The Flooded Rainforest!

This used to be a trail system and a meadow!

We've had a very rainy year! It's been raining pretty much nonstop since October with only 4 days of nice weather. All that rain has to go somewhere and our rivers are overflowing!

This past Thursday, we went to Thousand Acres park for the first time since Phoenix started doing play group at my work. We've been avoiding places where there will be other off leash dogs, while I was integrating Phoenix into our play group because we didn't want her to have any bad dog/dog interactions, trigger stacking or practice bad behavior with other dogs. It's been 4 weeks since I've been out there and the whole park is completely flooded!

The "Seasonal" Pond is now a river and a muddy mess!

It was fascinating to see how high the water was! I've never seen the "seasonal" pond so full! It was it's own river! This was the spot where I taught Phoenix how to swim a couple of years ago because it was shallow and easy for her. Not anymore!!

This spot here used to be a meadow full of green grass and a trail system! 

This is the same exact spot as the photo above. I took this a few months ago! 

They were both super confused as to where the meadow went! It was pretty funny! 

We took a break from the flood so that Phoenix could play a little fetch!

She loves her ball! 

Phoenix has been going to our play groups once a week for the past three weeks and I was so happy with her behavior out at the park! Her dog/dog greetings and interactions where way better than they've been in the past. She was pretty chill for the most part. The terrier directly behind her and to the right was not very nice to her, he snarked at her and was kind of over the top. Phoenix did not snark back. She showed him her teeth when he got in her face but then she moved away from him and let it go. 

My work dogs are really helping her to realize that she can meet dogs and nothing bad or scary happens. They ignore her for the most part and she's able to easily move through them without being scared. She actually tried to play with a couple of them this past week. It's nice to see that what she's learning at my work is being generalized to other dogs! I'm really happy with her progress.