Great Day at the Bark Park

Whoa man was I excited to go to the dog park on Thursday. I haven't been going much lately, and I was starting to wonder if I would ever get back there.

Dad came home and he went right to laying on the couch moaning. He was curled up in blankets, it didn't really look like that much fun. Not sure what he was trying to do. I kept trying to play with him, bring him toys, jump on his head, you know just so he would know I was there and was ready to play. I almost got his blanket off once. That might have been a fun game, if he would have chased me to get the blanket back, but he snatched it back before I got away with it. No fair...

But, finally Mom came home. Whooo wheee thank goodness for mom. She asked if I wanted to go to the "Bark Park" and I said boy do I ever! Mom is funny when she asks me if I want to go, she looks at me and talks in a little high cartoon voice. Haha... fun... I would have been ready to go no matter how she said it!

So, we left Dad, like it was a bump on the log (well he was a bump on the couch), and we headed for the park. Man what a good day it was. Even though it is getting dark so soon now, there was a good crowd there. And, we played on the small dog side. It isn't as big as the main park. But you don't have to walk as far to get there, and you can start playing sooner. There is still lots of room to run.

Blake was there. I hadn't seen him in quite a while. I liked playing with him. But, he got into a couple of tussels. His Dad said he didn't know if he would bring him back. But, I hope he does. Blake is a good pup. Cooper was there! I love playing with Cooper. We were just about the two last ones to leave.

I found a stick and luckily it was a stick that lots of dogs wanted. Those are the best sticks to have, and they aren't always easy to find. But, I did it this time. I had the whole gang practically chasing me from one end of the park to other. That was a good time... good time.

Another good day at the park!

When we got home Dad was there on the couch still, kind of whinney... still didn't want to play. Laney's Mom gave my Mom some tickets to see a movie. Not sure why anyone would want to go see a movie, when you can watch them on TV at home with your dog. And, you don't take your dog out to see movies. Seems like just hanging out with your dog would be the way to watch a movie... but, anyway. Dad said he would have loved to have gone... WHAT!!! did I heard That right, would have loved to have gone and left me at home alone... with the cat. But, that is what he said, strange. But, anyway he said he was going to stay home and keep playing his game of acting like a big lump on the couch because he didn't feel good. Strange Dad! But, I'm glad you stayed home.

Lazy old Sunday

Yesterday, Saturday, we had a great time at the bark park. A lot of the cool dogs were there; Sandy, Laney, Eddie, and Sam. The people were all playing the way that people play... huddled up close together laughing and stuff. hiding over by the fence trying to stay out of the wind.

They kept saying they were cold. But, they should have just ran around and tried to get the stick away from me. That would of kept them warm. Sandy's Dad tried for a little while... I even ran extra slow to give him a chance. But, eventually he went back over by the fence to try and get out of the wind.



So, today Dad said he heard Sandy was going to be at the bark park again. So, I was getting all ready to go, and then Dad said it was colder today than yesterday. Mom told Dad, "Take him, you know he wants to go." Dad said "Hmmmm maybe you could take him, and I'll, you know, do some stuff around the house." Then they both looked at each other, and looked at the temperature again. Then they both sat back down on the couch. And, here I am staring at them waiting for them to take me to see Sandy.

I have a feeling it is going to be a long winter.

Dad's new blog

Dad asked to use my blog again to write about some other trip he took recently. I told him to take a hike. I think I might have lost some of my readership with his last boring post. Who wants to read about anything besides me? I mean it is the "Gizmo the Wonder Pup" blog... Duh!

So, Dad has a new blog just for him, so he won't bore us anymore. http://grumpyolderic.blogspot.com/

Another Birthday at the Bark Park

Just when you think the Bark Park couldn't possibly be any better, "Boom goes the dynamite", and it gets better!

One of the Bark Park regulars, Sam, had a birthday party at the Bark Park last Saturday. Unfortunately my Dad didn't bring his camera, so we didn't get any pictures.

Sam, is a cool dog, one of the first ones that I met when I started going to the Bark Park. So, I've known him for a pretty long time. But, Sam is part border collie, and he likes to work more than he likes to play. He is usually busy keeping the rest of us in line, and some times he keeps the people in line too. Every once in a while he will play a little, but he usually says he is busy working.

But, last Saturday, he came in with a a great cake. I love cake! It was similar to the one I had on my Birthday, but Sam's cake was even bigger. At first I tried my trick of running up and snatching cake pieces when no one was looking. But, Ugh! Sometimes parents can be so uncool. Mom and Dad were both watching and wouldn't let me jump the line, or snatch extra pieces or anything.

I finally got my piece (it seemed like it took forever), and it was delicious. I thought I should eat it slowly and enjoy it, but instead I just gobbled it down. MMMMM... that was great...

But, then I was out of cake. That really didn't seem right. How could I be out of cake, when other dogs were still getting theirs... Then I saw that Sandy's mom had some cake for Sandy. It didn't seem fair that Sandy was about to get cake, and I was already out. So, I went over and tried to steal the cake from Sandy's mom. Darn! She saw me and held the cake up high... Ugh! uncool... I tried jumping. I think my vertical leap improved a little that day, but eventually Mom and Dad grabbed me, and let Sandy's Mom get away from me... still doesn't really seem fair. I was already out of cake.

I'm not sure what is in the cake, but I don't think it would be possible to ever get too much of it. But, Blake's dad tried some of it, and he didn't seemed impressed with it at all. Guess he isn't going to be asking for it for his birthday. I think my Dad was wishing I had shared some of my cake with him... but... guess again, that wasn't going to happen. If I had seen him start to eat some of my cake, he might of lost a nose... hee-hee... just kidding... kind of.

Oh well... it was delicious. I'm looking forward to the next birthday.

The GeoCaching Wonder Pup

Back when I was little, and before Mom, Dad and I found the Bark Park, we had to go on a lot of walks. I mean A LOT OF WALKS! If we didn't get out on at least one good long walk a day it seemed to make Mom and Dad kind of cranky. Do your P's get cranky if they don't get their daily walk?

One day the P's ("the P's" is short for my parents, just a little Gizmo slang) stumbled across this world wide game called GeoCaching. You can find out how the game is played at The GeoCaching web site. This game seemed to be a good way to combine walks and a game. Before we joined the Bark Park (I love the Bark Park), the P's and I would spend several hours each week GeoCaching.

But, the short description is that people hide things (caches) all over the world. Then they post a description of where they hid their cache on the GeoCaching web site. So, to play the game, all you have to do is go to the website, get the description where a cache is hidden, and then go out and try to find it. We were really surprised to find that there were a bunch of caches hidden near our house. They recommend that you have a GPS receiver and that you find the caches by their coordinates. But, there are a bunch that you can find just by looking at the map on the web site, and reading the description. We have found a bunch with out ever using the GPS.


When I'm GeoCaching, I have a uniform I like to wear. So, if you ever see me, and I have my GeoCaching uniform on, I'm playing the game.

One of the reasons I like GeoCaching is that a lot of times it involves a short car ride, which I love, and some walking with the P's, which I also love.



In this picture we were out on a walk to a cache site, when I decide to plop down and chew on a stick for a while. This was back when I was little and still had some puppy teeth. The P's had to get me a leash made of chain because I had chewed through my first two leashes... hee-hee... sometimes I miss my puppy teeth.


Sometimes caches are hidden deep in the woods (which I love), or in a city park, or sometimes they are hidden close to businesses. Dad and I were going after one in a park in this picture, when we ran in to these two dogs that didn't seem to like me. I'll bet if I could have played with them for a while they would have liked me.


GeoCaching has a few rules. The main rule is to be sneaky. You aren't supposed to let anyone see you find a cache. I have a hard time being sneaky, but Mom and Dad are pretty good at it. In the above picture, if you look right at the tip of my nose, you can see the cache we just found. It was a small film canister hidden next to the tree. When you find a cache you just open it up, sign the log sheet inside, and then go back to the web site and record that you found it. Some of the caches have "Swag", Swag is little toys you can take. But, if you take one... you have to leave one.

Another rule is that you have to have a dog with you. At least I think that is a rule. Because, Mom and Dad (the P's) said they don't go GeoCaching without me. Although, a couple of times we have run into other GeoCachers, and they didn't have dogs with them. I guess they don't know the rules.


A fun side game is to find trackable items. Trackable items are a special kind of swag that you can log on the website as you move it from one cache to the next. In this picture I am hanging out with two trackable race cars. They both started in Germany and were racing to Indianapolis. We found one of them before it made it to Indy, but the other one was already there. So, we got both of them and took a picture so we could post the picture to show the guys that started the race the cars ended up together.


In this picture, Mom is putting both cars in a cache in Indianapolis. This cache already had a lot of neat swag in it.



Here is Dad finding a cache in the woods. But, I was helping quite a bit, usually by running on the opposite side of trees that Dad was on, so that my leash would get wrapped around the tree. I think if we pass 50 trees in the woods, I can get my leash wrapped around each one on the way into the woods, and then again on the way back out.

Happy Birthday to me!

Click here to see pictures taken by Laney's Mom.

My birthday is on Halloween. Mom said I was going to have a party, and I've really been looking forward to it. Apparently you get cake on your birthday! Whoa, What a great idea that is!


Mom took me to the store and I helped her pick out my cake. They said it was called a "bone cake", which sounded great... but it turns out it wasn't a real bone, it was just shaped like one.



Mom showed me the cake at home. But, UNFAIR!!!! No cake for Gizmo until my party!!! What!!! Seems like if it is my cake, I should get it right away. I'm not really sure why we have to wait for things. But, Mom said I could see the cake, but couldn't have any until the party.


So, we are having my party at the Bark Park. I love the Bark Park, and I have a lot of great friends there... but, truthfully... I think I would have rather just had the cake all to myself. But, Mom said something about getting too much of a good thing was a bad thing... blah, blah, blah... that sounds wrong to me. Too much of a good thing is more of a good thing I always say.


Abby, Chloe, Fergie, and Eddie where all there. Also, Dad didn't get a picture of them but, Blake, Baxter, Laney, Jackson, Sandy, and several other of my best pals were there to celebrate my birthday.



I didn't get all of the cake. Mom made me share with the gang, but I think I got more than anyone else... hee-hee (well... it was my birthday). Mom was trying to cut the cake to hand out pieces to all of the dogs, and I would just run by and snatch a piece. Then Dad would say, "Hey, who's dog is that?" Ha! He didn't even know it was me. Maybe he thought it was Cooper. One reason Dad didn't get many pictures is apparenly it is hard to serve bone cake, and keep and eye on me, and take pictures all at the same time. But, I would rather have more cake and fewer pictures. Can't have too much of a good thing (can't believe Mom doesn't know that.)


No one told me about people giving you things. I thought the cake was enough of a reason to look forward to your birthday party. But, Blake's Mom and Dad gave me an edible card, and a toy! Sweet! Thanks Blake! Cool parents! When you chomp down on my new toy it makes a scary laugh and says "The devil made me do it". Fun!


Since it was my Birthday, I decided to carry around this big stick for awhile to show everyone that I was special.

It was a great day at the Bark Park. I felt special and got lots of attention. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Halloween Party at the Bark Park

You can click on this link if you want to see more pictures from the party.

I love the Bark Park. I love it so much it is hard to write about it. How can words capture something so important as the Bark Park? Well, I can't just write about the Bark Park and do it proper justice, but I think I can tell you about the unofficial Halloween Party that we had there today, and maybe give you a small insight in the wonderfulness that is the Bark Park.

First off, one of my best Bark Park pals is Cooper.
Cooper is like "my brother from a different mother". We are both about the same size and color, we are both boys, and we are both very good looking... or so I am told I am (often, and usually by my Mom). In the above picture I am the one more towards the top of the picture, and the one with the more beautiful two colored tongue.

So, Cooper was at the park today, and we had a blast playing. Sometimes he jumps up and knocks me down, and sometimes I jump up and knock him down. Sometimes, we run around and we knock down other dogs and people (almost).


I like this picture, because in this one, I have Cooper down. Ha! Take that Cooper. The other beautiful looking dog at the top of the picture is Abby. Abby is really pretty. She has long hair, and acts like a girl. She doesn't wrestle much, and she usually is kind of quiet and obeys everyone, like a girl. Cooper and I like hanging out with her. Cooper and Abby are what people call "pure bred Golden Retrievers". I'm what is known as a Golden Mix. I came from the Humane Society. I think being a mix must be better. I'm not sure, but Mom said it was. But, it was one of those long wordy "Mom" explanations. Like when they tell you how it is more important to be pretty on the inside than the outside. Where you know they are trying to make you feel better, but they do make a lot of sense also. Anyway, I don't bring it up much. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

So, some of the people had decided to bring costumes today and have an unofficial Halloween party. So, there were a lot of treats around because the people thought maybe we would get into our costumes better if we had lots of treats.

Everyone is gathering around trying to get a treat. You almost forget you have a costume on when you start trying to get in position for a treat.

You know, I'm still not real wild about the ducky costume. But, I seemed to get a lot of treats and attention, so I went along to be a good sport until...

Cooper came along and tried to take my costume. Man, Cooper! You know that isn't a real duck right? It is just a costume.

Ha-ha... Cooper got in trouble for trying to eat my costume. That'll teach you.

Anyway. It was a blast. There were some really great costumes. I think Eddie and Laney looked the best in their costumes. They both looked like real super hero dogs.

Eddie (or Bat Pup)

Laney (Super pup) and Sandy (Colts Fan)

I think if the Ducky costume had a cape, I might have liked wearing it more.

Sandy and I are close to the same age. She is a little younger. But, she really is fun to play with. I think everyone likes playing with her. She plays with big and little dogs.

There were a bunch of other dogs at the park too. I don't mean to leave anyone out. It is hard for me to remember everyone and give them all a"bark out".

Well, we wore our costumes, ate lots of treats, and we ran and played. It was a good day.