At the Dog Park

A topic of discussion at the dog park this week has been whether we can say that dogs smile--which question we all answered in the affirmative. Readers of Bark magazine know this unequivocally thanks to Bark's tireless efforts to photograph smilers. The more scientifically inclined dog person might be interested in recent studies of dog laughter. But for those of us content to hang out at the dog park on a nice spring morning--really, we don't need no stinkin' studies. Consider EXHIBIT A

and EXHIBIT B.

Some dogs, smiling and otherwise, are admittedly harder to photograph at the dog park than others. It took me a few tries, for example, to get a shot in which all of Beau appears in the frame. (That's part of Beau there on the right, and behind him Snowy is investigating some interesting something or other under a pile of leaves.)

Eventually, in response to the magic finger, Beau performed a brief, but beautifully executed down, for which he received a treat.


Not surprisingly, mugging for treats is a very popular pastime.

The dogs throw us a look like I'm sooooo hungry...I haven't eaten in days...may I please have one of those treats in your pocket? and we oblige.

Another favorite game is to roll the balls through a hole in the fence so that Bob has to retrieve them. (This is something like the opposite of "Fetch" where the human throws the ball and the dog retrieves it.)

Can you hear the doggie laughter?