The Dog Park & Raised Fur

In the area we live in, dog parks didn't exist....until now! A few months ago, we were at our local Petco and we saw a display table with volunteers raising money for a community dog park. We gave a monetary donation and forgot about it. The other day, I decided to do a search online on the dog park progress. What a nice coincidence, they had just finished putting up the fence this week and have the gates yet to put up tomorrow. We couldn't wait so we decided to take a drive and check the place out.
The fenced in park is very open with lots of space for dogs to run around and do their thing. They have 2 divided areas for big breeds and smaller breeds. We let Niko off the leash and he barely moved, giving us a confused look. We threw his tennis ball and he got the hint. He darted around playing fetch, enjoying the free space.
Not long after that, a few other dogs who were offleash came into the small breed section. Although they were larger dogs, they noticed Niko and came in our area anyway. Niko was outnumbered and smaller in size. One dog chased him and Niko chased back. We noticed Niko's fur patterns change very quickly and fur was raised like nothing we've seen before. My limited knowledge of reading a dog's body language is: tail up and wagging means happy and confident; tail down means scared.
I was able to snap a few pictures and review the transition from happy/confident/playful to scared/nervous.

Niko was alone at this time. Tail up and fur on his shoulders raised. He is alert and chasing the ball.




Then came the larger dog who chased Niko. Notice Niko's tail is curved way down and his back looks like we shaved him and gave him a mohawk. This was only minutes after the other picture:

The owners of that dog tried to call her name but to no avail. She just wanted to play with Niko and was not a threat. But Niko was very timid when 4 dogs came in all at once. He growled and the other dog did back away. We were on hand to stop a fight if needed, but it didn't come to that. 

Happy as a clam again.

We give the dog park 2 paws and 2 thumbs up all the way. We are happy the community approved the project and it is something a lot of people and pets have been waiting for. There is even a creek by the park for dogs to swim in and cool off. We took Niko there as well and he was about 2 inches deep in the water. Not bad, Niko.