Another beautiful weekend

_MG_1802, originally uploaded by phaird.

There seems to be a shift of park visitors on Sundays. I'm not sure if because of the season change or the Sunday confusion with the soccer group but there seems to be a lot of new faces and I've been missing some of the regulars. It is still as busy as ever but lots of people that I'm use to seeing haven't been showing up. I know as the school year ends, and with nicer weather, other dog options open up or weekend get eaten up by other engagements. I know my weekends have been filling up with lots of jobs around the house and events.

One event is that I'll be doing is my first photo shoot at a dog event called Whiskers Walk. I'll be setting up a booth to take pictures of peoples dogs and giving them a 5x7 print for a small fee. It should be a big event and I'm really excited about it. I've been spending a lot of time preparing for it. I hope to do a sample setup this next weekend.

I want to do a similar process at our park but without the print out. I'll put all the pictures up online for people to purchase any size they want. The shooting itself will be free.

I've been talking with my friends at Pawsh who are also working with another dog event in Boston that I might be involved. I hope this will be a busy summer.

Fall weather in spring

Tug on stick, originally uploaded by phaird.

It was a cold, windy day at the park today. Very quiet but not unexpected for Mothers Day. Just a few people with their dogs today. It was better for Toby who has been much better in the past few weeks. Toby played well with others and ran all over the place instead of running back to the car and fighting with each other. It was really nice.

For mothers day, my whole family came to the park today. While my oldest, Geoffrey was playing by the water, these two dogs wanted to play tug. It started with the Boxer/Australian Cattle dog mix who really wanted the stick. The Black Lab also wanted a piece of it but he just wanted to hold on while the other ran with it. They were both excited for playing and getting the stick away from me.

It was nice having Geoffrey at the park with Toby. He's now two and a half and can really start to appreciate the park. This is the second time I've brought him this spring and I hope to bring him more though out the summer. My wife often gets to enjoy a lazy Sunday at home but was nice enough to come out for Mothers day. We ended up at Babico's for brunch. All in all, we had a nice family day together, starting with the park.

Dogs are still at the park

_MG_1387, originally uploaded by phaird.

This Sunday was a great day all around at the park. Lots of dogs. I got to bring my oldest who LOVED all the dogs, and the pond. But most important, the soccer group moved their event to the smaller field around the corner. The way the park is set up, there is a smaller field off to the side. I'm not sure if they painted lines or if they brought goals over but it seemed to work out.

My last post was about how the park (which happened to be this park) mentioned that a soccer group called Fair Play, was taking over. They were using the park last week and it caused all kinds confusion. This last Sunday tough, they moved to the smaller field which worked out well for everyone. The Fair Play group is for very young players so I don't think they are going to worry about regulation size fields or any other smaller details. They just want the kids to come out and have fun and us dog people want the same for our dogs.

I'm hoping this will work out. If everyone is willing to work together, I'm sure all will be fine.

See you next Sunday at the park!

ALERT: One less park?

Today I got this post on one of my previous posts but I thought it was too important to leave alone.

Alert! April 18, 2010. Acton has given this wonderful dog run park (Spring Hill Conservation) to a for-profit company to run soccer clinics for 3 year olds. Dogs are no longer allowed to run there on Sundays as they have for years! Please write to Acton or to the company running the clinics (Fair Play).

I tried doing some quick research into this but I can't seem to find anything on the Acton MA website or the Fair Play companies website.

This is really upsetting to me but I want to get all the facts in line before I write anything more on the subject. All the interaction I've had with Acton officials have all be very positive so this is very surprising that a decision like this would be made without any interaction from the public.

If you have any information about this that you can help us find out more details, please post a comment or email me at info @ fredlevyart.com.

Good for NYC dogs

Less dogs are being put to sleep this last year in NYC then ever before. Check out this article in the New York Times.

Toby's long walk

Toby-on-wall-4, originally uploaded by phaird.

With the continued nice weather, Toby and I are starting to take longer walks. Neither of us our winter weather fans so most of the winter has been cooped up in the house. If Toby was more of a winter dog, I'd be willing to spend more time outside (and buy even bigger winter coats) but he is happy to get back inside and under the covers.

We went for a long walk and he really appreciated it. He was able to get out that nervous energy that he gets at the park and wasn't a compete nervous wreck. I hope he'll continue to do well. I know I could use the walks as well.

Cesar's Daddy is gone

I'm really sad to hear about the passing of Daddy, Cesar Millan's pit bull. I'm a fan of Cesar but an even bigger fan of Daddy. I know that Cesar's process has some flaws but he also gets results for his clients and loves his dogs very much.

An inevitable truth of inviting dogs into our families is that they will pass. Daddy had everything a dog could ask for. He will be missed.