Duluth Dog Parks

I just became aware of another option for keeping dogs cool and wanted to share it. 

This is Murph.  His mom is an ambitious young woman from Duluth.  I met her when she volunteered to handle credit card payments at our Duluth Dog Park spaghetti dinner last year.  She is a frequent dog park user along with Murph and other friends dogs she brings on occasion.  Recently she posted on Facebook that she has a new canine cooling product that she is making and selling and was going to be demoing it in Canal Park.  I was intrigued and asked more about it.  Her company is Murph and Co. and she is making neck coolers for dogs and humans. 

You soak the neck wrap in water, it expands and then you attach it with the velcro tabs.  The wet wrap cools by evaporation.  They are re-usable and you can resoak them as needed.  She says they keep your pup cool for 3-5 hours.  They can also be used for humans.  I have had two different neck scarves that would tie around my neck that...

The day of our bulldog gathering was on a hot Sunday afternoon.  I was worried all those short nosed doggies would be too warm.  I remembered a milk jug modification I read about and made to use for a DIY garden waterer.  It was just sitting in our garden shed.  It was simply a milk jug with small holes that I drilled in the top.  I grabbed the sprinkler jug full of water and another full jug for drinking and headed to Keene Creek Dog Park for the meet up.  When the doggies were warm, or I thought they were warm I just held the jug over the dogs and the water comes out in a nice steady stream, but not so hard that it startles them.  I used it on quite a few dogs, with their owners permission, on two different dog park visits.  The vast majority of dogs either enjoyed it or tolerated it, of course a little hard to tell for certain.  Only a few avoided it.  I invite you to try making one of your own for cooling your dog when away from home.  I now keep the sprinkler jug with water and ju...

At Keene Creek dog park yesterday I noticed a flyer for Bluestone Flats.  These are the next set of apartments opening up near UMD by Woodland Ave.  The Flats are pet friendly!!!  They allow up to two animals, dogs or cats.  More details on their pet policy here.   The complex will have an outdoor pet park, pet wash, and a lot of high end features (pool, hot tub, sauna, granite counters, 9-10 foot ceilings, concierge, etc).  I think it is great that a developer sees the value and need to have pet friendly housing in Duluth.  Hopefully one of the other developers with apartment plans in the works also sees the value in providing for renters with pets with a middle or lower priced option so people of more income levels can find housing with their furry family members.  I have no personal knowledge of the development, rental price or any other details besides what is on their website I but wanted to share this new development.  The flyer says they are accepting applications...

 I have a friend with a bulldog who I am also friends with on Facebook.  She resisted my invitations to bring Hendrix to the dog park since they live in the country with room for Hendrix to roam.  Last Saturday I noticed she commented on a facebook post from two other bulldogs.  Yes, bulldogs Loki and Amora have their own facebook account.  Loki and Amora had posted that they had another bulldog staying with them.  I couldn't resist the temptation to try to use this opportunity to get Hendrix to the dog park by trying to set up a doggie play date.  They fell for my plan and before you know it there was a bulldog date set for Sunday at 2.  The event was posted on the dog park facebook page, some bulldog owners tagged and we had more coming to the party.

 There were five bulldogs in attendance including Hendrix, Amora and Louie, full siblings, pictured above.  The siblings tended to hang out together even though they have been apart since they were babie...

Bill and I took Monty to Observation this morning for the first Observation play date.  When we were there a family of five came in.  A mom, dad, two daughters and Stella.  They brought her all the way into the all dog area on a leash so it was clear they were new to dog parks.  I went over to talk with them and help them through their first time nervousness.  They let Stella off leash and she quickly started running around.  Her family has been extra cautious since Stella has been nervous around dogs since she got nipped in the nose at the vets office.  They have been traveling for four days from their home in Carleton, Michigan, near Detroit.  They were thrilled and laughing to see Stella running and having a good time playing with Monty and chasing a ball.  They said Stella has been limited much of their trip to hotels and car rides and they all had a great time at Observation.  They found the park by accident; they were driving around looking for a good vantage point to watch the f...

We are going to try something new at Observation Dog Park.  We are going to have some regularly scheduled play dates so that you are more likely to have some playmates when you get there.  Certainly you can still go to Observation any time you like, these are just a little more organized to have (hopefully) more playmates to socialize with.  We will have them on Tuesday evenings at 5:30 pm and Thursday and Saturday mornings at 11 am.  We chose those dates and times to try to hit morning, evening, week day and week end options for people with different work schedules.  If anyone wants to lead up a different date and time, that is fine too. 

It can also be helpful to announce on the Duluth Dog Parks or Duluth observation dog park Facebook groups that you are going to the dog park and others may see that and come out and meet you there.  I have noticed that people get better responses when they post a picture of their dog when they post that they will be at the do...