We met Bailey & Chewy.

No problems getting Hawk into the car this afternoon. He willing went in and sat right down. Of course he knew he was getting a treat to do that. But there's nothing wrong with a little bribery encouragement. We drove to PetSMart and bought the biggest bag of food ever. The cashier tried giving Hawk treats, but he dropped them on the floor and wasn't interested. We took them with us as we left the store, and he ate them soon thereafter.

We drove out to Lyndhurst to meet Bailey and Chewy. We arived before Chewy got there, and spent some time with the mini-Schnauzer Bailey and Jimmy's sister's American bulldog Titan. Titan was humonguos, and Mike warned me to watch out for him, but Titan was harmless to Hawk. Titan did however, jump all over the people. Just as the three boy-dogs were getting comfortable with each other, Mike's female Chewy arrived. The three boy-dogs just went after her. They endlessly chased her around Jimmy's backyard. We heard two more Hawk barks, and saw some play-biting. We were very happy that they got along and didn't play too roughly. Poor Chewy though, couldn't catch a break.

We went inside Jimmy's house for lunch. Hawk passed out on the floor next to where we were eating, while the rest of the dogs continued to play inside. Jimmy showed us the "can of coins" trick. He filled a can full of coins. When the dogs get out of hand, he shakes it, and they all snap out of it.

We all walked over to the dog run. It was a fenced-in, mulch oasis within the larger Riverside Park. There must have been 30 other dogs there playing. Most of the owners stood or sat near the entrance, so though the dogs had lots of room to run around, they mostly played near the front entrance too. Bailey was the barker, Titan didn't leave our side, Chewy played a lot, and Hawk played a little. Hawk was so independent, he spent a lot of the time just wandering around, especially the fence perimeter, sniffing things, and meeting some dogs along the way. Every so often, he'd get a little fiesty and play. We didn't get to see him break out into a full sprint, nor was he interested in playing fetch with me (and oh, did I try). Apparently and unfortunately, we arrived at the park just after some greyhounds left. We did meet a beautiful and soft, long-haired and white Borzoi (cousin to greyhounds). The Borzoi was playing around the park, and wasn't much interested in Hawk. Oh well.