They charge at each other, ferocious canine fangs barred, then race across the field of trampled grass and mud before colliding and rolling over one another in a flurry of fur and fangs.
They are old friends: corgis, Great Danes, labradors, German shepherds, pointers, setters, bull dogs, and unknown mixes greeting each other the way they always have at the Salem Minto Island Dog Park.
The park is a popular gathering place for dog owners and their dogs, a place where their dogs can run as far and as fast as they want without the annoying burden of a leash around their neck.
Surprisingly, there is little conflict between the dogs (or their owners either) at the park. It’s a great place to run off pent up energy, exercise their owners, make a few new friends, then go home for a nice long nap.
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Photographer Ron Cooper and his wife Penny moved to Salem in 1969 to take a job as photographer at the Oregon Statesman (later the Statesman Journal). Their three children, Monica, Kimberly, and Christopher, attended and graduated from Salem public schools. Cooper retired from the Statesman Journal in 2001 but, has continued his passion for photography in many ways, including as a photographer for the Salem Reporter.
