better since she didn't have to be so territorial since it wasn't in her front yard at the apartments. Unfortunately, no luck yet! Clark ran up to her as soon as I let him off the leash and she lunged at him, and jumped on top of him. He kind of fought back but we separated them. I think in time they'll be ok but we don't want to push the issue. We were the only people there at first, but then 7 other dogs eventually joined the party. Clark was very well-behaved and had a blast. He's sleeping on the couch now and is absolutely exhausted. Marcy and I are going to go to the dog park again soon to see how they are with each other. I'm really glad Clark went and had fun!

One of the dog owners said she doesn't like going to that dog park much when there are a lot of dog owners around because there is a lot of bickering between owners. Apparently they are so paranoid about which dog "caused" something first or got in another dog's way. The woman who told us this, along with the rest of us dog owners, were laughing about it because it's like, they're dogs for god's sake! They have their tiff and then they are fine. Just let them be dogs! All the dogs at the park got along great today, and it was a big mix of them. The woman said two guys actually got in a fist fight with each other one time when she was there. So crazy. Why can't we all just get along?

In other news, I knew Farrah Fawcett died today but I was watching CNN and they were like "Michael Jackson has been rushed to UCLA hospital for cardiac arrest". I didn't think much of it until they started talking about how he was dead. WHAT?! This day is crazy. Two amazing entertainers. So sad. I also heard a rumor that Jeff Goldblum died today but on twitter there are a bunch of people saying its not true. I think it's some internet hoax, so I'm not believing it!

Anyway-- It's already almost 5:30 and Mark will be leaving work soon so I need to get dinner started. We're having breakfast tonight! Marcy is making breakfast for dinner and it made me SO hungry. It works for me because I didn't know what to make tonight. So now it's pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs! Woohoo! I'm going to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things and then I'll be starting dinner.

~LeAnn


6 comments:

Mr. Condescending said...

how was breakfast for dinner? lol

lbradshaw said...

It was delicious! I ate way too much but I think it was worth it. I'll just get in an extra long workout tomorrow. Blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage. YUM!

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...

Just think, the dog park is a pre-cursor to Preschool. These same "parents" will be fighting and competing, blaming the other "kid" for their "kid's" behavior, and every once in awhile picking up poop. Ha! This dog park is a good life lesson!

mylittlebecky said...

i love when my dogs get super exhausted from doing something fun! makes me feel good :)

Hepburn Hilton said...

He sounds adorable! You should put up a picture :)

lbradshaw said...

Carina, I will do that!