Park Days

We were all playing nicely, when suddenly a new kid entered the park. Right away, 2 little kids jumped on his back. He turned and yelled at them. None of the moms did anything. He kept yelling, this time for help; the other kids kept jumping on him. Finally, they sort of went their own ways. But the jumpee kept to himself and his mom wondered why he was out of sorts today.

Another newcomer entered the park. My kid walked up and asked if wanted to play tag. He pulled a knife and told my kid to never talk to him again. As I removed my kid, this newcomer's mom said that this was just his way of saying hi. I decided it was time to leave this particular park. This newcomer continued to greet all of the other kids with his knife at the ready. None of the moms seemed to care. They all just encouraged their kids to run around and play.

I think you've figured out that I'm describing a typical morning at any dog park. The dogs are doing a great job at communicating, but the humans are not listening. That first dog was asking for help, 'could someone please remove these unruly puppies so that I can do my business?'. The 2nd dog had no business being at a dog park. Dogs would approach him very appropriately, tail tucked, head lowered, body curved in a C. He would give no warning, but take the down by the throat, growl and snarl.

We need to improve our dog skills. We need to see what's really happening and then intervene on behalf of our dogs. If we humans had stepped in to show the dogs that we control the behavior at the park, they could have played. But instead, they all had to be on guard because no one was in charge.

We also need to improve our people skills. If this had actually happened with children, every mom in the park would have been talking to each other and to the moms of these dogs. So many times, we don't feel that it's our place to intervene when it's about dogs. 'They'll work it out.' Guess what? They work it out by fighting. Do we really want our dogs to fight at the park?

I can't tell you how many times people will tell me what to do with my dogs. They do not know me, they do not know my dogs and they do not know my training methods. Yet, they feel that watching a few episodes of the Dog Whisperer makes them an expert. (I do not like his methods, nor condone anything he does. He runs a 50-dog pack. How many of us have that problem?)

So people of Petaluma (and everywhere), get your dogs under control. It's not hard. But if we do not, we will lose access to these off-leash opportunities. Already, they are mostly inhabited by dogs who are bullying everyone else.

I feel very sad that I can no longer take my dogs to my local park during off-leash hours. My dogs love to run, they love to chase a ball. But our yard is not big enough.

And our local dog park is not friendly enough.