Well my 6 month old Ruger has Giardia (again) so i have not been able to take him to dog day care for the past few days. I have had to sneak him to work with me and let him sleep in the back of the explorer while i sneak out for breaks and lunch to let him walk, play, run and take care of business. I have managed to take 3, 20 minute breaks and at least an hour for lunch so it is okay. Well on tuesday i went to a park near work (within walking distance) cause i heard they had an off leash dog park. So we go there and it was HUGE!!!!! I would say at least a couple of square miles of prime land. The whole thing was fenced in and had manicured and mulched trails running all through it. Most of it was a large field with knee high grass and brush but the back has a wooded section and also a stream that runs along the whole back of the area and it runs up to chest deep. They have access areas built to get down into the water in at least 4 different places. They are hewn log and boulders steps that lead into the water to make access easy. They have well stocked poop bag stations and i have to say it is the most awesome dog park i have ever seen. I spent an hour with Ruger there and we did not even cover 1/4 of the park!!! I wil take some photos to post when we go over there today but as usual it is raining in seattle so if it is too rainy the pics will come next week.

Ruger also took his first swim at the park. there were a few labs doing swan dives off of the steps into the water and he just had to try and to my amazement he did great!!! then he did not want to come out of the water which makes me happy cause i thought introducing him to water might be difficult but he seems to be a natural. His rear end does not even sink when he swims which is so common with GSPs. So i have found a dog day care near work that i may use so i can take him to the dog park daily it is really a huge and well cared for place.

i think he gets it at dog day care but he also has been spending a lot of time out in the woods and fields and i have caught him eating rabbit and deer droppings and a whole lot of other things too!!! He seems to be at an age where he has to put everything in his mouth and i mean everything. I watch him like a hawk and yell drop it all the time but he manages to sneak some things into his mouth i am sure.

what is the name of the park ?? 

I live in Olympia, but travel north sometimes

Renee'

Wow,  it sounds like they have really improved Marrymore park since I was last there. I used to work at Microsoft and they sent me to Seattle back in 1995-1996. That was when my old dog, Moon, was just a year old. I took her there a lot of times. It was a good break to the work day. She was sexually assulted by a Jack Russell Terrier on one occasion.   She was about 75 lbs so she could have just sat on him.  It wasn't a bad scene, she just needed to figure out what to do around other dogs.

Lots of cool dogs there. I saw the one and only Portugese Water Dog that I have ever seen there. Literally has blue skin.