MACINTOSH MONDAY

Over the weekend Macintosh and I decided to finally brave the Lancaster dog park. To be completely fair it wasn't so much him being scared as it was me! Macintosh isn't great off lead and generally tends to ignore all commands given to him. He has very selective hearing (much like his dad!!) So the idea of going to a park, albeit an enclosed area, and just letting him off did give me cause for concern. But as the weekend dawned and proved to be a less hot one I thought I'd brave it, at least in less heat I have a greater chance of running to catch up with him!

Though really I shouldn't have panicked at all. The dog park was great. The area was enclosed as stated but you could easily see from one end to the other with no hidden corners. There were double gates so that even if he managed to escape one gate another blocked his exit. As an added bonus, due to the weather, it wasn't too busy so it was a great introduction. Macintosh could play with the other dogs without being overwhelmed and I could enjoy being there without worrying about him escaping. 

Well until I noticed the mud...

                                     

                                     

The park authorities had left the sprinklers on a bit too much and as a result had created a couple of mud baths in the park. As soon as these were discovered by Macintosh all the dogs were ignored and the focus was entirely on the mud. Being a British dog he is used to mud and especially muddy puddles. I have a feeling he had been suffering from withdrawal symptoms as I really struggled to keep him out of the puddles. Most of the other dogs obeyed their owners and stayed away but not Mac. In fact he stood right in the middle of the puddle as he knew I wasn't about to go wading in there after him. 

Once I'd given up and accepted that he would now be a delightful brown colour the biggest mission was to stop him from laying down. The other dog owners thought it was highly funny and enjoyed watching me trying to convince him not to lay down. However I do have a wonderfully stubborn dog, who over the past week has been returning to his former ways! Thankfully in the end his belly only skimmed the muddy water once as my stern teacher voice was enough to cause him to jump up!

                     

I didn't capture a photo of him looking bedraggled as it was at this point that I recalled that Mac's rug was in Andrew's car and that I had in fact driven my car to the park, which incidentally has wonderful light coloured carpet in the boot. Error. So after exhausting him in the dog park I then dragged him around the non-muddy remainder of the park forcing him to wipe off the mud on the grass. Yes at one point I may have told him to lay down and then physically moved him around myself to ensure the majority of it was off. I am aware that I will soon get a reputation at the dog park as the weird British lady. Such is the life of a beagle owner...

H