Hobie and I discovered a small dog park on our walk through Punavouri. It's situated across a school and behind a church,with a bench that's optimal for soaking up some sun. And this doggie park featured another mascot, which Hobie immediately went to investigate. The mascot carried a strong resemblance to a big miniature schnauzer.
Hey, the dog looks like Hobie, beard and all!
Checking out the potential.
Alas, it just wasn't meant to be.
Hobie now knows the area around the local dog parks, and he starts pulling his leash when we get close, hoping to play some fetch.
The three of us went to the Lapinlahti dog park near Ruoholahti (see map below). This park is a lot cleaner than the dog park in Ruoholahti . Unfortunately, a lot of people in Ruoholahti don't pick up after their dogs, making it hazardous to play in the dog park.
But, back to the Lapinlahti dog park. When we arrive, Hobie will typically sit down and wonder if something is going to come out of our pockets.
Since it is not really allowed to play fetch in the dog parks we only do this when there are no other dogs around. On this day, Hobie was in luck: his red football suddenly appeared out of nowhere!
Throw it, throw it!
Gotta catch the ball!
Then Hobie will run and fetch the ball.
Again, again!
Although Hobie is nearing the big 1-0, he is still able to keep going for a long time. Most of the time we get cold from standing in the park before he gets too tired to continue.
Hobie thinks he's king of the Tehtaanpuisto dog park. Too bad no other dogs were around to witness it.
Situated in Eira, aka the embassy district, the dog park provides a good mix of terrain. Besides logs, there are also several trees for your dog's peeing pleasure. The gravel area is evidently popular, judging by the number of holes in the ground.
But my favorite feature of this park is the cute bulldog, "guarding" the grassy area of the park. But watch out for that grassy area. We found lots of splattered poop bombs, thanks to the previous days' rain.
Luckily, Hobie steered clear of the grass.
Hobie checked out his new neighborhood the other day, and there is a dog park literally across the street from our new apartment.
It's not the greatest dog park, and it's very industrial. The dog park is a large rectangle, but wide enough that we can play fetch without worrying about the ball landing outside the park.
One one side of the park is a street, and on the other side is a container terminal. We could actually see containers being shuffled back and forth.
The park is quite large, but it's not a park we would go to unless it was right nearby.
There are a couple of benches in the park, and while there is a path along one of the long sides, most of it is covered in dirt and grass. Hobie will surely need a bath after playing here on a rainy fall afternoon.
The park was empty when we first entered, so we took out the frisbee.
Hobie has gotten a wart-like growth next to one of his teeth. The vet in Norway said it was nothing to worry about, and that we could just deal with it the next time he was under anesthesia. One side effect is that he will sometimes bleed a little bit, but he doesn't seem to be in any discomfort.
Despite this, he ran as fast as his four little legs could carry him to play with his toy.
Despite that industrial setting, Hobie approved of the park. In fact, there seemed to be so much to smell that he was too busy to look at the camera.
After playing for a little bit, another dog came into the park. Poola, a labradoodle. She was only two, but because she was already now much larger than Hobie, they seemed to get along fine. He growled a little bit, but for the most part they were satisfied sniffing each other's butts.
She jumped around and barked at Hobie a few times, and he whined and ran around us, but it helped that we were chatting with the owner, and Hobie had to deal with this strange new creature by himself.
Helsinki has a large park called Central Park.
Yesterday, we took Hobie up there on a 3-hour walk. The park area is beautiful, and there were lots of people out enjoying the nice weather.
On our way through the park we passed through an equestrian center. Hobie didn't seem to care much about the horses, and was (as usual) more interested in practicing his vacuum-cleaner skills on the grass.
We also ran into a dog park there (the official name is Keskuspuiston koira-aitaus). At first it looked a little small, but we decided to check it out anyways.
The entry to a few of the dog parks we've seen have a big dog bulletin board in front, and this one was no exception.
The park had a decent area with gravel, and then a wooded area behind it. There were lots of trees, and treeroots to smell and run around. It took us about 5 minutes to walk around the dog park.
This is Hobie in the front of the gravel area.
Although there were no other dogs in the park, Hobie had a good time. He sniffed and ran around by himelf. The last shot is Hobie running around.
Although Helsinki has a lot of dog parks, some of them are a little sad. We've been to a couple that are very small, and there are no plants, just gravel and some tree trunks to smell. However, it's better than nothing, and it's probably difficult to maintain a lot of plants in a dog park.
This park, however, was very nice. The forest setting makes it much nicer than some of the inner city parks, yet it's very accessible from the nearby residential areas.
Look at the below map for how to find it.
We took Hobie to Mountain Lake, and we brought his squeaky football.
The ball immediately drew the attention of another dog that was there (the middle one in the first picture). At first the owner seemed a little hesitant, but we told him it was fine that he was interested in the ball.
For a few minutes I would throw the ball, and they would both run as fast as they could to get it. Most of the time Hobie would win the mad dashes.
Another dog also came along. This dog was mostly interested in sniffing the other dogs, though, and just run along because it seemed like something fun to do. Hobie behaved very well, and didn't growl at all at them. He just circled around, and tried to make his way back to us with his ball.
Unfortunately, this was one of the last times Hobie got to play with his football. Only a few days later we took him to a bonfire at Ocean Beach. The group we were with took turns throwing his ball, but as we were leaving we couldn't find the ball. Hobie was more than willing to roam around looking for it, but to no avail.
