Willis Tucker Snohomish County Park Off Leash Dog Area Revisted

Here we are at the meadow area of Willis Tucker Snohomish County Park.  The construction that has lasted for over a year is done.  There are now new paved parking lots, but less mud for us to get into on the way to the off-leash areas - darn it.  There is still plenty of mud to get into in the meadow area and along the forested trail area.

We still give this dog park 4 paws!

For more photos and a full review of the Willis Tucker Dog Park, visit Vicki's Willis Tucker Dog Park Lens on Squidoo.

Japanese Gulch Dog Park - Mukilteo, WA

A new off leash dog park is coming to Mukilteo!   The Tails and Trails Dog Park at Japanese Gulch park is located at 1301 Mukilteo Blvd and although the official grand opening isn't until Saturday, October 27th, but Hank and Tim took a sneak peak!  The Grand Opening ceremonies are from 10am to 11am and the festivities will include a dog Halloween Costume contest.

Play Time at Cavelero Hill Dog Park - Lake Stevens, WA

Recently Tim and Hank and I had a morning romp at the off leash dog area at Cavalero Hill County Park near Lake Stevens, WA.  The park is part of the Snohomish County Park System and the dog park consists of 2 completely fenced areas - a three acre meadow area complete with some agility equipment and a smaller quarter acre "shy dog" area.

We had the place to ourselves for quite awhile before a few other dogs and their people arrived.  The arrival of the additional dogs gave Tim and Hank the opportunity to make some new friends and they all raced around the perimeter together in a blur.

Magnuson Dog Park in Seattle

A couple of months ago we made a trip to Magnuson Dog Park in Seattle.   It took us awhile to get Vicki to go to the computer, load up the photos and write up our adventures.  This is me (Tim) meeting up with some of the other dogs at the swimming area on Lake Washington.  Hank was having so much fun running around that Vicki never got a good photo of him - they were all a blur.

I found lots of really great smells and in this photo I'm thinking about leaving my scent to let everyone know that Tim was here!  We had a really great time and give this dog park 4 paws up out of  4!

Nosework Training with Hank

When I wanted to try a Nosework class with one of our dogs, I had to decide whether to take Tim or Hank.  Well, I figured that when you will be doing some nosework you need a Hank(y)!   We have been taking our class at Postive Dog Training School in Woodinville, WA.

Nosework is great activity for any dog. Each dog is trained one at a time on leash so even dogs that don't have a great recall or are aggressive or need socializing can participate. Dogs are put on a harness that is only used for nosework so they know they are going to be "searching" when they have the harness on.    The origins of the sport are derived from the skills taught to dogs who are being trained for drug and bomb detection.

In Nosework, instead of teaching dogs to signal when they detect drugs or explosives they are trained to look for specific scent oils like birch, anise and clove.  In the first lesson dogs merely look for treats dropped into boxes of various shapes and sizes and are praised for searching for the treats.  Hank is very enthusiastic about searching and seems to be having a great time.  It is an easy sport for a trainer like me who doesn't have a lot of experience teaching dogs a lot of complicated skills - they just use their nose!  Come back to see what we learn in the coming weeks.

Treibball Training with Tim

A few weeks ago Tim and I started a Treibball training class.  What is Treibball?  It is a sport for dogs that originated in Germany.  The basic idea is that dogs are trained to move large exercise balls (yoga balls) -  like the green one in the photo into a soccer net.  Although any breed of dog can participate in Treibball, it has been recommended as a great activity for herding breeds if you don't have any animals for them to herd since it uses many of the same types of behaviors.  Since we live in in the burbs and are "sheepless in Seattle", I thought we'd give it a try(ball).  (Argghh - I can't help myself I'm full of puns today!)

In this photo we are practicing "lining up".  It is an essential part of the beginning training steps to teach the dog to face you to watch for instructions and to keep them pushing the ball toward you to bring it to the goal.

I've discovered that the training requires a pretty high level of skill on the part of the trainer, so at this point I have as much if not more to learn than Tim.  I'm not sure we will ever get to a competitive level, but we are having fun learning together.  I will post more about our lessons as we progress.

A Trip to Marymoor Off-Leash Dog Area

Since Hank has settled in so nicely and has proved himself to have great recall we decided to see how he would do on a bigger off leash adventure.  Most people in the greater Seattle area would probably say that Marymoor Park is the best off leash dog park in the area.  It has over 40 acres of room to run, but because it is so popular it can be crowded.  We didn't want to overwhelm Hank with too much too soon, so got up very early on Saturday morning to beat the crowds and arrived at Marymoor not long after dawn.  Both Hank and Tim did great and got a good workout.