Dog Walk At Brackenridge Park

I hate getting up early in the morning. I didn’t like it when I was in school. I didn’t like it when my children were young. I didn’t like it when I was working. I certainly don’t like it now. Every now and then I have to make an exception. Today was one of those days. There was a dog walk to go to.

I belong to a meet up group for Great Danes. We have gone to dog parks on previous meet-ups but there are enough irresponsible idiots out there with dogs that run wild to make those situations unattractive and potentially dangerous. Instead, we meet at a public park and take our dogs out for a long walk. Works for everyone. Most Danes love the exercise and all the new smells. Mine just want to be first in the walk line. Forget about smelling everything. 

We got everybody ready and hopped in the truck, the Stinky Dog Truck as the wife likes to call it. Even though we don’t go a lot of places, they remember who goes first and where to sit when it is time to go. Hello Kitty jumps in the rear cab followed by Sophia. Sophia cannot go first because she somehow cannot remember how to jump up into the truck but she can follow Kitty once Kitty does it. Then that door gets closed and Stoopid jumps up front and sits with me since she is my dog. Pack leadership has its privileges.

I hadn’t been to Brack in a long time. It is about ten miles from my house so it’s not in my usual circle of places to visit. I walk all three of them together 4 or 5 times a week closer to home so this 2 mile walk was no big deal. We piled out and got leashed up. Everyone has their own leash to match their collar color. It was cold but not freezing. I drank my morning Diet Mountain Dew as we waited to walk and I got re-acquainted with the few folks I remembered from past walks. I had not walked with the group for a while due to a number of different issues that have all been solved, including how to walk with three dogs at once. It took some time to work it out. The daily walk around our local outdoor shopping mall helped smooth the kinks out. 

It was a 30 minute walk through the barren woods on a paved trail. The three did not have any dog issues or any problems with anyone on the walk but they did not grasp the concept that it was not a race. I must have jerked on that communal leash 100 times to get them to slow down to little avail. I finally just stopped and let a bunch of other folks walk past and then walked real slow before they got the message. They got in plenty of butt-sniffs and tail whips afterwards and got a treat for their trouble. 

All told there were 35 Danes present and a collection of other big dogs that tag along when we have these outings. My favorite is an Irish Wolfhound named Cloe that is as mellow as a dog can be. There was also a mastiff and a St Bernard there today. The Danes did not mind in the slightest. Mine were well behaved except for the tug-of-war part with the pack leader (me). Everyone was sufficiently chilled out for the ride home. It was a good morning all told, almost worth getting up early for.

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Posted in Great Danes