Cesar Teaches Dog Park 101 to Sahzi and Me

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.