The event was held at a neighborhood park. Even though it was held it April it was actually pretty chilly that day. The adults were bundled up but the dogs and kids didn't seem to notice! Morey and I were among the first to arrive and Morey immediately struck up a friendship with Will, the three year old of one of my co-workers.
I had brought the "flinger"', a magical invention that allow you to throw a ball much farther than you can using your own arm power.
Will was fascinated by the flinger but he couldn't quite "fling" it correctly. Morey was very patient as Will repeatedly "threw" the ball less than a foot away. After Morey fetched it Will wanted Morey to drop the ball so he could pick it up and throw it again and so I told Morey to "drop". Will then started trying to give Morey the command but just kept pointing at the ground instead of using any command. When his mom asked him "What do you tell him?", he replied "Please"! Holding back my laughter, I told him that Morey knows the word "drop" so then Will began telling Morey "Please drop, please drop". Unfortunately Morey did not respond to Will's very polite request and so I quietly told Morey to drop so he seemed to be following Will's command.
After the fetching fun wore off, I told Will that Morey could play hide and seek. While I covered Morey's eyes I gave Will the ball to go hide. He did a good job of hiding it but then wanted to show Morey where it was instead of letting him find it. Morey didn't care and they were both enjoying it so they turned it into a game of "hide and show" instead.
The park had a large grassy field and at one point Will and Morey set off running out in the field while those of us with less of a sense of adventure stayed in the picnic area. As we watched, all of a sudden Morey and Will both stopped. Morey flopped down and instantly I knew what had happened- they had found water. Will stomped around for a few minutes before running back (unfortunately leaving the flinger behind). Morey, however, continued to flop around in the standing water. He did come running back when I called him but by then he was covered with dirty water and was quite happy with himself. There was no way I could get out to where the flinger had been left and it was too far to send Morey to retrieve it, so Will's mom had to brave the squishy ground to rescue the flinger
More people had arrived during this time and they were warned not to let Morey get too close given the current state of his fur. All my co-workers were used to seeing Morey in work mode and this gave them a look into his life as a regular dog- wet, dirty and very happy! He was able to entice most of them to throw the ball for him at one point or another and once he realized how far some of the adults could throw he wasn't very interested in playing with Will's attempts anymore. One of my non-athletically inclined co-workers became an instant fan of the flinger because it dramatically increased her throwing ability. Her husband had an impressive arm even without the flinger and Morey got lots of exercise chasing all those balls.
Once Morey discovered the standing water, he made several more trips back to the low lying areas to splash around, often making a detour on his way back from fetching the ball. When another co-worker arrived with her two dogs, Morey's day was complete. He had dogs, water, balls and people to play with him all in one location. He was pretty much in constant motion for the entire time we were there. At one point I had to put him in a down stay because I could tell he was tired yet he wouldn't stop running. Once he had stopped panting so hard I released him and he went right back at it.
I was glad I keep towels in the car so when the event was over I could dry Morey off at least a bit before having him jump in the car (my backseat is always covered in a sheet and towel anyway but I wanted to get off as much water/dirt as I could). He was completely worn out from all the exercise and excitement and spent the rest of the day doing some serious sleeping, probably dreaming about the next time we have a Family Fun Day!
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