Poodles in the Air!

I admit...I've never been a fan of dog parks, at least not the unsupervised kind where anyone can come and let their dog run off-leash. When you've been a dog trainer as long as I have, you've heard about a few dog park nightmares (in fact I even SAW a few back when I lived in North Carolina, in a dog park at a city park, which was totally unsupervised. So my Standard Poodle girl, as much as I know she would like to give it a whirl, has never been to a dog park. She has however, had a lot of fun playing with those of her own kind at Poodle parties!)

But.. back to dog parks, if you find a good one, where you can SAFELY allow your dog to interact with other friendly dogs, it can provide extreme fun for your Poodles, especially the Standard sized ones. My Poodle fancier friend Jeanne Haight takes her two Standards to a safe dog park every week, and she is fortunate enough to have a close friend who lives nearby and brings her Poodles as well, so the whole "Poodle crew" can enjoy fun runs together at the dog park.

I guess mid-air is a common Poodle position at dog parks? Here is what Jeanne wrote to me, in reference to the "flying Poodles"

"The funny thing about the Poodles in the air is that the silver with 4 feet off the ground, is my Morgen, who really doesn't care about chasing the ball, but if she can get it and keep it away from Cole, it's a Wonderful game for her. She tears around the park, with Cole close behind, trying to bite her on the butt, barking and complaining, and she just revels in that she can keep one step ahead of him. The apricot in the air, is Beamish. I was trying to get a mid air picture of Cole, who practises all sorts of gymnastics in the air, but he's too fast."

Thank you for sharing these photos Jeanne! I hope that Morgen and Cole, and their Poodle friends had lots of fun dog park time at the park this autumn. Hasn't it been a lovely fall this year?

But bundle up, snow coming soon, winter is on its way. It is windy and cold today even at Smith Mountain Lake here in the southern part of Virginia. I bet you guys already have a fire in your fireplace up there near Chicagoland.

Looking forward to the season's first "fun in the snow photos" soon!