a day at the dog park.

i was feeling pretty good when i woke up this morning, and it was beautiful weather outside!  the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and it was almost 60 -- a delight for new york in april.  so my boyfriend and i decided to take the dogs over to the dog park and hang out for a while.

i have had zoe (my min pin/pug mix) since she was a baby, so she is very well socialized and has a friendly temperament.  she gets along with every human and dog she comes across and is especially fond of babies and small humans (maybe because they are more her size).  she rarely if ever barks at people or dogs, and i don't ever have to worry about having a problem with her at the dog park.  i let her loose in the small dog area -- though she would prefer to be in with the big dogs, because she is convinced she is the size of a labrador! -- and off she goes, running up to everyone to say hi, and running in circles around the penned area.  she is going to be six this year, but you would never guess it by seeing her at the park.  she runs at full speed around and around and around, towards you and then zooming away at the last minute, only to come up behind you and flop down on her back, panting and begging for a belly rub.  she's so adorable and is exhausted by the time we leave.

our other dog, hendrix (the jack russell), is not the same at all.  we adopted him two years ago from a local rescue and he was abused before we got him.  we think he was about two years old when we got him, making him around four, and he isn't your typical jack russell.  he does have the hyperactivity at times and he definitely has the tracking/chasing skills, but for the most part he is a pretty chill, happy-go-lucky little guy.  he blended extremely well with our family and we had no issues with the two dogs bonding.  it was like they had been together all along, and now they are inseparable.  however, we don't know the exact circumstances surrounding his abuse, but because of the way he acts around certain things, we have been able to guess that he was left confined in small spaces for extended amounts of time and that he was allowed to be bullied by other, larger dogs.  because of that, he is pretty scared of other dogs.  he started out being really scared of other people too, but we worked with him and were able to break him of that pretty quickly, and he will now go up to almost anybody with his tail wagging, and lick their hand and say hi without much prompting.  but, we still can't get him to like other dogs that much, no matter what we do.  we take him to the dog park as often as we can tolerate, but we know that it's stressful for him because he gets so upset, and it's not really fair for other people who take their dogs there that do play nice, so it's a difficult situation.  either way, he loves the hiking time afterwards so it ends up being a win-win for zoe to play with the other dogs and for hendrix to enjoy the long hikes and things to sniff afterwards.

we went on some new trails this time and i found some cool things to photograph.  we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked, and i can't wait to go back the next time the weather is nice again.

i hope you all had a great weekend too!