Flying Poodles

High Energy Dogs

I took the dogs to Chimney Park this morning. It’s fully fenced, and that’s pretty much its best feature. But there is enough room for the dogs to run full out, and it’s not very popular, which means not a lot of other dogs. This was a good thing this morning. It was cool and a bit moist (not quite drizzly), and the dogs were full-out nuts. I opened the gate into the park, and they took off running the whole length of the fence. They ran and they ran and they ran some more. They ran in circles around the park chasing each other and yipping. (Another advantage to Chimney Park is that the closest “neighbors” are industrial parks with lots of truck repair going on. No one was complaining about the noise.) They chased squirrels up trees. They are optimists, my curly girls, they really believe that, one day soon, they will catch a squirrel unawares.

They splashed in the muddy puddles. They ran some more, sliding in the mud.Lots of mud.

They were filthy messes by the time we were done. I took them to Hair of the Dog–a Portland grooming salon with self-serve baths too–and gave them baths. I brought them home and they could not wait for their lunch. They kept yelling at me: “when is it going to be ready! add some ice cubes so it cools faster! do something! what do you mean “sit”? I have no idea what you want!” While they were waiting, I got a handful of liver treats and had them do fast sits and downs. After a few repeats, you could HEAR their elbows hit the ground on the down. They were ravenous. Once their lunch cooled enough and I put it down, it was seconds before it was gone.

Then they fell deeply asleep, curled in little puppy balls. Like children, poodles are cute when they sleep. This is a very very good thing.