Thursday, April 10, 2008

FINALLY.



Took Max to the run last night, and LO--the double-gates are installed. Jerry and Norma told me the work was done this past Monday and Tuesday. The original gates are unchanged, and still have the elegant easy-to-use 'gate-fork' latches Jerry added on his own--the new gates have much clunkier city-installed gate-forks, typical of most NYC runs I've visited. Those will eventually be replaced with something more like the latches Jerry put in. It's not perfection, but it works, providing that 'airlock' security all dog runs aspire to. Take your dog through the outer gate, latch the outer gate, unleash your dog, unlatch the inner gate, and BobSonofBattle's your uncle.

The gate at the north end of the run they did differently, extending it inside the run fence, and costing us a wee bit of space. Not ideal, but I guess the thinking was that there wasn't quite enough room between the run fence and the old ornamental fence running along the sidewalk at that point.

Many thanks to the Parks Department for getting this done--local dog owners had actually paid for enough fencing to get it done when the run was first constructed, but never mind that now. It would have been nice if the new fencing had matched the original black fencing, but never mind that either.

Although there will be times I miss the quickness and ease of the single gates (once Jerry had fixed them), there have been too many incidents where the need to get the gate open and closed quickly, then unleash the dog, has led to avoidable problems--and single gates also make it easier for dogs to slip out of the run. Double-gates don't provide perfect safety by any means, but they do give us a bit of breathing space. Bear in mind, though, that Olive the Beagle escaped from a run with double-gates.

Anyway, inside the run, things were proceeding in typical fashion. Ocean the Australian Shepherd was trying to herd the other dogs--the puggle and the Boston Terrier clearly don't think they need to be herded.



Sophie would like to get involved in the debate, but she's being temporarily restrained. And with Sophie, restraint is always temporary.

Sascha.

Max & Mooshu, waiting for the ball throw.



Tucker, one of my favorite German Shepherd Dogs, hitting on Augusta, one of my favorite mutts, who is just not having it. Some things never change.

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