ALBANY — Toward the end of last year, my daughter and I drove to New Hampshire and retrieved a little fluff of a puppy we named Abby. Soon after, I began visiting dog paradise.
Many dog owners will know exactly where I mean: Albany’s Capital Hills municipal golf course, which in the winter becomes the best off-leash area I’ve ever known. With 265 acres of woods and fields alongside the Normanskill Creek, it offers just about everything dogs could want. Most importantly, the seemingly limitless space lets them run free and romp.
That isn’t easy to find in this congested world, at least legally. Many dogs experience the outdoors only at the end of a tether or confined to the monotony of a backyard. Some dog breeds, I suppose, are OK with that. But Abby, a Great Pyrenees, has energy that needs to burn, and our household’s furniture and sanity will be sacrificed if she doesn’t.
And so we became frequent visitors to Capital Hills, heading there whenever I could steal an hour or two for the rolling walk around the front nine. With time, Abby and I got to know the course’s cast of winter regulars — characters of every size, shape, type and temperament.
Their dogs were interesting, too.
Pure and mixed breeds, of course, with more something-oodles than a person could imagine. Huge Great Danes that towered over their playmates. Ten-pound scrappers who insisted they were the alpha of all surveyed.
Bixby, Jacob, Summer, Winter, George, Doritos and Shadow were just a few of the dogs we met. I learned fewer human names, alas, but that tends to be how it goes in dog-focused communities. You’re dubbed “Lucy’s mom” or “Abby’s dad” and that’s just fine. It’s an honor, really.
Walking the pathway that loops down toward the creek, I often heard Capital Hills described as “my dog’s happy place,” which is certainly what it was for Abby.
It was just as obvious,…
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