Finally!!! Dudley and I were able to go out to my favorite spot to get a good walk and dog socializing in. I used to go there with my GSD often but wasn’t able to go there because of avoiding a person who is a bully and we have bad blood between us from a workplace altercation. I discovered that she had been asked to not go out there anymore and was so relieved! It is a gorgeous half circle piece of land that has the river on one side and is fenced on the other. The Natural Gas facility is completely fenced in so there is a nice area of flat grass to walk. It is right where the Yaquina river flows into the Yaquina Bay so there is tons of birds, etc to look at.
It’s been a bit of a challenge this winter since the weather has been the usual coastal rain, rain, rain, wind, rain. Dudley is a bit out of shape so walking on the flat grass is good for him. There are a few benches we can stop and sit at when he gets tired. And the locals bring their dogs out there all of the time so Dudley can get his dog time as well. My mom is finally in recovery from her heart valve replacement and is able to do physical exercise! We will be doing walks out there with her as well.
We will be learning which groups of people/dogs to avoid. This morning was the first time Dudley has had to give a warning growl to a dog that was mounting him and growling at him. The owner kept saying “he has never done this before” and smacked her dog (not hard) saying “I can’t believe you would do that to a disabled dog”. Ironically, one of the people I ran into yesterday when we were out there is a good friend from my old job. He knows all of the local dogs and her dog’s name was mentioned in a little scuffle between other dogs. It was totally fine and Dudley recovered his dignity but I got the vibe that this group of women were not good at reading dog language. One lady was over against the fence because she “didn’t have her stick”…Needless to say, I will be avoiding the times that they go out there. I saw which cars they were driving since they arrived after us and will keep an eye out or just be prepared to go the opposite direction if I don’t want to deal with them 😉
There are certain groups who have been walking their dogs out there for a while and act like it is their playground. There are also a lot of really awesome people who walk their dogs out there! I’m pretty good at reading the human body language as well as the dog body language, so I will just sort out who we want to walk with!
WOW what a gorgeous area! I love that you got some sunshine, what a nice break. Oregon has been SOAKED all winter, I feel for you guys!
It’s nice that you have so much space at that location that you can avoid dogs / people if you want to. I’m so leery of dog parks because 90% of people don’t know how to read body language either. Our Nellie isn’t the greatest with all dogs, so places like that are off-limits for us at least for know. The fact that Dudley can go there, get dominated like that, and recover from it, says a lot about his pawsonality. What a good boy!
Just a little “test” to see of this goes through.
The first time I took Dudley out there, we ran into 3 people with a total of 6 dogs. It was really mellow and the dogs were just doing their dog things while the humans talked. My friend that we ran into is a retired off-leash dog walker and he has a husky who also is “naughty” The difference is that my friend will just quietly coax his dog away from the behavior and carry on like nothing happened. The energy of the people makes such a difference! It’s an unofficial dog park…the owner of the property allows the locals to use the area for dog walking, fishing, photography etc. As long as people keep it cleaned up and not abuse the property, he will keep it open to the public. The gas tank facility has cameras placed along the fencing as protection for anyone trying to break into the facility so that is reassuring as well. T
What a great place for sniffing and exercise, for everyone! Dudley is a very handsome boy!
I’ve also learned there are just some dogs (and people) we need to avoid. We don’t go to official fenced in dog parks either, but we usually go to parks and there are some dogs that we know. Sometimes we find quiet places to walk/sniff without any (or many) dogs. If we don’t know the dog, we try to stay away from them or just keep walking past them. I know what dog breeds or characteristics (intact) that will trigger my dog into self protection mode, so we do our best to avoid them, by go around or another direction.
I think a growl and some dog communication needs to happen, but safely. There are some great dog guardians who will help facilitate this safely and other not even paying attention. Dog and people body language all should be watched and considered.
Enjoy the sunshine and green grass!!