Saber Reviews: Grandview Dog Park, Seatac WA

Hi again! I am back with another dog park review for you, and this was a great one. Grandview Dog Park in Seatac, near Kent, is a HUGE dog park: 37 acres! There is something for everybody here (except cats). You will love it!

Here is the view of the entrance from the parking lot. You can see that there is not actually a closing gate here, although the park is fenced. So you do have to be a good puppy and not run off. I am a good puppy so my Mom can take me here.

Really, it is such a huge park with so much to do that you'll forget all about that open entrance! There is a porta-potty for your humans right there inside the fence, see? And all through the park there are poop bag stations with poop bags for your Mom so she can collect your poop. I am not sure what Mom does with all my poop, but I must be very special because she never leaves it behind. She must have a massive poop collection somewhere, but I have never seen it. She sure does love me a lot!

After you go through the entrance, there is this big gravel path that goes all around the park. Your family can walk on it while you run free and sniff!

After awhile, the path winds around and down to a lower area with lots of space, trees, and grass.

There is even a big pavilion with picnic tables! Mom was in awe of the "grand view" as we came around the corner. I must agree I do look stunning. Also please note Mount Rainier in the background.

Once you get down to the bottom of the path, there is a great big "all weather play area" that supposedly does not get muddy in bad weather. Darn.

But look! I found a Chuck-It Person! If there is a Chuck-It Person in a 37 acre park, I will find them!

After a rousing game of fetch-someone-else's-ball, Mom took me over to this area: agility equipment! Very cool!

There is an A-frame, a dog walk, some tires, jumps, and weave poles. I love agility. I am, in fact, somewhat of an agility expert. I will have to tell you about that sometime. But it was a very hot day and I was getting tired from our long walk, so I just did the A-Frame a few times.

After that, it was time to go. There are some nice stairs to get back up to the entrance area, so we didn't have to walk all the way back up that long path. This is a great park! I hope we can go back again sometime soon. I highly recommend it!

Saber Reviews: Norm and Nellie Byrd Dog Park, Yakima WA

You may remember that way back in August, Mom took me coursing in Enumclaw. On the way there, we stopped at a few different dog parks to try them out. I wanted to share what I thought of each one, so here's the first in a series of four new dog park reviews! I know you're excited, so let's get started!

The first park we stopped at was the Norm and Nellie Byrd Off-Leash Dog Park in Yakima. It's a fenced area within the Sherman Memorial Park and the parking lot is right beside the Humane Society. It was kind of hard for Mom to find, but if you take the Nob Hill exit and go right, then left on South 24th and left again at the T in the road, you'll find it. Just park near the Humane Society and walk across the field to the dog park. Here is the entrance:

The park is double gated, has trash cans, a bench, and a picnic table. It's actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be; I'd guess between one and two acres. It's smaller than our home dog park, but still nice and a great place to stop and run or play a game of fetch on the way to Seattle! There are plenty of shade trees and lots of grass to sniff.

There's even a cute little wooden bridge over a dry ditch. This was fun to run back and forth on and I loved running through the ditch, too! I wonder if it gets muddy when it rains? That would be even better!

In all the pictures, you can see the fencing around the park. That should give you an idea of the park's size.

All in all, we liked this park for a stop on our long drive. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs a bit. It's a bit small, and there were no other dogs here, but we'll still come again sometime if we happen to be passing through Yakima.

Smell ya later!

More Coursing, Of Course!

Two weeks ago Mom took me coursing again in Spokane, where we've gone coursing before. It was lots of fun watching the sighthounds race around! We were there for two days and of course I passed both of my runs with flying colors. We finally got to see another German Shepherd running the course! We have never seen one at any of the other lure coursing events we've gone to. Sadly, she didn't qualify, but I made up for it and redeemed the breed with my super fast runs!

Mom didn't take any pictures of me running this time, but here I am wearing my two new ribbons:

(Mom loves my color so much that she built a new deck on the back of the house to match me. See?)

And here I am wearing my lure coursing collar. It has a quick release latch on it so that when the coursing person shouts "Tally Ho!", Mom can set me free in an instant! I have to run naked. It's the rules.

We also went to Riverfront Park on our trip where I got to play in the fountain! I love water.

Nom nom nom!

Hmmm, what should I do next?

I know! Nom nom nom!

I was very tired after all the racing and nomming, so we went back to our hotel for a rest.

I love going on trips with my Mom! Hopefully we will go on one more coursing trip before the season ends. Stay tuned!

Coursing, Round Three

Way back in August Mom took me on a trip to go lure coursing again! We had a great time and visited several new dog parks (and I'll tell you about those soon!) but the very best part of all was running free across the vast green fields chasing bunnies! Okay, they were not bunnies, but I can pretend, can't I?

Here I am ignoring the speed limit sign:

Bunnies!!!

I am super fast! My best run was 54 seconds.

Ohhh look, I almost have those bunnies!!!

I got 'em! Nom nom nom

Ahem. Afterwards I gathered myself for a dignified picture with my new ribbons from all four qualifying courses.

And then we went back to the hotel.

We'll be going coursing again soon. Only three more qualifying courses to get my Advanced title! Thanks for reading!