Those of you who know Joey, know that she has needed lots of socialization to over come her moderate fear of people. She also has the urge to bark at other dogs. It appears to be playful in intention, but she is barking and leaping while at the end of the leash - behavior easily misconstrued.
So I took her to the dog park, pockets brimming with treats. When I got there I saw that a man had his 3 collies there and a woman was entering with her little while fluffball. The collie were very exuberant in their greeting of the fluffball. They were obviously VERY friendly, but also very big. So I took Joey into the small dog area (which was empty) just so she could get the idea of a dog park (smells, toys, water, mud, etc.). She loved it. The dogs in the big dog area where way at the far side, so after a while I took her trough the staging area and into the big dog area.
She did great. She sniffed, she rolled the tennis balls around, she found the water bowl, what a wonderful place! I was slowly walking deeper into the park, easing her closer to the other dogs. The fluffball came over to say hello and that went well. Then the collies looked up. Joey barked, they came over with the same exuberance with which they greeted the fluffball. Joey barked and back up. They came closer. Joey took off like someone set her tail on fire - heading straight for the exit and practically ran through the fence like on those cartoons from years ago.
Then she tried to scale the fence, which obviously didn't work. So she stood her ground and met the collies one at a time. She could not have been more brave (and the collies couldn't have been sweeter). I was so proud. Her tail was down, but she met each one of them and wagged. When she was all done she waggled right over to me so proud and confident. We spent the next 30 minutes chasing the fluffball and walking amongst the big collies like we owned the place.
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