Dog talk

Yesterday we hit the beach again; the beach here in Old Greenwich that allows dogs after Dec 1.  It is a wonderful place to walk dogs and everyone on the beach has them off leash.  The best part about it is that it is very close to my house.  Being that it was the day after Christmas there were more dogs than the last visit; although still just a handful or two.  It is a great place for Elsa to get some socializing in and exercise at the same time.

The first dog that she met was a Goldendoodle; we met at least ten "doodle" type dogs there before we left.  This guy was pretty occupied and really had nothing to offer as far as a social visit for Elsa.  He was busy playing in the water which was FREEZING and chasing his kids.  So we moved onto the next dog and he was playing with his ball.  He too had been in the water and was more concerned with his ball than meeting Elsa.  They had a little visit and then he was back to his ball.

It looked like at some point Lucky's tail was injured or broken.

The next dog that Elsa met was a fabulous dog.  A mix of some sort, either pit or boxer and he was just adorable.  Full of body language and was up for a great social visit.  After meeting Elsa and Luke he came to meet us giving us all a huge one sided face smile.  His name was Lucky; I don't know his story but would have loved to chat with his Mom and Dad.  Perhaps we will meet him again.  He was very free with his body language and it was easy to see that he was more than friendly.  Elsa really enjoyed playing with him.

Shortly after her visit with Lucky I had to chase Elsa down the beach to fetch her. She took off after the Goldendoodle as he tore up and down the beach from one owner to the next.  It was like her hearing turned off, so we'll be working on her recall before we visit again.  After that a large group of "doodles" entered the beach, brown ones and black ones.  There was one very beefy female that Luke had a few not so great words with.  I hadn't been there when they first met so I didn't see what she had said to him first but looking at her body posture I suspect that she was letting him know that this was her beach.  It is very rare for Luke to have words with a female so she must have said something.

The "doodles" moved on and an adorable little Sheltie came by.  She was the same age as Elsa but very tiny; but in that tiny body was a great deal of heart.  Both puppies gave off great body language and even though Elsa towered over this little gal they played amazingly well together.  When it got a bit rough the Sheltie took shelter between a strangers legs for a bit, grabbed a breather and was ready to go again.  It was fabulous seeing the body language shared between the two youngsters.  Several times when Elsa has run into small dogs she lays down to play, this is a behavior that I really like to see.  It shows how aware a dog is of the other dogs size; she does not do it with large dogs.

I could really sit and watch the dogs interact all day but we had places to go, I'll be back this week for sure though.