Sage's right of passage

It's no secret that I love puppies, and one of my favorite parts about puppies is watching them grow and develop over the years. Being a part of a pack fulfills a much needed social aspect of our pups lives.

Just like high school kids, there are "cliques" within the pack. There is a general divide between the puppies and the older dogs that are too cool to put up with puppy play. One of the many milestones of a growing puppy is when an older dogs decides they are worthy of playing with. Welcome to the big kid clique, Sage.

When an older dog decides to play with a puppy, it is a reward for good behavior on the puppies part. It means that puppy has learned how to play properly, read body language and know how to play by the rules.

Gus, although still pretty much a puppy himself, wanted nothing to do with Sage when she first joined the pack. When she came charging past at turbo speed, he would tell her to slow down or get out of the way, but other than that, she was invisible to him. Yesterday, Gus engaged Sage for an awesome session of doodle dancing. I was so proud of little muppet (Sage) growing up so fast, and proud of Gus for being a patient and gentle teacher. I love nothing more than to see these relationships develop. GOOD PUPS!!!

Maddy meets Miles | Vizsla Puppy Playdate

Vizslas are one of those breeds that favor their own over any other. They have a unique way of playing and interacting. Their body language is a whole different dialect from the rest, so when they find their own red dog kind, they get pretty excited.

At one point, I had 4 vizslas in my pack at once. Watching those pups play together was so much fun, it never got old for me. I hope to one day rebuild my Vizsla population so Miles and Maddy can experience the fun too.

Today, 12 week old Maddy got to meet Miles for the first time!

New Years Resolution update 1

As a part of my New Years resolution to teach all of my park dogs to ride in the back of the truck, Achilles and I had our first lesson today. Achilles is a 2yr old, 150lb Great Dane with a lot of spirit and a hint of a stubborn streak. He is bigger than me in size and weight and so far I've been happy to get him in the truck any way I can. If I try to push/pull him he throws a fit like a bucking bronco and after successfully staying on my end of the leash, we have to take a few laps to settle down before trying again.

Considering the scenario I just described is just to get him in the back seat, I thought I had my work cut out for me today. To prepare, I brought a nice selection and Trader Joe's cheese and prosciutto. Random, but it's easy to cut, easy on the stomach, and something I knew he couldn't resist.

Much to my surprise, Achilles didn't even hesitate to jump in the truck on the first try for that cheese. We practiced several times and then I turned on the truck and started closing the tailgate and letting him get comfortable with that. He decided that was as far as our lesson would go today, but I am so very proud of him!

Next step is to try the Trader Joe's magic cheese while another dog is in the truck. I do believe there will be a day when I don't have Dane slobber on top of my head (he rests his head on mine while I drive - endearing and gross). Stayed tuned and wish me luck!

New Years Resolution: Part 1: Party in the back

My New Years Resolution (Part 1, there will be more to come) is to teach all of my dogs

to ride in the back of the truck. I bought this truck two years ago today, and the whole reason for trading in my trusty 4Runner for a truck was to get have "human space" and "dog space". I dreamed of having a clean car where I could escape from the dog farts and mud while chauffeuring my beloved pups around town. One by one, I started making exceptions for dogs that were allowed to ride up front. Two years later, I am having to schedule my park trips around the available seats in the front seat of my truck, while the canopy area is nearly empty at times! The dogs have totally won this battle and it's time for me to make some changes.

Life in the 4Runner was good. It was a perfect way to start my business and build my pack and I wouldn't take it back at all. Being close to the dogs definitely had its benefits, I couldn't stand being with wet farting dogs for hours a day. The smell was seeping into my skin and I was coughing up dog hair like a cat with a hairball. Not literally, but I felt like it could have happened any day...  If this business was going to continue, something had to change.

The day I decided to start looking for a truck, my dream truck popped up on Craig's List. It was meant to be, and with the help of the wonderful people at Barrier Audi, I was driving home my Toyota Tundra that very same day. I don't know about you, but when I get a new car, I make all sorts of resolutions to myself... I'll never eat in the car, I'll take off my shoes before getting in, yeah right.... Well my one resolution with this truck was NO DOGS IN THE FRONT.

I think it took me less than a week to go back on my dog free front seat resolution. There are many good reasons for putting dogs up front; new puppies need to adjust to the routine, small dogs (frenchies) may get trampled or upset (see Harley's protest poop story), or sometimes I just can't physically get the dog in the truck. The first two will always be welcome in the front until they are comfortable moving to the back, which may never happen for the little guys and I am OK with that, it's the last category I'm talking about...  This is the main area I am focusing on with my current dogs. I know once you get a taste of first class it's hard to go back, but those guys in back get to party the whole way to and from the park. I need to convince certain dogs that they want to join the party, not be the teacher's pet.

My plan is to work with each of these dogs with an empty back of the truck and deep pockets of delicious dog treats. This is going to take some one on one time, outside of the park, what some refer to as "free time", but it is going to be worth it in the long run. I think with the right amount of dedication, you can train a dog to do just about anything (at least jump in a truck), so I am dedicating myself to helping these dogs get over their fears and join the party in back. Check back to hear about my progress. I am counting on you guys to hold me to this!

Honeymoon at the dog park

Every new dog park pup that I've taken has what I call a "honeymoon" period. At first they are calm, sweet, responsive, just perfect angels. It usually takes about 3 weeks for them to fully adjust, be comfortable, and come out of their shell. This is when their true colors shine and I see what kind of pup they really are. I love to see a new pup starting to play more, beat the other dogs to get the ball and just generally having fun! Here is Heidi on her first day:

Here is Heidi 3 weeks later:

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!!!

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 - 4/26

We had a very Viszla morning trip today. The morning crew consisted of the four Viszlas - Miles, Oliver, Cooper and Walker, Tucker, Arten, Chip and Coco.  The Viszlas were having the time of their life today - we ran into a friend of theirs, Watson, another 18 mo old Viszla. They were so amped up about Watson, they were clearly not able to focus for our routine group pic! On the way back from the water we ran into yet another male Viszla puppy. It was honestly making me dizzy trying to watch and keep track of them all! That's six Viszlas in one place at one time - that's a lot of wiggling!

When I was in between trips, Coco's mom, Bickie, had made me my favorite lunch - arugula and quinoa salad! There's really nothing better than having a delicious lunch waiting for me so I can keep on going to my next group without wasting time. So thoughtful, and so delicious, thank you Bickie!

The afternoon crew actually got to enjoy some sun today! The crew was Beaudy, Pepper, Stella, Milkshake, Cooper, Bailey and Bambi. Milkshake and Stella have become such good friends - or partners in crime as I call them. They are both 100% ball focused at all times, and they always race each other to the ball, and chase each other back to me. They both even kindly remind me when it's time to throw the ball again ;)

We went down the water to cool off - although it was only 60 degrees Bambi was panting up a storm. Of course she's the only one that doesn't swim... but a little nudge in the water is all she needs to cool down.  Bailey was having a good time with the Jolly Ball. Within the first five minutes of bringing the ball home she had chewed off a corner of the handle, so now the ball collects water and sinks unless it is dumped out frequently. Good job, B.

This handsome man here is Beaudy. He is a 90lb, 3 year old lab. He started going with me last summer, at which time he had never learned to swim. He went to the water with me the first time and dove right in. It was like watching a 30yr old human learn how to walk - very clumsy and awkward - but he did it - and he loved it! He is now one of my most reliable long distance retrievers in the water. Just wait until you see his routine with the hose.... I'll get a video of that when the weather gets a little warmer.

Up at the side field, or the "dome" as some call it, Pepper found a nice stick to gnaw on. Cooper stood over her, patiently waiting for his turn. While Cooper didn't get the stick, he did get bit in the butt by Otter, one of Gretchen's dogs. They played really well together, Otter really knew how to get him going!

On the way home my ladies sat in the front seat while Cooper sat in the back seat. Ahh chivalry isn't dead after all :) 

All in all, it was another great day at the park and we were all happy to see the sun finally come out!

ballwalkpark is in Seattle Met Magazine: How to pick a dog walker

23 Reasons It’s Great to Be a Pet in Seattle

For starters, we teach dogs how to talk. Not really, but if Penny here could, she’d tell you she never wants to leave.

By Matthew Halverson

Photo: Radius Images/Corbis

1 Because Someone, 
Somewhere Is
 Willing to Walk
 Your Dog

That’s actually a blessing and a curse. Sure, it’s great that we’ve got more dog-walking businesses than you can shake a gnawed-on stick at (a search of Yelp shows more than 100 in Seattle and on the Eastside), but how to know which one is right for Rover? Kelley Goad, owner of Ballwalkpark and KING 5’s best dog walker in 2010, has some advice:

• Go under cover The best way to pick a pooch handler is to watch them in action at an off-leash park. Some will stand around while the dogs play. Others will get down and dirty with their four-legged clients. Do we need to tell you which one to hire? • Peruse the pack Chances are, a walker already shepherds a group of pups, so it’s worthwhile to find out how many dogs are in it and what breeds are represented. “If your dog hates huskies,” Goad says, “you don’t want him to go with a bunch of huskies.” • Trust your gut “A dog walker is going to be a bigger part of your life than you think,” Goad says. (She’s in her clients’ homes so often, they make her lunch and buy her Christmas gifts.) So it’s not only important that they’re good to your dog, but also that they give you a “good person” vibe. Ballwalkpark, 206-659-9027; ballwalkpark.com

http://www.seattlemet.com/health-and-fitness/articles/23-reasons-its-great-to-be-a-pet-in-seattle-february-2011/