Ushering in November, Off-Leash

We have had some rainy dreary days which have kept Bandit from getting enough outdoor exercise. I decided to take him to our local park, Big Finn, for some off-leash fun chasing after some of his toys. This is not a very busy park and is mainly ball fields (baseball and soccer) for youth sport teams. There is a nice playground for younger children in the middle of it all. We parked at the baseball fields and then took a short walk down the road and found a nice-sized field off to the right. There was no one there, and there was ample room for Bandit to run. He seemed very excited to be let off-leash. The only other time he has been off leash to run free is when we went to the puppy party with his brothers and sisters in September. We hadn't been there more than two minutes and here comes a big huge dog running, off-leash as well. It was a pitbull!! Bandit seemed to want to buddy up to this dog (who I will call Tank), and they were running together. I saw no owner in site until I looked off into the distance. Tank went running back to his owner, with Bandit following close beyond and paying no attention to me. Bandit would not come when I called his name. The owner yelled out, "He's real nice." I felt like yelling back, "Famous last words from a pitbull owner." I'm sorry, I have heard too many stories about pitbulls turning on owners and innocent people, and I didn't want Bandit or myself to become a statistic. As Tank and his owner got closer I was able to put Bandit back on his leash. Tank's owner said Tank likes to go across the way and roll around in a big swampy area. I was expecting them to go on their merry way, but Tank's owner was going to stay put in this field and play, too. So Bandit and I left those two and found another field to play in. Bandit wasn't too interested in running after his Wubba or Flippy Flopper so we didn't stay too long.

I think Bandit is just fine with running free in his own backyard for now, and I definitely need to get a long-line leash for working on "come."