All Bark

Today, I took Eska to the Wyman Park semi-fenced dog park. I took her around the perimeter of the premises and let her sniff out her geographical confines. Then, I put her on her retractable leash and threw a ball around with her for a few minutes. Finally, and prompted by Eska's consistent pull toward the opposite end of the park, I spotted a man across the field with two dogs - Lucy and Alice - frolicking happily together, walked over to him with my girl in tow, and asked if we could join his party.

He willingly obliged. I let her off the leash, and watched her play as peacefully as the calm before the storm.

Who knew she could even do it?

Back home, when she plays with Bruno - my 130lb chocolate lab who is literally over twice her size - my girl is all teeth and paws and humping. She is unafraid to mount him, bite his legs, get all up in his mouth, and stomp all over him when he (frequently) submits to her. In other words: she is a terror.

Maybe she's different with female dogs, or maybe Lucy and Alice didn't impress her - she chased them around the park and/or let them chase her in turn, and ran after the same ball they did, but made no displays of aggression, playful or otherwise. She was such a good baby shoo.

Soon, our party went from three to seven, with the arrival of three new owners and their dogs. At first, I was worried: fine, she was being nice with her new friends, but what if her good behaviour was a fluke? I mean, let's face it: one shit-eating grin and the knives are out again. My fears were unfounded; today, I learned that my girl is all bark and no bite. She ran at the speed of light to greet her new friends, but stopped at least a foot short of each of them before proceeding to sniff them with extreme caution.

My girl has gone streets, maybe.

Everyone had a delightful time, and Eska petered out sooner than she could say "play." I will attempt this again next week, but only if she is a good girl until then.