Dog Days

Whew what an exciting day! I got to see a part of Birmingham I've never experienced before, meet new people and race down the street faster than ice cream melts in the August sun! We went to the dog park and I got to race with the fastest dog in town. Bless my biscuits was he ever fast, but I guess I should slow down and start at the beginning.

Today I was lucky enough to go to the dog park in Glen Iris with my handsome collie friend Sugar.While we were there he showed me there is a lot more planning you have to do when going to the dog park than I ever would have thought. There is special protocol, or rules you should follow, when you meet a new dog and their owner. For example, it is not polite to just run up to a dog you don't know. You should wait and allow them to approach you and smell you first because that is how dogs say hello. It is like their way of shaking hands. I also saw

how it is important to share when you are at the dog park. Sharing a ball is an easy way to make new friends at the dog park just like when you share toys on your playground.

While we were at the park we saw many dogs of different sizes and breeds. Some were very large and lazy. Some were smaller and bounced up and down a lot, but none could ran as fast as my friend Sugar. He was running laps around everyone and no one could keep up. His favorite thing to do is run. On our walk home I wanted to know why he liked running so much. I was curious as to how it felt to go so fast, so I tried it out! I fastened myself onto his collar nice and tight and held on for dear life. He ran the length of a 50 foot fence in 5 seconds flat! You can see it in the video below if you don't believe me. 

After racing with Sugar I wanted to know just how fast I went. Can you help me do the math? He ran 50 feet in 5 seconds. If there are 5,280 feet in one mile, how fast did he run? Don't forget to convert your seconds into minutes and then hours! I did some research and a horse can run an average of 40 miles per hour. A cheetah can run up to 70 miles per hour! That's pretty fast, but they can only do it for a very short period of time before they get tired and slow down. I wonder if a dog could outrun a cheetah over a longer distance. What do you think?