A trip to Cherry Creek State Park..

This weekend was a great one for Colorado weather. We had temperatures in the balmy upper 50s, so we decided to take advantage of it, and go out exploring.

There is a park in Denver called Cherry Creek, and it is gigantic. It has something like 4,300 acres of land and a full-sized lake in it. Well, ever since we moved here, people have been telling us how great it is, and that we have to go check it out, blah, blah, blah. So, we decided to finally see for ourselves.

One of the features inside this huge park is a section they have designated to be an off-leash dog area. We have been taking Louie to a much smaller, fenced in dog park for a while, so we wanted to see how he would like an even bigger one.

More to the point, we wanted to see how Louie would behave if he was off-leash in a large open area. We have always been affraid that he would smell a rabbit and bolt, and be gone forever.

So it was kind of nervous for us at first, but eventually Louie showed that we were worried for no reason.


He was completely mellow the whole time, and never went more than 20 feet away from us. He would walk out ahead to check something out, and then stop and check to make sure we were still following him. He seemed to want to be around us much more than he wanted to go exploring.




He even made a little doggie buddy really quickly, which is impressive for Louie, since it usually takes him a while to warm up to other dogs. He found this other little dog, and the two of them ran themselves to exhaustion, Louie giving chase and howling his frustration that the other dog was faster. The only place he wouldn't chase was into the water. Our Louie doesn't like to get wet.



And this video is evidence of that. He had never experienced ice before, and he was fascinated by it. He didn't trust it at first, but when Dan walked across some, he followed right behind. Then we came to this puddle, and he was apparently feeling adventurous enough to venture out on his own, which is generally when hard life-lessons are learned.

By the time we were done, our Louie was exhausted and more than a little muddy. But he was a champ, and did great being off-leash for the first time. Dan's secret wish is to someday take him hiking and camping without needing to keep him leashed, but that is a long way off. At least now he has a place where he can run around and be a dog, and find new things to explore and smell.