Tobie's Trip to the Dog Park

Gerard and I adopted a labrador retiever/boxer mix from the SPCA a couple of months ago. We named her Tobie and have enjoyed getting to know this sweet girl! She has a lab body with a boxer smile... It is so funny to wake up to this face staring (very closely) at you! She sleeps on the couch--it doesn't matter if you are on it or not--she considers herself a lap dog and will sit or lay right on top of you. Yes...we have a 68 pound lap dog!

Tobie is very mild natured, but has these bursts of energy that send her running full speed in circles around our backyard. I learned from our dog nanny this is referred to as the "Boxer Burn." Its nuts! She just goes for about 30 seconds at top speed like the devil himself is chasing her and then stops as abruptly as she started!!

Tobie is very lonely for other dogs, so Gerard and Tobie visit the dog park on a fairly routine basis. Today, I joined them with my camera to capture a typical "pre-baby" activity!!
The first thing Tobie does is make her "rounds" in search of a fellow high-speed runner! She seeks out other dogs that get their fix by running, top speed, in circles! There never fails to be a few others!!

Every once in a while Tobie will give us a "fly by." She comes by us a full speed just to let us know that she sees us, but isn't yet ready to go home...


Tobie is off again to run. Eventually, she will run straight for us and then keep going to the gate. She knows when she is done and it doesn't take long becuase it is full speed the entire time we are there. So...after about 20 minutes, we are on our way back home! Tobie enjoys this activity so much that we must be sure to continue to take her after Baby Q joins our home! Now...that is a tired, comfy, happy dog!!!