Mrs. Dexter: Fitz's First Outing to the Dog Park

Although we've had Fitz's dog park tag for several weeks, we hadn't gotten up the courage to go until today. I was afraid that Fitz would eat the other dogs or that the other dogs would eat Fitz or that he wouldn't come to me if he was being bad or that he'd do some other naughty dog thing that I haven't even thought of yet.

Dexter and I both had some free time in the middle of the day today, and I persuaded Dexter to go. I put on the tennis shoes that Fitz had chewed on in case of an foot-poop incident, we armed ourselves with leftover hot dog pieces to give him incentive to come when called, grabbed his water dish, and away we drove.

We were afraid to let him off the leash once in the park, and the raised fur on his back didn't encourage me to let him go either. Some people on a bench realized we were newbies and told us some soothing things to help us chill out about letting him go. Fitz was a little calmer, and I was afraid he was raising his fur because he felt like he was at a disadvantage because he was on a leash, so we took the fateful step and unclipped the leash. The first few moments were a little nervewracking as the group of dogs sniffed and growled, but soon they were running around and being friendly.

Here are some highlights from the day:

He ran, he sat and showed off the dirt on his tongue, he chased birds,

and when he was pooped, he plopped contently down in the sand.