Sutton Park, sorry its a bit of an essay! actually, its a lot of an essay!!!

Hi guys, gals and furries (or not so furries in some cases )

I couldn't quite decide which section this belonged in but as in the end its about walking buddies, I put it in here

In a couple of weeks I will be on maternity leave (baby due 8th May) and me and the dogs will have completed a move from Manchester to Birmingham, moving in with the boyfriend (Si). Its been ongoing since May as I kept my job in Manchester so have been back and forthing it on the train weekly since then . The dogs have been here on a permanent basis since May also as it wasn't fair on them not getting walked on the weekends whilst at home with the parents (mums too panicky when it comes to other dogs approaching and dads got a bad back and knees).

In Manchester, the dogs got a 2 hour plus walk every evening with a walking buddy in the form of a Mini Schnauzer, now, being currently in a first floor 1 bed flat, the dogs get mostly short walks for the sake of toilet breaks with having no garden, and the odd trip up round Edgbaston reservoir as a 40-50 min walk, they could do with a good weekly blast to burn off excess energy.

This is where Sutton park comes in. Si has mentioned it before, he reckons I'LL love it there never mind the dogs! So far we haven't made the trip. We don't have a car so its a 30 min walk to New Street station and a 25 min train journey with what looks like (on google maps) a shortish walk from Sutton Coldfield station to the park. The dogs are fine on the train thankfully so its not too big a job.

I'm planning on making Sutton Park a regular Sunday walk (until I'm confined with a huge bump and then newborn that is) as I have noticed a couple of you meet up there already, it'd be good to have walking buddies as my two don't get to interact with other dogs anymore.

Asha who's 3 in March, has always been fine with any dog we've met, she's a bit over-excitable to begin with as she thinks everyone and everything wants to play she's never been aggressive and so far luckily no dog has ever tried starting on her, so I don't actually know what she'd do in that situation. Her recall needs a lot of attention, If she's off lead and sees a dog in the distance, she will bolt off to it. Also, she doesn't know how to keep all 4 paws on the ground, or even 2 paws in some cases, she'll spring off the floor to head height with no run up, she'll do this to complete strangers too if we cant get her back to us something that without tieing her to the ground I don't seem to be able to get her to stop doing

Kilo on the other hand can be unpredictable. He's 6 in March, he had started calming down but he seems to be turning into a bit of a rebel again, possibly because the socialisation stopped. He had gotten better whilst out with the Mini in Manc, I'd always avoided other dogs because of how Kilo can be, until we met the Mini and family and started walking regularly with them as they like to meet every dog they come across if the other owner okay'd it.

Some dogs he'll sniff then ignore, others he'll try to bully. The last time he had a big group situation he didn't quite know what to do so picked out 1 dog and chased only that one. I think in most cases its a dominance thing but he has started the occasional fight. He's better off lead in new dog situations, but as 99% of the time I spot another dog before he does, I'll get him on the lead before we get near, there's just been the odd time where mostly its an entire male roamer or over zealous off-leader appears out of nowhere, bounding straight over to him, these moments don't result in fights, but he'll put them in their place when they try humping him and normally I can get him back to me with no issues.
When walking with new dogs, on lead, though its only happened on a couple of occasions, once we get walking he seems okay.
He's never worn a muzzle but I'd be willing to try one to see how meetings go if people preferred it?, though my worry has always been then that if someone starts on him, he cant defend himself There is a bonus with Kilo though, as he's a brick chewer, his big should-be-sharp teeth are ground flat, and the brick obsession, if he finds one he really likes, will keep him occupied until he's too tired to carry it anymore, he ignores dogs, and people, though cats and squirrels he has chased with the brick still in his gob Kilo wont go off after a dog in the distance.

Si would obviously come along too, so I'm not controlling both dogs myself in my current state but he doesn't seem to be able to read a dogs body language and such, and where I'll be giving the dogs commands while we approach another dog, trying to keep them under control, he'll just muscle past with them both straining to get to the other dog. He walks them both while I'm in Manc. Kilo spends 99% of the time off lead as he'll listen to both of us and wait at roads, plus you'd be out for hours as Kilo is toilet shy when it comes to pooping whilst on lead, he likes to be what he deems out of sight, under a bush if he can. It makes finding it quite difficult on occasion

Sorry to go on like this but I feel I should be letting people know what to expect before anyone says yes to being walking buddies Probably scared anyone who was half willing off now after hearing about my monsters

Whoa that's a long one! If you got this far, thank you for reading I'm nowhere near as talkative in person, in fact, I hardly talk at all, Si is quiet too.

I'll try to check back here often but until I'm here, in brum, permanently we wont have our own tinternet connection.

Claire

Hi we walk in sutton park nearly every sunday morning with our 2 beagles and sometimes a foster beagle as well It's one of the few places we can let them off lead!