Entry 2 – 12/07/2017

**Cue Baja Men’s Who Let the Dogs Out? in the background**

A little over a year ago to date, I adopted a 2 month old American Staffordshire Terrier and Boxer mix from Double Dog Rescue in Baltimore, MD. His name is Duke, named after my alma mater, James Madison University’s mascot – the Duke Dog. But, this entry is not about my dog or in fact any canine creature for that matter. This post is about humans and how incredibly odd their interactions with one another are at the dog park.

For those of you that cannot drum up any mental images right now from first-hand experiences, let me try and help you out. Right off the bat, when you enter a dog park you have to maneuver your way through multiple locking gates, stumbling into a crowd of strangers that brings back the same memories you have when you enter a college classroom ten minutes late and every single head swivels to glance at you. After unleashing your dog, you then proceed to stand in silence next to every other owner that is also standing in silence. More often than not, almost every owner avoids eye contact and watches over their little ball of fur with such pride and over-protectiveness that I swear you would think they birthed them. Not to mention, the way they swoon over and baby-talk to their puppers that almost leaves you with the thought of, “Well maybe the critics are right about my generation.” Although, I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn’t do all of the above too, because I totally do. But, I try to keep it limited to the confines of my own apartment. Finally, a few fights between dogs break out, awkward apologies are whispered, poop is disposed, and all in all there is only one happy camper that is returning home and you can be damn sure that it is not you. But honestly, you wouldn’t have it any other way, aside from the deafening silence between the people with opposable thumbs, yeah, the silence could change.

And there is my ode to dog parks because the world can never have enough of this weird social experiment between humans, other humans, and their fur babies.

#AdoptDontShop

All the best,

Colin Hautman