Anybody who has a dog knows the fun and excitement of taking your dog to the local dog park. We have a fantastic dog park near our house, and visit there regularly with Storm. We went there today with a couple of Storm’s dog friends Bailey and Bodhi, who are also Golden Retrievers.

As they were busily running around the dog park together play fighting I noticed the sad truth of this dog park that upset me greatly. We are all aware of this outrageous behaviour but as dog owners we all turn a blind eye and hope it isn’t happening but the truth is all around us.

I’m concerned about tennis balls. Next time you visit your local dog park take a few minute to take a look at the ground and you will share my concern. It actually makes me worried about our attitudes to our dogs. We all assume our dogs are friendly, happy and peaceful creatures but after seeing all the dead and deformed tennis balls on the ground I’m beginning to think that our dogs are fooling us.

They act nice, but if you are a tennis ball then its obvious a dog is your mortal enemy and can think of nothing better then ripping you apart and discarding you on the ground.

I can just imagine the last moments of the tennis ball’s life when they see a creature running towards them with that goofy domesticated dog look on their face and mouth wide open with a stupid grin. As the final bite finally rips them apart they come to the sad realisation that never got to live their dream of getting whacked by a tennis racket by an angry teenager in the middle of a tennis court.

Of course Storm never takes part in any of this murder and destruction, he hasn’t caught the tennis ball bug yet, and I never thought he would until today. He’s always had good morals and hasn’t succumbed to peer group pressure but I’m concerned because of his new friend Bodhi.

Bodhi is that bad influence friend our parents warned us about. I assume the same thing happens in dog world and bitches warn their puppies about hanging out with the wrong dog that has a studded collar and a bad attitude. .

It’s the middle of winter at the moment and it hasn’t rained for a few days. The ground was dry apart from a single puddle. As Storm is an upstanding member of the dog community he stayed away from it as he had a bath a few days before and didn’t want to spoil his chances of picking up a nice poodle. Bodhi however cared little for basic community standards and planted himself in the puddle with a joy that I haven’t seen since I discovered ice cream was actually a real thing that could be purchased cheaply from supermarkets.

Storm just sat on the ground next to Bodhi and wondered what happened to such a nice dog to cause him to do such a terrible thing. Bodhi finally got up from the muddy puddle and continued running around but something had changed with Storm. He now knew he could bend the rules and get away with it. Yes, he saw that Bodhi looked a little foolish because he was now a two-toned Golden Retriever as the bottom half was mud but he also had a spark in his eyes because he can do whatever he likes and will walk away with no guilt.

Tomorrow will be a new day for Storm, new opportunities are now available to him that he never knew possible and this new defiance is due to Bodhi.

Oh the way home from the dog park in the car Storm asked us to pick up some tennis balls from the shop. He didn’t say what he wanted them for, but he had an untrustworthy grin that I’d never seen before.