OK, I’m a moron. The reason no one is ever at the off-leash dog park at Woburn Park (Bathurst & Cranbrooke in North York) is because there is a way better dog park only about three more blocks farther north, called Ledbury Park. Now in my own defense, I had Google Street Viewed the area but all I could see was a park with no fences, not appealing when you have a yet-to-be-street-proofed puppy. Chris had even gone to that park with Luna a week or so ago and saw nothing. But tucked back in behind a raised walkway is a fabulous and new proper fenced dog park (at the very end of Marmion Ave, which is a dead end street).

The park is probably an acre or two in size, fully fenced with a proper double-gated entrance (making it safer for entering and exiting if there are lots of dogs playing). It even has several brand new benches. Signs around the park indicate that all this is new construction, that it was just created back in November/December. How fabulous!!

We met three or four other large dogs there today, and unlike yesterday’s Puppy Play Group at Petopia where she was a complete chicken, she actually started acting like a real puppy and romped and played, even though the other dogs didn’t really care too much about playing with her.

Of course like everywhere right now it was basically a mud pit, but hell, we didn’t care. Although if we keep going there I’ll have to devote a whole section of my wardrobe to Luna duty, and our washer is going to get a big work out. And I have to find a solution for quick and easy clean ups for after-work-walks, because we certainly can’t manage to give her a bucket bath every time we come back from a walk (Zeus’s height meant that all we needed to do during spring was towel off his belly and his feet after walks). I felt bad because at the park Luna jumped up on one guy several times and he was clearly not happy about it, but most of the people she met were sympathetic that she’s a work in progress. She’s only 3.5 months old after all!

So it feels like we’ve accomplished a lot this weekend with the banshee. Yesterday’s play group, which clearly totally overwhelmed her, was at least something to introduce her to that she might eventually get more out of. We also stopped into PetSmart on our way home from Petopia, another big experience for her (the store was rammed to the gills with people, kids and dogs and she was pretty great with all of them). We ended up signing her up for some puppy obedience classes which will start in a couple weeks.

So here’s to a fabulous weekend that started off a little rough. More visits to the dog park = tired puppy + happy puppy mama.