A Day at the Dog Park

When I got home from work on Tuesday I wanted to take Zeus and Ray-Ray to the dog park. They love getting out of the house and going for rides in the car, and we recently introduced them to the dog park.

For those who don't know, dog park's are areas within certain parks in Las Vegas that are fenced in for canines to run around in, get some exercise, and play with other dogs. The parks are a great idea since they confine the dogs to a specific area so they want distrupt family picnics, youth soccer games, or swipe balls and frisbee's from people just wanting to enjoy being outdoors.

Even the design of the parks are good - doggie water fountains, a double gate so no one can lose control of their own dog, slip and allow the gate not to close while the dogs make a run for it. Nope, with two gates, the dogs are secure. They even have plastic bag dispensers attached to the chain link fence so you can clean up after your dog does it's business.

This would be our 2nd trip to the park in about a week. The dogs were excited to just be leaving the house.

Alas, this 2nd trip to the park would also our last trip to the park.

Zeus more than Ray-Ray is an indoor dog even though they both get mud bathes at Snooty Pets. Before you scoff, it's a few bucks more but they smell really good.

And so what we thought would be a fun late afternoon walk in the park turned into a circus.

At first, there were only a handlful of dogs, and they were all getting to know each other the only way dogs know how. Sniffing each others back side. I know, it's disgusting. Good thing we humans opt for a handshake, hug with a double pat on the back, high five, knuckle bump, kiss or any combination of the aforementioned. Thankfully, sniffing never caught on.

As more dogs showed up, we found ourselves completely unprepared for the sort of nefarious canines who are apparently regulars at the dog park.

Wanting to fit in and be social, I struck up a conversation with a guy name George. George told me he was from NY. I was shocked. Hardly. His accent, countenance and verbal machete confirmed to me that he HAD to be from NY. Fogetabouit.

Geroge owned a bulldog, Fortune. Bulldogs are surely one of the sorriest looking dogs God ever created. Bulldogs have a severe underbite and their lower teeth poke out - they look like cartoon dogs. George liked to take long drags on his cigarette and complain about everything under the sun. I had to get away from this guy. Other people showed up with their dogs and remarkably, not one dog even remotely resembled another dog. 15-20 dogs and they all were drastically different in appearance.

Our little Zeus had fun chasing the other dogs around until some big mixed breeds showed up with their owners. Aside from all the strange looking dogs is the fact that the owners themselves are stranger looking than their canine companions (except us of course).

Being relative newcomers to the dog park world we were wary of how Zeus and Ray-Ray would get along with some of the larger breeds. Last week? No problems. There were a bunch of labs who smelled the treats in my pocket and followed me around like the pied piper and completely ignored our dogs. This week was different - these mixed breed dogs were the canine equivalent of prison convicts out on break. Zeus gave them what for with his bark but instead of backing down like most dogs, Zeus found himself INSIDE THE MOUTH of one of the big dogs. All hell was breaking loose but the dogs owner was competely oblivious to the havoc going around right at his feet. At least 1/2 dozen dogs had joined the melee, and poor Zeus was soaked in dog saliva. Not only did he look like crap, he smelled like it. Zeus quite literally had the crap scared out of him.

The best analogy I could come up with was this: Taking our little pampered indoor dogs to the dog park was like taking our kids down to the Clark County Detention Center (aka Jail) and allowing them to play with the inmates for an hour.

Zeus Before and After