New Years Resolution update: 1 down, 2 to go

My new years resolution is actually going even better than I thought! My resolution was to teach all of my pups to ride in the back of the truck. I had three main suspects, Cooper, Otis and Achilles. They had their various reasons for getting to ride in the back seat, each of which I have tried to tackle over the past few weeks. I am proud to report that Cooper has been converted to a backseat rider, Otis is making great progress and Achilles is next. Cooper has riden in the back of the truck to and from the park for 3 park trips now. He doesn't voluntarily get in, I have to hold his collar and walk him to the tailgate, but as soon as we get there, he leaps right in. He is such a good boy in the truck, he doesn't try to jump out when I load other dogs, he just rides quietly. He has been so good, he even got to increase his schedule from 3x/wk to 4x/wk! I couldn't accomodate that change before because I didn't have enough spots in my backseat on the other days.... All it took was the magic mozzarella and proscuitto (itty bitty minuscule pieces go a long ways!) from Trader Joe's! So proud of Coop!!!!

Otis has been a backseat rider because he just got too excited when he was in the back of the truck. He would start barking and screaming when we got to Montlake and still had at least 20 minutes until we got to the park. Once we were at the park, as soon as I even cracked open the tailgate window, he would launch over my head and jump out and start barking. Needless to say, it was a little chaotic and didn't set a good example for the other dogs. My solution was to start putting Otis in a crate in the back of the truck. So far, it has been working out great! He loves riding in the crate. I think it makes him much calmer.  It seems that Otis just really needs personal space and having a little distance from the other dogs really has made a difference. He goes in the crate even when it's just left open. He has been laying down the whole way to the park, only barks for a minute and is quiet when I ask him, and doesn't launch over my head when it's time to get out! Today he even got out of his crate, grabbed his ball, and quietly waited for me to let everyone out. We will have to see if this becomes a habit, but so far, I like what I'm seeing!

It's funny that with these two dogs, Cooper and Otis, I had just accepted their quirks about the back of the truck and gave into letting them ride in the front for over a year (or more). Once I set my mind to making a change, it hasn't been that hard!

Next up is Achilles. He is gladly launching into the back seat now, which is a huge improvement from me trying to shove his 160lbs in there against his will. At this point he is a little too comfortable with the back seat. As soon as I am confident Cooper is comfortable with the new routine, and Otis is more settled, I will start working on Achilles. In the meantime, he makes sure to let me know he is there!

ballwalkpark's 3rd birthday!!!

Three years ago today was my first day of ballwalkpark! I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has believed in, supported, and shared your pups with ballwalkpark. I love this business, I have the most amazing employee, Nancy, the most amazing clients and of course, the most amazing dogs. I can't believe how fortunate I am to have all of these people and dogs in my life. Thank you to all of you who have grown with me over the years and patiently taught me how to run this business better. I have learned so much from my clients and their dogs, and am lucky enough to call many of them great friends and some have even become family.

Several times a week, I can't believe that this is really my job. I used to be the person that would beg to come over and meet a friend's new puppy, now people I don't even know call me and pay me to come play with their dogs!

Even after the worst days, I can't help but laugh. When I tell my fiance about my day and tell him I got pushed down in a mud puddle, tripped, bit and had to clean up puke out of the front seat and diarrhea out of the back of the truck, I can't help but laugh. After a hot shower and a good dinner, I have totally forgotten about the day and am ready to see the pups again in the morning. It feels so good to wake up and want to go to work every day!

The absolute best thing that I have experienced in this business is gaining the trust of my clients. There is no greater compliment than when I ask my clients if I can take their dog somewhere or do something and the response is "whatever you want, I trust you". Even more than that, being trusted to take a pup to the dog park. I know that Nancy and I love these dogs and truly do treat them the same (if not sometimes better!) than our own dogs, but for our clients to know and believe that means so much to us. Watching these pups grow up, learn new tricks, and develop a bond with the pack is such a rewarding way to spend the day.

When I started dog walking three years ago, there were about 20% of the dog walking businesses that there are now. Back then, dog walkers had a reputation of being weird, fanny pack wearing, socially awkward with a manly voice (which was never really true to begin with, but the stereotype was definitely there). I have consciously reminded myself to brush my hair, occasionally lint roll the dog hair, put on clean clothes even if they are going to get immediately dirty again. In many ways I have resisted letting myself be the stereotypical dog walker (and will continue to!) but I admit that I have really adopted certain parts of the dog walker lifestyle. Here is what 3 years of ballwalkpark has done to me:

• I always speak for myself and the dogs, even when I am alone, (i.e. can you hold the door for us?). People must think I have an imaginary friend.
• Every coat pocket has treats and poop bags, if the pocket hasn't been chewed out yet
• I can pick up a poop, kick a ball, and tell a dog to stop humping, simultaneously, all while on auto-pilot
• I know every single back street route between Queen Anne and Magnuson park
• I make the weird dog walker sounds at the park. I don't know why or how this happened, but it has. Anything to get those dogs to follow me!
• I am able to identify each of my dogs by their bark and their poop
• My natural reaction upon walking in a dog owner's house is to drop on the floor and play with the dog
• I should own stock in Lululemon and laundry detergent
• I have over 30,000 dog pictures. My computer has crashed numerous times. My external hardrives are full.

Three years feels good. I feel confident while still challenged. I am so grateful for all of you who have helped me get to this point, your support has meant the world to me. I don't know exactly what the next three years will look like, but I have some ideas I am pretty excited about. Stay tuned!

New Years Resolution: Battle of Achilles

Well today was interesting in terms of my back of the truck goal. As we were about to leave the park I took Achilles out by himself, on leash, to try and coax him into the truck with a piece of chicken. I had set the treat pocket thing on the tailgate on the other side of me. He would get half way up and then back down again. When he was backing down, he swiped the treat pocket. Normally I would just grab it back, but this is the 160lb Great Dane who swallows tennis balls whole. I really didn't want him to swallow the entire (full) treat pocket.

Resourceful thinking kicked in and I grabbed a cookie a client had given me earlier in the day from my dashboard. I broke up the cookie and put it on the ground and luckily Achilles chose the cookie and coughed up the treat pocket. 

After this small victory, Achilles was a little too excited to jump in the backseat and ended up catching his leg on something and falling back out which totally freaked him out. From there on it was like trying to tame a bucking bronco. Needless to say, today was not Achilles' day for the back of the truck.

On the other hand, Cooper was a rockstar and rode to and from the park in the back of the truck! He was not totally convinced about this idea, but he was a really good sport. I gave him treats every time we stopped and he didn't even charge when I opened the gate to let Miles in. Good boy, Coop!

Dog park karma

I am not an overly superstitious or spiritual person, but one thing I do believe in dog park karma. There are two main rules of the dog park (in my opinion) - they are:

1. Never leave the park with a toy that you didn't bring. Either a very generous park patron (i.e. park god) intentionally left toys for all the dogs to enjoy or someone lost their new fancy overpriced toy within the first 10 minutes of getting to the park. Either way,  it's not yours. Does that mean you have to deny your pup the pure bliss of the overpriced brand new toy? Not necessarily.

When my pups and I find a gift from the park gods, we ask everyone around us if they are missing it. If nobody is, then we play to our hearts content right up until we leave the park. Then we leave it right inside the gate for the next lucky pup to find. Because of this, I believe, we are lucky enough to stumble up on fun, exciting, overpriced dog toys at the park at least a couple times a week. If you think I'm crossing over into the crazy dogwalker world then you try keeping track of those toys at $15 a pop! They are like gold!

Moral of the story: obey the rules and the park gods will reward you. Break the rules and you will be cursed to lose every fancy toy you bring to the park before you can even blink an eye! (this is based on experience, I'm not trying to scare you into leaving toys for me at the park, I'm not that cheap ;)

2. This is the important one. I actually get a little OCD about this. PICK UP POOP. Dogwalker's often get criticism from the public that we don't pick up all of our dog's poop. For 90% of us, that couldn't be farther from the truth. While we may miss a dog half way across the field, we are picking up 10 poops for the 2 poops in the area that actually came from our dogs. Not to mention we have monthly work parties to come pick up poop on Saturday mornings - voluntarily - now if that's not dedication, I don't know what is! But seriously, on behalf of the 90% of dogwalkers that I work with, we do more than our share of poop scooping.

We proudly advertise this fact by carrying disgustingly full clear plastic bags of poop around the park with us. It could almost be considered a dogwalker's accessory. We really need to work on placing garbage cans closer together...

At some point in the past 3 years I got in my head that if I were to ever walk by a poop and consciously decide to not pick it up, I was docked a couple dog park karma points. In reality, I can't pick up every poop I pass if I'm running after a dog or have 5 dogs on leash or whatever the case may be, but when I am just strolling along and I see a poop, I feel obligated to pick it up. I'm human, just like the rest of us (except the dogs, of course), and I don't always do what I am supposed to - especially if I don't have a bag nearby or perhaps I am just feeling especially anti-overachiever at the moment. What happens when you don't pick up poop? You step in poop. I was reminded of that lesson today moments before leaving the park after a logging in a combined 4 hours.

Moral of the story: dogwalker or not, you've probably missed a few piles before too, so buy yourself some karma points (and promise of clean shoes) and pick up whatever you find. After all, we're in this shit together, right?! Oh, and if you want to come down to Magnuson for the poop scoop parties (yup, it's a party), they are the 1st Saturday of every month from 10am-1pm, the more the merrier!

Tricks of the trade: follow the leader

Some of my avid readers (if such thing exists) may recall a blog I wrote months ago about when a puppy reaches the teenage phase. If you haven't, you can read the blog here, but this pretty much sums it up:

It’s that moment when the “teenager” stops a few paces short of the gate and stares at me that I realize he’s grown up. He realizes that he actually has a choice whether he follows me or not. It’s when he actually considers the fact that there might be better things in the world than the scraps of treat left in my coat pocket.

Sound familiar? Have you ever found yourself standing at the front of the dog park, ready to leave, hopelessly calling your dog who is essentially giving you the middle finger while running victory laps around the park? Have you yelled "Ok, Bye Fido, see you later...." hoping for a response? Well I have a little secret for you... they're on to you! They know your routine and they know it's time to go and they don't want to!

I've been very fortunate to have had so many puppy clients and been able to help raise and train them. Inevitably, puppies will turn into defiant teenagers, and well trained adult dogs will have a stubborn streak. It's all a part of the fun! I'm sure you can imagine what a mess it would be if all 8 of my dogs protested leaving the park at once (it's happened), so I have a few tricks to avoid this debacle that you can use on your own pup.

Always keep them guessing. I never walk in the direction at the park. Some days I walk straight to the water then come back to water bowls in front, then to the big field, then to the side field, then out the gate. Sometimes we go to the side field first, then the water, then the side field again, then the big field then the gate. You get the picture... I don't have an order of the way we walk the park, that way, just because we are playing close to the gate to leave, doesn't mean we are leaving. When I decide it's time to leave, I can start leashing up some of the ones who I know will protest, and then start walking to the gate with the rest.

Check in. I always like to work on recall with my dogs, even the older well trained ones, just to have them check in with me and know that I'm watching them. I often call them over and have them sit and wait for a treat. I pet them, touch their collars, and hold on to them just to get them used to it. This way, when I want to put them on leash, they aren't expecting it and are less likely to put up a fight (not literal fight, stubborn fight).

After party. When the dogs get to the gate and are ready to leave, I give them a treat (not everyone, just the ones who are new to the routine or having a hard time remembering why I am so convincing) and lots of over-the-top cheerleading praise. Leaving the park is just as much fun as going to the park, RIGHT!??!

Leash 'em up. If you have any doubt that you are going to be able to get your pup out of the park incident-free, just leash 'em up. Once they experience the thrill of the chase and the anger in your face, there is no going back, they will want to make it a regular thing. Once you've had enough successful exits and cheerleader praise, and you feel that you trust him a little bit more, you can try and get closer and closer to the gate before you put the leash on.

Some dogs this is never a problem for and some dogs this is such a problem that their owners never take them to the dog park and never let them off leash. That's no way for a city dog to live, in my opinion! I hope this helps! Remember, you always win! 

Tricks of the trade: drop the ball!

One question that I am constantly asked is "how do you handle 7 dogs at once?", and like every dogwalker, we have our secrets. In this series of blog posts, "tricks of the trade", I will be sharing a few of my secrets that you may be able to use with your pup at the park! Drop the ball! 

If you're pup is anything like Bailey, or any other ball-obsessed lab for that matter, who refuses to drop the ball, try this trick:

blow softly into their ear. keep blowing. It will mess up their pressure and make them start moving their jaw to pop their ears, just like we do on a plane. While moving their jaw, they are bound to drop the ball! The key here is to be very patient and gentle.

*I learned this wonderful trick from my fellow dogwalker, Gretchen Jannenga, and this trick has made getting Bailey in the truck ball-free possible on numerous occasions! 

{of course, the ideal scenario would be to teach your pup to drop the ball properly in the first place... I'll talk about that in a future post!}

adventures of bwp: caught in a downpour!

I feel like I generally have pretty good luck avoiding major storms when at the dog park. More often than not, the weather either turns for the worse as I am just leaving the park, or happens to clear up just as I am arriving, as it did this morning. Apparently I jinxed us when I posted this pic of the clear skies when arriving at the park for the morning trip. The poor pups and I got absolutely nailed this afternoon! This afternoon I had Bailey, Sammy (Dobie), Gracie (Swissie), Josephine (Great Dane), Cooper (black lab) and Kato (Vizsla puppy). They're a pretty tough group and were playing hard all the way down to the water. When we were at the water it started raining a little, but not bad. When we got to the park it was 52 degrees and sunny, I wore my sunglasses into the park and debated not even brining my raincoat since I was already too hot.

As soon as we left the water and got through the gates, the downpour hit. It was like someone turned on a faucet. Sammy, the toughest looking of the crew, is a huge baby and is afraid of the rain. He started frantically spinning in circles looking for somewhere to take cover, but there was nowhere. Anticipating a Sammy meltdown, I put him on leash so I would have one less thing to worry about. A dogwalker a few feet ahead of us starts running with her pack. At the time, I thought that was a kind of unnecessary. Less than 30 seconds later the hail and wind kicked in and I was running right behind her.

Josephine was scared of the hail and wind, her eyes were huge and fearful and she was looking for cover too. The saddest of them all was tiny Kato puppy. He had no idea what was going on and was freezing. He was literally trembling as we ran. I actually considered for a minute taking off my coat to wrap him up, then I realized that was definitely taking it too far.

Right before the pathway to the water there is a small pagoda/shelter area. As soon as we got in there, I sat on the bench, Kato jumped into my lap, and I hugged him to try and keep him warm and stop his trembling. Sammy and Josephine huddled up next to us too. It's so funny that these huge tough looking dogs are actually such babies when it comes to something as simple as a little rain/hail storm.

After waiting a few minutes, and no improvement in the weather, I decided it was time to take our next sprint to the car. We took off running and everyone was great sticking close with by me. My sweet little Bailey was right on my heels, trying to trip me every 5th step. The last thing I needed was a face plant.

As we crossed the field I realized every single person in the park was huddled under one of the two shelters. There were probably 15 people and their dogs huddled under the shelter by the front gate. I've never seen that before!

When we got to the gate by my truck, all the dogs were lined up, eager to get into the truck. Except for one. I looked back and Bailey is standing about 10 yards away, in rain, hail and wind, with the ball in her mouth and her sad little puppy dog eyes begging me for some one on one time. Of course she would.

Everything was absolutely drenched. What a mess... As soon as we left the park and drove  by the U-village, I could see over Queen Anne it was nothing but blue skies... Guess you can't win them all! I don't know what exactly about that whole scenario was fun, I wouldn't exactly call any of it fun, but for some reason, it makes me smile, and I already know it's on my mental "best of the dog park" memories.

Hope you stayed dry today!!!

adventures of ballwalkpark: no toys = no fun? no way!

I was looking forward to writing this blog all last week but somehow time has passed me by once again and here we are, almost onto the next week! This past week or so I did an experiment with the dogs - no toys. I wanted the dogs to get back to basics; running, playing and interaction with one another, not relying on me for their fun.

My toy philosophy used to be the complete opposite - I had a whole array of the newest, coolest dog toys to spoil my dogs with at the park. I picked toys from my collection based on what dogs were on that particular park trip and who would want to play with which toy and who was going to get the most exercise and most fun with whatever toy. I know a lot of dogwalkers who have certain toys that they can't go without because it is a tool necessary to keep a dog focused and well behaved. Or we get stuck into the routine of having a squeaky cuz ball with us so that our dogs don't steal a squeaky cuz from another dog at the park. It's almost as if the dogs and their owners or dogwalkers have developed a dependence on these toys. I decided it was time to break the habit! At least for the week...

Miles loves the frisbee, Chesa loves the Jolly Ball, Harley loves the squeaky Cuz ball, Milkshake loves the Chuck-it... Each dog has a particular toy that really gets them going. I love finding these toys and seeing what makes that dog "tick" so I can understand them a little better and know the best way to get them exercised and have fun. While I love watching the dogs play with their favorite toys, it changed the whole dynamic of the group, and the dynamic between myself and the dogs. The dogs would look at me just as the toy and treat lady. As soon as we got to the park they would just stare at me and bark because they knew I would eventually give them the toys they wanted. So, out of curiosity and frustration with the barking, I decided to forgo toys (at least 90% of the time) for the week.

The results were amazing! The dogs stopped barking and became much more responsive to me. I was worried they would just ditch me and steal other dogs ball to play with but they actually listened to the "leave it" command better than ever. The most wonderful part of this experiment was seeing how the dogs played so much differently without the distraction of toys. They ran and ran and ran and chased each other and played and wrestled and were just dogs! Even the dogs who normally would just sit and stare at a chuck it were playing.

Here's one of my favorite videos of the dogs doing their favorite run at the park. Julie, look for Tucker in here! Favorite part of the dog park!

I hear from my clients all the time that when they take their dog to the dog park on their own that all their dog wants to do is play fetch with them and not really interact with other dogs. I totally understand, Bailey is very much the same way. One of the really cool things about having such a strongly bonded pack is that they play with each other. Not just chasing after the same ball, but chasing and wrestling and play bows and all of that. This type of play  is really important for ongoing socialization and fulfilling a need for interaction with their own kind.

The dogs treated me with much more respect since it was clear I was the pack leader, rather than the toy distributor. It's funny, giving them less of what they want, they actually had more fun with each other and were better behaved for me. I loved watching them just run and be dogs... instead of throwing the ball I was standing on the sidelines as their cheerleader trying to get them to keep running!

While I think there is a time and place for toys and we will definitely still be using our favorite "tools" like the chuck-it and frisbee, it is nice to know that we can kick the habit and enjoy the simple life a few days a week.

Drowned in Double Dog Park Trips

Whhewwww it was a wet one today! My second day back since the "dogwalker in a boot" saga and it was a full 8 hours of soggy doggy park trips and fun. Before I get into the exhilarating adventures of the dog park today, I have to share by amazing find with any of you who have suffered from wet, numb, filthy dog park hands. Dogwalkers, listen up, this may be as life changing for you as it was for me. These gloves, Atlas Snow Blower gloves, are the best gloves I have found, and believe me, I have been through many. They are completely waterproof with a cozy fleece lining. You can still bend your fingers and clip a leash, pick up a toy, and yes, even open a poop bag. The best part is, you can hose off your dogs and not worry about getting your hands wet and dirty at all! I know what you're thinking, getting your hands wet and dirty is not the end of the world, but when it is 36 degrees out and you have 6 filthy dogs to hose off, those fingers go numb really fast and it makes it pretty hard to work! I bought these gloves at City People's on the way to the dog park. I highly recommend them! Oh, and they are bright sexy orange ;)

Ok, on to the good stuff. We switched things up a bit this morning and I took Jambo and Pepper with my crew, they usually go with Nancy's. Pepper had fun chasing after Bonita's tail while Bonita was chasing Mokee for the frisbee. Jambo was stepping up and chasing Porter for the new rope/ball toy which I impulse purchased at City People's as well. I made it through an entire day without losing it, so it was a success! Porter and Dexter kept taking it and having a tug-o-war hold out where they just stood there and stared at one another with the toy in between them... Miles was super excited to catch the toy and have the whole crew chase him - he can really run fast when he has 7 dogs running after him! Coco made it through the whole park trip without rolling in a mud puddle - I was so proud of her! But then as we were walking out the gate to the truck, she ducked off to the puddle 15 yards away and flopped like a fish out of water, just enough to get a good coating. One of these days I am going to video her in action rather than try to get her to stop. Might as well provide some entertainment for all of us! I was really glad I had my new gloves at that moment. I took a few pictures, but it was so grey and cloudy nothing turned out very well... I really wanted to get a picture of Gracie and Porter, who looks like Gracie's mini-me!

Now for the afternoon trip... I picked up my trusty helper Michael and our little menace, Bam. We also got her sidekick, Violet. Our 2nd to last stop before the park was Cooper (yellow lab - not to be confused with Cooper black lab who was already in the back seat). Cooper's brother, Tucker, recently started going to the park as well, but they go on different days so they both get their own separate play time. This is one of those time it would be really nice to be able to talk to dogs and explain why this girl comes and takes them to the park but only takes one of them and why only one of them should be getting excited because the other one is about to get a door closed on their face.... Poor Tucker, hopefully it will make more sense tomorrow! I'm sure it won't, but at least he won't be the one getting the door closed on him!

By the time we got the park, it was absolutely dumping rain. It must have been refreshing for the dogs, because they were going 150%! It was like they all flipped a switch to Tasmanian devil mode (not really devils, you know what I mean). Luckily, they were a great group of retrievers (or at least dogs that like the game) so it was just pure running for an hour and a half. Those dogs got tired today! Considering I am just getting back into the rhythm of the park, my first big mistake today was forgetting to bring a squeaker toy for Sammy. To be honest, it crossed my mind on the way to the park, but I figured since I already stopped and bought my gloves and impromptu dog toy purchase for the day, I was not going to to buy another toy.... Probably not my best choice. When Sammy doesn't have a squeaky ball, he hounds every other dog that passes by with one. And by hound I mean he runs along side them with his big head right by their mouth, almost as if saying, "give it to me, you know you want to give it to me, come on, come on, come on!!!", which results in me going through a whole ringer of tricks to get the ball back. Over and over and over. Note to self: you DO need the squeaky. Even if just to keep in my bag as bribery, I can't go empty handed!

The highlight of my day had to have been while I was hosing off the dogs (with my new super cool gloves), and Chesa came up while I was bent over hosing a dog and jumped up on my face, knocking off my glasses and somehow licking inside my mouth... GROSS! I tried to wipe off my mouth but then realized my new super cool gloves were actually just wiping more water/dirt on my face. I can't tell you how often I get back in the truck to find mud wiped across my face... and I always wonder how many people I encountered who opted to not tell me! I love Chesa, but not enough to make out with her. That was really more than I had bargained for today.

As I was getting orally assaulted, Michael couldn't stand to see his little frenchie babies so wet and cold, so he took them back to the truck, turned on the heat and wrapped them in a towel. Actually, tied them in a towel. Like a two little baguettes in a basket. He is ridiculous.

It was a very soggy day and the dogs were unusually rowdy, probably still working off some cabin fever from the snow days, but regardless, it felt so good to be back at the park. There is nothing like walking around an empty park playing with 8 of my best four-legged friends. The best part about when it rains, is the park is totally empty and nobody knows the extent of the conversations I have with my dogs.... Commands? Yeah right... We've had a lot of catching up to do! Looking forward to the rest of the week, rain or shine!

Adventures of bwp - 5/2

I have decided that the weather is in favor of people with 9-5 office jobs.... It has been  gorgeous on the weekends lately, clears up in the late afternoon to early evening, and just pours all day! Looks like April showers have rolled into May. On a positive note, we had the beach to ourselves for almost the whole time today! The morning group was Otis, Lola, Chip, Cooper, Tucker and Arten. This was a group of serious ball hogs! It was almost impossible to have a game of fetch because everyone just held onto their balls. There was hardly anyone at the park this morning, so there were tons of extra tennis balls laying around - clearly more than we knew what to do with.  That is, until Lola figured out how to carry two balls at once - learn something new every day! 

Otis and Lola are the worst about ball hoarding - Otis has a ball in his mouth at all times - from the second we get to the park to the second we leave. The funny thing is, they always out run the rest of the dogs to the ball, which they can't pick up because their mouth is already full.

This afternoon we had Milkshake, Stella, Chesa, Pepper and Dexter. Shakes and Stella were at it again - today I will call them the Talkative Twosome or the Demanding Duo (they are not shy in letting me know they are ready for the ball to be thrown ;) ).  We had a big squeaky tennis ball which Stella made wonderful music with throughout the park.

When Dexter finally got his chance with the ball he sought higher ground to stay away from Milkshake and Stella. They sat and barked in protest. My Viszlas hang out on the benches all the time, but I don't usually see my other pups do this - he must have really wanted to keep that ball safe!

Sweet little Chesa carried that ball around all over the park, once again. She loves that thing. It's so funny to watch her chase it and trip over and it and proudly prance along. In true retriever form, she stood her shivering her exhausted little butt off, begging me to keep throwing the ball. Bailey 2.0 in the making :)

All in all it was another great day at the park. But I'm not going to lie, the rain is wearing down on us all! Please cross your fingers for better weather for us!

If you ever want to see more pictures from our park adventures, check out the ballwalkpark facebook page - I upload so many more than I can post here!