Cosmo Dog Park!

I have quite a bit of cleaning to do today, as I've kind of let things fall by the wayside the last week or so. Because I'm feeling so off-kilter with my schedule, I decided I needed a little motivation to get going. My motivation right now (and for the last month?): OUTSIDE! I'm kind of obsessed with being outside right now while we're still in the double digits. Can you blame me? It's been really nice lately and I've been enjoying taking advantage of it. We've been doing Tempe Town Lake lately, but I've been DYING to take Miss V to the dog park.

Viesa, the wonderful, smart, amazing dog that she is, has a problem. Namely with other dogs. And small children that grab at her face (can't blame her about that last one). The whole reason we were lucky enough to add her to our family was because she had a hard time not fighting with her dog-sister Bella. We've been working a lot since we got her to expose her to all things Phoenix (we take her EVERYWHERE we go) and she's getting a lot more comfortable with the busy traffic of downtown and barks way less at those dang neighborhood cats. One reason that I've been avoiding the dog park is the possibility that a dog with (yes, I'm going all Cesar Millan on you) the wrong "energy" would come in before I had a chance to leash her and that there would be trouble.

But today I got brave and, realizing she'll be bored while I clean the rest of the day, decided to go for it. Then I thought, if we're going to go, we should go to the best park in Phoenix!!! So, despite being 40 minutes away in Gilbert, we packed a bag and hopped in the car to .... Cosmo Dog Park. Cosmo happens to be the fourth best dog park in the whole country according to Dog Fancy Magazine (so fancy!) and it seems to be the favorite among doggy people in Phoenix. We got there around 10AM and I saw why the fancy magazine likes it so much!

Yes, it's a DOG LAKE!!! JUST FOR DOGS!!!

So....yeah. Great right? Sarah, I think you might have to bring Brodie up here for a play date. Anyway, the park is split into three parts. The first and most awesome looking part is the lake section. This is for all dogs (mostly the big and excited dogs). There is a small grassy section for the mellow/shy/old doggies. So nice. The last part is a large area up against the lake area with a bunch of agility obstacles in it (the last photo in the bunch).

I was so relieved to see that the last section was empty! Big and empty! Just for Viesa! She ran around like a crazy dog and had a great time. Two other dogs came in during the time she was there. The first she sort of sniffed and ignored until his owner took him back to the lake side. The other was a big mellow dog that actually ran around with her for a while. His owner was really nice and he was such a good dog for her to socialize with. When she gave him attitude, he ignored her and trotted off (which is exactly what she needs to avoid doggy fights). Then....she saw the agility stuff and started...I don't know...being agile?? Apparently she was a dog agility superstar in another life!

We had a really great time. We looked longingly for a while at the lake side. Hopefully, someday, she can get a little better with rough and tumble dogs and can enjoy the lake with the other pups. The drive home was long, but we enjoyed ourselves.

Happy Tuesday.
Ash + V