Sometimes I feel guilty. Lucia, our baby, is an Australian Shepherd – a breed that is extremely intelligent and really needs a good deal of mental stimulation…and exercise. Justin and I try to do our best with exercising her, but I’ll be honest: she probably doesn’t get as much as she would like. She gets a short morning walk with Justin, I walk her around our condo complex in the afternoon, and Justin takes her out for another short walk in the evening. In our complex, we have to keep her on a leash, so she doesn’t have the ability to run. Justin does jog with her from time to time, but I have a hard time with it because she is too fast for me!
Thankfully (since we live in Florida), the opportunity to utilize dog parks is year-round. The Enterprise Dog Park recently opened a few months ago in Clearwater. It is awesome, and easily the largest dog park I’ve ever been to. Here, we are able to let our lady off of her leash and let her RUN to her little heart’s content. And she does. Oh, she does.
Just look at that happy face…
With all of the space to run and the convenient location, the park is always FULL of dogs! Puppy overload!!!
Of course, some introductory sniffs are sometimes necessary…
But then it is time to RUN!
Man down!!!
And…my sweet and beautiful Lucia turned into a werewolf temporarily. Disclaimer: I swear to you, Lucia would not hurt a FLY…this is just the beauty of my DSLR – I managed to somehow capture this crazy and terrifying picture…
***Shiver*** And no – I didn’t photoshop the photo or do anything to it. It is that disturbing all on its own.
Anyway…as Lucia worked on chasing other dogs around the park, I stopped to enjoy some of the adorable faces that were there…Cooper was really great at catching a tennis ball!
How about this beauty???
I love this guy…trying to act all tough with his hot pink collar…
but all he wants is a belly rub…
There is something oh so beautiful about a gray faced Golden Retriever…
Doesn’t the one on the left remind you of Fozzie Bear???
The face on this guy KILLS me –
And this little Pomeranian (I think his name is Yogi) is just a glowing little poof ball, no???
Our day at the park = success. And the best part for me after all is said and done? We have an absolutely exhausted pup who is happy to sleep the rest of the afternoon…
Now, if only it would get warm enough to warrant a trip to the dog beach…
Do you take your pups to a dog park?
thank you so much for starting my day off with all these photos. i love dogs playing at a dog park–nothing like the joy on their faces as they romp around.
Gorgeous photos! I wish there was a dog park nearby — my shiba inu has taken to running off to get his exercise.
Holy crap that one of Lucia bearing her teeth is scary!! But, as you said.. it’s the beauty of a dslr!! Great pictures, as always 🙂
I seriously can’t wait to get a pup so we can take him to the dog parks.. you’re super lucky you can go year round!
We have a dog park that is basically right outside our front door and it is amazing! Perri-Berri loves to play and our dog walker (yes, we spoil our dog and have someone come mid-day to walk her) takes her there every single day. I think it’s her happy place. Also, loved all these photos of the dogs, so very precious!
I’m so glad you wrote this post. We’ve been struggling with Sunday because it’s still cold and icy, so we can’t take her out for her normal run every day. Or at all, really. We have a similar apartment situation – courtyard, but can’t let her off the leash. We do have plenty of dog parks, but she’s a resuce and so she’s timid around new dogs. We’re working on socializing her, but what works are long walks, and when it’s 20-something degrees or colder, it’s just impossible to go out for that long!
So I’ve been feeling like a terrible Aussie owner lately. 🙁 She’s been fine, fairly well-behaved, but super energetic and much snappier at other dogs than usual. I can’t wait until spring gets here so we can give her more attention again. Too bad you guys don’t live closer, she and Lucia could be besties!
I love the dog park too! Our dogs always have so, so much fun when we take them!
Cute! Boomer loves the dog park when we take her, but I hate those overly aggressive dogs, so sometimes I chicken out 🙂
Our town here has ZERO parks, let alone a dog park. Back home, there’s a park every mile or so…Our one saving grace is that we have a large backyard for our pup to go run around in.
Actually, we’re told that Bella is part Australian Shepherd! Not sure what part, though, since she looks nothing like your dog!
We take Izzy to the dog park whenever it’s dry. We’re lucky to live so close to it.
I love dog parks! Before we moved, I took our dog every day for an hour since we lived in an apartment and were both full-time students. After the wedding, we’re determined to find a new place to live…that’s near a dog park! 🙂
I need a dog. It’s decided. (And yes, I pretty much base all of my decisions on blog posts. Don’t you?) Specifically, I would like the Boxer you took a picture of. Lucia is one lucky pup to have such awesome doggie friends!
Dude.. great photos. I seriously want a dog, so I can go to the dog park and take fun dog photos too!
Lucia is seriously so beautiful! And those pictures of the other pups are so cute. I envy you that you live in a warm-weather state.
That picture of scary Lucia made me laugh out loud. You take such wonderful pictures! I love all of the “faces” you caught!
Your dog is beautiful (as are these pictures!) My fiance and I want to get an Australian Shepherd – I hope we find one that looks like yours:)