Sunday morning a bunch of us Ebnet Berner owners converged on Marymoor’s dog park at 10:00am. Titan usually doesn’t like dog parks, but he did awfully well there even before we met up with the other berners. It’s very wide open and friendly so I think that helped. After getting him used to the park for awhile, we met the other Berners. For about 2 hours we hung out and watched about 20 of them, including 4 puppies romping around and wrestling. Titan, the goofy teenager, played with everyone he could. Especially Riley. He loves Riley. He’s got a serious man-crush on Riley. He gets all up in his grill and walrus barks and begs to play, slobbers all over him, until Riley finally caves and they romp a bit. We also met Serene, who we almost got a chance to take home before she found a good home with Riley’s humans. She played with Titan a bit, but wasn’t too nice at first. She warmed up to him. Titan was super-excito dog all morning, and towards the end he started being the crowd protector, shoeing non-berners away from puppies he was guarding, and trying to herd dogs that look like sheep.
Overall, he was very friendly and got on great with all the other dogs at the park, and didn’t show anything I would call ‘aggressive’. He just puts on a big show and because of his size it looks impressive, but it’s really nothing. One thing that usually gets people wondering what he’s doing is when he starts chasing a small dog. Small dogs are quicker than he is, so when he starts after one it takes a bit for him to get up to speed. So, picture this: Big Titan chases small dog, huffin’ and hollerin’. Small dog stops and turns to confront Titan. Big Titan has inertia and can’t stop fast enough. Big Titan slams into little dog. Little dog yelps and goes flying. People then turn and wonder what Titan did to the little dog. It’s funny to watch because he can’t help himself. Some dogs, like Duncan, are so fast they can move out of the way of Mack Truck Titan.
He’s a good boy. I’m very proud of my puppy; he’s coming along very well with his dog social skills. He got lots of treats and lovins before he zonked out for the rest of the day.