Cobalt: Off-Leash

We've been really nervous of letting Cobalt go off-leash in the local off-leash parks -- not because of the other dogs, but because the parks all open out onto busy streets: Carlton, Jarvis, Gerard, Queen, etc. We wanted to make sure her recall was very, very strong before letting her loose. So all of her off-leash play has been in either our back yard or the DogPatch at the Brick Works.

A week ago Saturday, we were in the DogPatch with a dozen other dogs, and Cobalt was having a great time. More important to us, though, was that she was now checking in with us, and had settled on a comfortable distance at which she'd always return to us on her own -- and, most importantly, she'd come when we called her name.

We were so pleased that we decided to take her down to the Cherry Beach off-lease and let her run. The trip was a huge success, as you can see:

Even before we could get the car-seat harness off her, she was off!



She came back when we called her, though, so we got the harness off and let her romp.



Of course, whenever she came back, she wanted a treat...



She didn't repeat her Western Beaches trick of trying to run across the lake



But she really seemed to enjoy running in the sand



Some of the dogs were just not up for a game of tag

We also noticed a dog on the beach playing with a half-inflated soccer ball, which we thought would be a great sort of toy for Cobalt, since she loves toys that are at least as large as her head. After the run, we went up to PetSmart to stock up on food, and found a nice ball with indentations all over, just right for a dog to grab. We picked it up and stopped by DogPatch on our way home to try it out -- sure enough, she loved it.