After the other dogs were rounded up, we were ready to go to the park. We live across the street from Huntington Beach Central Park's Dog Park. Cesar wanted to teach me what to look for at the dog park and how to handle different situations. First he told me not to worry about Sahzi getting in front of me or not staying at my side today. He wanted her to continue in her excitement and happiness at being home.
His crew put his pack back in the RV while we walked to the
park. He was just starting to talk about
what to expect, when he noticed Junior and Mr. President, without leashes, running
to join us. He made a cutting motion and
quickly walked back to the RV. The crew
was trying to guess who was going to be in trouble for not latching the door
properly and letting the dogs out. They
filmed Sahzi jumping around happily while we waited for Cesar, then we started
to the dog park again.
He told me not to go when it was too crowded or when I
didn’t like the energy of the dogs or the people present. He said to stay away if larger dogs like
Rottweilers were there because often their owners are not in control of the
situation. We decided weekends were
definitely out.
The public started staring at our group as we neared the
gate. Cesar looked the visitors over and
decided there were some good dogs there.
He told some of the crew to stay out, so our group wouldn’t affect the
dogs negatively.
He waited until there were not a lot of dogs near the gate,
then we entered and removed Sahzi’s leash.
We walked the perimeter. He
wanted me to stay away from the main activity area because those dogs were
playing and very excited – not the energy she needed. One dog came up to her as we continued
walking. They sniffed each other’s tails
which I had never seen Sahzi do before.
Cesar said the most she would do was a little bark to tell another dog
to back off. In the eight days he had
been with her, he had never seen her be aggressive with another dog, just give
some warnings to back off. Our role was
to walk, stand dominantly, and let her know we had things under control.
As we walked, she was busy looking for the perfect tennis
ball. When she found a likely specimen,
I started to lean down and asked Cesar if I could throw her the ball. He told me not to play ball yet. I was to walk and let her greet the dogs
politely, then at the very end of we would throw the ball. This was very similar to his walk advice: spend most of the walk seriously moving
forward, then allow her to sniff and relax for a bit.
Our Huntington Beach dog park covers about three acres and
is on a hill. When we neared the benches
and shade at the top of the hill, there was a large brown Labrador on one of
the benches with his owner. She looked
like a college student surrounded by her books.
She started to move out of the way of the cameras, but Cesar said she
could be on TV if she wanted but mostly he wanted her dog to be in the
shot. She smiled and said to go
ahead. The brown lab jumped off the
bench and greeted Sahzi. He was happy,
calm, and very polite. Eventually Sahzi
lay down and the lab moved on. A
Rhodesian ridgeback came up and Cesar was pleased with him, too. He approached Sahzi slightly sideways with
head down. He then licked the air near
her. Cesar said that was another way of
greeting besides physically touching.
The dog was licking the air to better get her scent, then he moved on.
Sahzi went to check out the water bowls and Cesar told me
that during her first few days she would only drink moving water from a bottle
poured into someone’s hand. Eventually
she’d drink from a held bowl, and finally she drank from the metal bowls with
the pack. I couldn’t wait to see if
she’d do that for us (she did later that afternoon when we returned to the dog
park without Cesar).
While Sazhi was relaxing, Cesar pointed out other dog body
language. A younger pit bull and husky
were playing very rough. There was an
older German shepherd loping along with them.
Cesar told me the older dog was going to pin the pit bull to the ground
soon in an attempt to calm it. Within a
few seconds it happened just as Cesar said.
The German shepherd was playing, too, but much more quietly and was
definitely in control.
A golden retriever was off on its own sniffing and rooting
around in the wood chips. Cesar said
that even though the dog was standing still, it was too excited to
approach. Cesar copied its body language
for the camera and said that it was obsessed with a scent right now.
We looked back at the playing pit bull and husky. The husky had something like a velcro wallet
and was playing keep away from all the humans.
Cesar told me that the owners were doing just the wrong thing, chasing
him and laughing. The wallet’s owner
finally grabbed it and then played tug-o-war for a bit. The husky never let go, but the man wrenched
it out of the dog’s mouth. Cesar said
the husky was just going to try to get it again because the dog didn’t drop it
out of submission. Sure enough, the
husky was jumping up on the man trying to grab it. Another man took out a treat and distracted
the husky trying to help. Cesar said,
“And now, he’s feeding it a reward!” I
was very glad Sahzi was behaving perfectly at the time.
We continued our walk towards the exit. I reminded Cesar about throwing the ball, and
he said to go ahead. Other dogs were
behind us so I turned to throw it the other way. He said that was just right because Sahzi was
not ready to share me or her ball with others.
He wanted us to take her to the dog park just like this about three days
a week to keep giving her a chance to get used to other dogs and people.
As we were leaving and the cameramen relaxed, the human dog
park occupants all raced down to the fence and yelled greetings to Cesar. One man said, “Love your show Cesar. What’s the name of the sheep herding place in
Long Beach I saw on one episode?” Cesar
told him Stuart and one of the crew told the man to look up Jerome Stuart on
the internet. He has a flock of sheep
and people can bring their dogs down to work the sheep.
As we were walking down the path to the house, an older lady
walked by holding her long hair chihuahua.
Sahzi gently sniffed the little dog’s tail as it dangled down from her
arms. That was amazing to see and very
out of character. I was amazed at the
transformation.
