It's a Walk In The Park

So, our precious little angel puppy was being a little frisky.  He was biting and nipping and following and barking at the cat.  So, we thought it would be good to take him to the park.

He was restless when we were trying to get him in the car, which is nothing new.

But when we got to the park, that was a different story.  So, he always gets stuck at the first patch of dirt or grass next to the parking lot.  I'm sure there are a lot of smells, right.  And it's always a few inches thick with leaves, so it's hard for him to walk on.  But today, he was like a blood hound on a scent.  He had his nose to the ground intently following a trail.  And he picked up a twig and was gnawing hungrily on it.  Gnawing crazily.  Like it was a bone.  Because it was a bone.

When we realized it, we tried to get it away from him.  And that's when he growled.  And then he some more, and then he snapped.  This was the FP's first experience with this, and he didn't like it.  Eventually, he somehow dropped the bone when he was growling or something, and we dragged him away from it.  But then he kept finding more bones.

I think eating of pork ribs and chicken on the bone should be banned from state parks.  There were bones everywhere.  So, we were trying to drag him away from a bone, he was growling and snapping, and we were running across the paved walkway to get to the lake.

And then I slid in wet, smooth, light brown shit.  In my flip flop.  I scraped as much as I could on the walkway (sorry pedestrians!)  and I ran down to the lake and stuck my foot in with my flip flop on.  It was terrible.

What a horrible walk in the park.

But we had to turn it around.  We walked around the lake (and woke up in the rain) and then we tried to get him to get back on the walkway.  A woman with a little dog was approaching.  Rudy was excited and bounded ahead to meet the dog.  When Rudy got close, the other dog turned and trotted off to get away from him.  The dog could sense his crazy energy and wanted nothing to do with him.

Up until that moment, every dog that he encountered wanted to play with him!  This was an outing with lots of firsts.

Finally we got him on the walkway running.  And we ran him.  And ran him.  We might have ran him more than you should run a puppy.  But we needed to shed his bad energy.  And it seemed to be working.  He focused on running with us.  But, then, we got back to the leaf pile by the car, and he was sniffing.  And sniffing.  But, we got him back in the car and headed home.

He wasn't much settled down.  But what would he have been like if we had not taken him to the park?  Maybe better?  Maybe worse?  Who knows.

Anyway, now he's safe and sound in his crate.  Not before a big crazy chase.  I know that being freaked out by my  puppy feeds his crazy energy, but when he's chasing me and biting with those sharp little teeth, I can't help it!

But, he's asleep for now.

I realize there's a lot going on with him:
We had house guests for the first time this weekend.
We didn't keep to his schedule.
I bought him a rawhide that he goes crazy for and is very possessive of, and he probably has too much access to use whenever he wants.
We bought a new bag of puppy food, and I got a different kind.

Tomorrow I will try better show him that he's crossing the boundary when he bites and barks.  Let's see how much watching the Dog Whisperer and googling stuff will help me!