Dog Park Etiquette - Is There Any?
I take my dogs to the park ev ery day. It’s not one of those fancy dog parks, mind you, where the regulars congregate daily and se cretly judge all the other dogs against their perfect pooch. It’s just a park, but it does provide ”poop bags” and plenty of open space for tennis ball chasing. And dogs like it. The problem is, their owners are idiots.
OK, not all owners are idiots. But many are.
Take today, for instance. This morning I was walking my two very large dogs — a rottweiler and a lab/pit bull mix — on one side of the park, deliberately away from the parking lot and a chance for a run-in with anyone. My dogs are friendly, but they’re big, and I try to keep them away from strangers — human and canine — at a public place, for everyone’s protection. So there we were, playing ball and minding our own business, when some dopey dog owner drives her Suburban tank into the parking lot, lets her leash-free, large, aggressive dog out, and then proceeds to talk on a cellphone while her dog charges across the field at mine. Stupid. Dangerous, too. If you’ve ever witnessed a dog fight, you know what I mean. Then I spend the rest of our formerly fun outing trying to shoo the stranger dog away so no one gets hurt. If I wanted a doggie playgroup, I would have had one. Luckily, I convinced the other dog that it’d be in his best interest to leave us alone and go back to his oblivious human. But our peaceful outing was ruined. Grrrr.
Next is the inconsiderate, rude, disgustingly selfish, ignorant dog owner who completely ignores the ”poop bag” station, watches his dog take a giant dump right in the middle of the soccer field, and then walks away. Um, excuse me. Sir? I’d rather not have my son Johnny land in your dog’s pile of shit while making a slide kick at practice this afternoon. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me. There’s nothing that irks me more. And when I see it, I say usually say something to the dog owner (and get a snarly response in return). I just can’t understand how someone can be so inconsiderate of others, and lazy too. There should be a law against it. Oh, there already is? Maybe the police should en force it then.
And then you have the owner who can’t control his own dog. Granted, we’re all a little helpless when our dog decides he wants to roll in that pile of dead animal guts (ick!), or when he needs to run crazy for 30 seconds to get out his excitement while we patiently wait. But for the most part we should be able to tell our dogs ”NO!” if we don’t want them at tacking the little terrier across the field, or if we want them to stay with us and not visit the town landscapers 200 yards away. If not, maybe the public park isn’t the place to be taking your dog.
I know, I sound kinda like a grumpy old dog owner. And may be I am sometimes. But it’s only when a stupid or inconsiderate human decides to ruin my favorite time of day: playtime at the park with my dogs.
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