Dog Days of Summer

"Do you smell what I smell?"

Much as I love our forest and the pathways near home, one can grow tired of the same old thing every dog-gone day. It doesn't seem to bother Kane -- there's always something new to smell -- but I like a little variety.

So last week, we spontaneously decided to go to a new park. Ottawa has several wonderful parks, many of which I've never seen. We headed to Mooney's Bay and were about to get out of the car when we saw a "no dogs allowed" sign.

Then we tried Hog's Back Park. Again, no dogs allowed, not even on-leash.

At this point, we stopped and I googled dog parks in Ottawa and found an on-leash park near Manotick, which is south of Ottawa.

After some faulty navigation (I was distracted by a whining dog in the back seat), we found David Bartlett Park. Sure enough, the sign indicated that dogs were allowed in the park on a leash.




Bad news: every dog there was off leash. Every single one. I am so tired of dogs being off-leash in on-leash areas. This is probably why the other parks that we tried to visit earlier don't allow dogs at all: they can't count on the dog handlers to, well, handle their dogs.

Good news: There were hardly any dogs there at all. We met about half a dozen dogs.

So we stayed. And Kane's behaviour has improved enough that we let him romp off-leash.

Just a short romp with Chase, and then he was ready to ramble again.

The park is right on the Rideau River, and Kane used almost every access point we came across to leap into the water.

We met a few other dogs, but it was not nearly as crowded as the more popular Bruce Pit dog park.

We did meet one dog that, though well-behaved himself, got Kane very excited. And by "excited," I mean aroused. Turned on. So we cut that exchange short and put Kane back on his leash for a wee bit.

Before long, we reach what was probably the highlight of the day for Kane: a mud-pond.

I made this Day 14 of my #100happydays round two.

We took him back in the river before getting in the car. After his "bath," and a good shake, he did this to towel off.



You will not be surprised that he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

It was worth going a little distance out of the way, and we hope to get back there once a week or so. We may even bring a picnic lunch next time.