Life of the Party?

Ginger and I went to the dog park Sunday afternoon to play. Ginger is timid around people but loves to play with other dogs, especially boys :rolleyes:. I take her into the pen for the smaller dogs (under 40 pounds), and there were no other smaller dogs there when we arrived. So I started throwing a ball and a sticky around for her. A little while later another dog arrived (an adorable 5 month old puppy). The two girls said hi to each other made some very brief effort to play together, but then went back to their people. A little later, someone came in with two Jack Russell Terriers about a year old (both boys :) ). But again, just a hello and everyone went back to playing on their own or with their people. About ten minutes later, some people came with little black mixed breed dog about one year old named Bailey. Well, let me tell you. It was the funniest thing. Bailey was in there no more than 3-4 minutes when he had EVERYBODY playing together. It was so funny. They must have all run around together for about ten minutes just playing and having a good time together. But before Bailey arrived they weren't interested in playing together at all. I guess even in the doggie world there are those that are the life of the party.:)

Well, anyway that got me wondering about some of the dogs that I read about here on Pet Talk. What do you think? Is your dog the life of the party? The wallflower? The know-it-all? And why? I just thought it might be a fun thing to hear about.

That is so cute. I love seeing dogs play like that. Duke's so old now that he just likes to be the observer. Although at times, he does play. The last time he was at the dog park, there was this one female dog that had him and another dog running and playing. It was so cute.

Dixie is the alpha... she has to let everyone know she's queen bee and then she just oversees everyone else having a good time.

Dusty is the one who has to be in the middle of everything. I call him the official greeter! He plays so hard and never tires out!

merlin is a mommmas boy ,never get near any one else but ,His big sibs.

Duke, after 12 years you have earned the right to relax. You can help Dixie supervise. Dusty, Ginger says she thinks you would be lots of fun to play with :).

And Merlin if you want to play we will try to be real gentle.

Star is after all the Queen of the universe so while she's very gracious to people, she usually tries to assert her authority over other dogs asap. She may run over smaller dogs or try to hump big ones. (it's a dominance thing) But she's a good sport and plays with everyone. She does like to supervise. Sherman is a mama's boy, either he follows Star around or he hangs around me, especially if there's alot of other people or dogs there. Prince is one of those dogs that can play with everyone! I've even seen him play with the park "bully"!

Yeah dogs have definative personalities, that can be very noticeable. Oggy is the alpha dog and Flute kind of lays back, but her favourite thing is to tease Oggy.:D

Snowy wants to play with everybody, big or small, but unfortunately the older dogs seem to just ignore her sometimes :p

alex the wonder dog is a dog nerd. i didn't socialize him enough with other dogs, so he is the bottom of the pack beta and since the other dogs can sense/smell his meds (for epilepsy) he gets whomped on and just doesn't do well with many dogs. he'll play, briefly with 1 or two dogs, but he'd rather hang with the humans and chat. we do go to the dog park, but after 10 minutes, he's giving me the "i'm ready to go mom sign." he has gotten so stressed that he will have seizures, and that isn't a good idea at the dog park:(

Very cute post:)

My Roxey is pretty much a greeter but not really the life of the party. She has to say hi to everyone, dogs and people alike. But every once in a while she can also be the b*tch of the party too:o

And Huney, she pretty much sticks with me. She's definately a momma's girl but will wonder around with sis sometimes.

Bon, well I'm really not sure about him. He hasn't gotten the chance to be around alot of other dogs but when we took him to the park last year he seemed to get along well with everyone (but not necessarily the life of the party). I hope it's still the case when we go to the park next Saturday:D