There were two points that Pat Miller, Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor, made in her article, “Park It” (on page 6), that resonate so much that I have to repeat them. The first is that at least half the problems seen at dog parks stem from inappropriate human behavior.
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Bringing a baby or toddler (or even grade school-aged kids) into a dog park is the inappropriate human behavior I most deplore. When our kids were about 8 years old, a friend took my son, his twin boys, and their dog to the dog park – and then left them all there together while he drove someplace to get coffee. When he got back to the park, he was alarmed to see an ambulance in the dog park parking lot . . . and then horrified to see that the EMTs were gathered around one of his sons, while the other two boys stood by with frightened expressions. It turns out that the boys were playing (and probably completely absorbed in their own world) when one of them got flattened – knocked to the ground, hard – by a dog who was running by with a pack of big, boisterous dogs. Mike was okay, but he had the wind knocked out of him (and he has asthma anyway), so when it appeared that he couldn’t breathe, and the nearby dog owners learned that the boys were there without a parent, someone called 911.
I didn’t feel like I had to call my friend onto the carpet (and I’m sure his wife did an adequate job of that!). But I’ve thought about that incident many times. What if it had been my son who had been flattened?! What if one of the boys had been bitten – or mauled? I have to force my mind not to race down that highway of bad thoughts.
It’s one of the reasons that I no longer just cluck and shake my head when I see someone with a small child in a dog park. Clearly, they haven’t fully considered the bad things that can happen to even an older, sturdy, dog-savvy kid when a bunch of dogs are whipping around at top speed. “Please, oh please take the baby out of here,” I’ve begged some parents, probably with tears in my eyes. They most likely think I’m nuts – but I’ve seen it with my own eyes: a small child who gets knocked down and starts to scream is like a magnet for some dogs. It gives me shivers.
It’s not just kids, though, who are at risk in dog parks. Senior citizens, people using canes or walkers, old or rickety dogs, young puppies, and small dogs in a park with a lot of big dogs are also quite vulnerable. In the blink of an eye, they can be brutalized – by accident! – by a flying pack, or in the heat of the moment by an aroused or defensive dog.
Another one of Pat’s brilliant points: That dogs are not any different from humans in that it’s actually a rare individual who is willing to play and interact with every other individual they come into contact with. And yet many of us expect our dogs to do just that when they get to the dog park. Fascinating.
Check out Pat’s advice for structuring your dog’s experiences in such a way that he doesn’t have to defend himself – and can’t help but enjoy himself – at the park.
