Dog Park Etiquette.

November 24th, 2007 · No Comments

Last Sunday we brought the Wolf to the local dog park. Sheesh. What a mess.

I would like to get a few things off of my chest here…

1. Do not eat at an off leash dog park if you are afraid of dogs. I get it you’re hungry and dogs should be trained to not steal food. BUT, there are tween-dogs at the park who are in the middle of lessons and will “fall off the wagon” when they see a little bit of food. All you need to do is say no and ignore the tween - that’s it. Recently, this happened with 3 ladies sitting on a bench at our dog park. A younger pup approached them (a bit excited as young pups do) and one of the ladies chucked her sandwich out into the middle of the field and started a huge dog fight including 12 dogs total. May I just ask, what the F*CK are you thinking lady? Use your head!

2. Do not push your child in a stroller with food in their hands. I don’t care how well your dog is trained, EVERY dog will try and steal that babies food if the food is at eye level. Especially if the owners of the dog don’t have children in their family and aren’t use to little ones. Again, come on - THINK about it. This is your child you are putting at risk and lets face it, dogs are animals and will make mistakes.

3. Do not let your 1 year old pet a dog who is playing at a dog park with another dog and then blame the owner when the dog’s tail fluff’s the child’s face and causes a tumble and tears. I don’t have kids, but I sure know to never let a child approach a strange dog…never mind dogs at play. Duh.

Animals are animals are animals. Sure, us humans can train them all we want, but it still doesn’t prepare them for the outside world and in some cases, they will forget themselves when in a pack of dogs at the dog park.

Ok, so now is the dog owners turn. There are a few basic rules that you/we need to remember as well. I believe that Cesar Millan - who I’m a HUGE fan of - did an episode on dog parks at some point, but can’t seem to find it on his website for some reason. Here’s an article to help with the rules in case you mean reminding. Anyways, that’s that. Please just remember the rules to keep everyone safe, healthy and happy!

Final note to all: here is a great little youtube clip on how to read dog behaviour…