I took Gizmo to the dog park yesterday for the first time. We tried it one time before with both of them, but Ripley was too aggressive-defensive (i.e., she would bark and snap at any dog who tried to come up and sniff her) so we didn't stay. Since it's just Gizmo now, I wanted to give it another try. She's afraid of other dogs, but she doesn't bark or snap, she just shies away, so I figured with time and practice maybe we could make it work.
I took her into the small dog area, and there were maybe a dozen dogs in there. Some dogs would come up and try to play with her, but when she shied away, they left her alone. Such good doggies.
We hung out for a while, not sure how long, but I was essentially like, "Gizmo, you can do whatever you want except you can't hide behind me or under the benches." She explored around and sniffed and hung out in the sun some, and she definitely got more comfortable and braver the longer we were there.
Sometimes a dog would do a drive-by at her, where they would run toward her really fast, but then veer away at the last minute. Other times a dog would sniff her a little bit, but then leave her alone when she was obviously not into it. At first Gizmo was confused and scared, but after a while she started acting a little more curious. Like she would still shy away at the attempts to play, but then she would look at the dog with interest after it left. I dunno, all this doggie behavior is hard to describe.
There was one dog in the little dog area that was definitely not a little dog, but I don't try to police stuff like that because I figure the dog's person knows what they are doing. Like maybe their dog is afraid of big dogs or good with little dogs, who knows. Anyway, that big dog was among the dogs that was sweet to Gizmo and tried to play, but left her alone when she wasn't receptive.
I'm going to keep trying. Gizmo loves chasing and being chased, and I would love for her to have anyone to play with besides her tired old mommy.