I’ve stopped going to the dog park. Part of this is because in his last month, Bodhi was unable to totter up the dog ramp I had bought just for him (through Craigslist). Part of this is because the cost of gas and Kumori’s depression.
I’ve found that it was best to go early and by early I mean at the crack of dawn. Otherwise, I’d found it was too dangerous.
Recently, I met two dog owners. One man’s dog had been attacked by a pitbull and has since been decidedly unfriendly toward other dogs, snapping at them. This, of course, should be corrected in time, but I had the same problem with Bodhi after he was attacked at the dog park by a blue pitbull and thrown down on his back. Bodhi, you’ll remember, had extreme arthritis. I always asked to be “Nice, Nice,” because dogs and humans should all have manners. The blue pitbull that attacked Bodhi also challenged two other dogs after he threw down Bodhi until he was finally taken away by his two owners–neither of which offered me an apology. I don’t think the dog was the same one in both attacked.
I also met a woman who thought the problem was mostly from people outside of Pasadena and had experienced an early morning dog attack on another dog.
There are, of course, other problems. Someone had quite obviously brought their dog to the dog park and clipped it, leaving the clippings to be gathered up but the hair had remained there long enough for too many people to notice.
I’ve been there when a dog walker brought her charges (5-8) and let them loose. In Pasadena, the legal limit of dogs per household is only four. It is impossible to keep tabs on that many dogs and pick up after them.
From my own experience, I’ve seen dogs who would require stitches after an incident. I also know of a regular with two small white poodles who allows his dogs to run in the big dog park and attack other dogs. Luckily when the poodle latched himself onto my alpha, Kumori, Kumori just shook him off and ignored him. Kumori doesn’t really consider small dogs real dogs. He’s gentlemanly in that respect and loves to herd Labrador retrievers. Some day that little dog is going to attack the wrong dog–that’s a tragedy waiting to happen due to bad manners on the part of dog and owner. The owner never apologized to me or reprimanded his dog.
It is really unfortunate that unmannered dog owners and minders make the dog park experience unpleasant, but I wonder what can truly be done about this. Do we really need minders? Do we need more supervisions like a recess at school?
I’m not sure what the solution is. There are really few truly bad dogs, but there are, unfortunately, too many bad dog owners.
I do find that people are perhaps too hesitant to report dog bit incidents and hold the other owner responsible, but that would seem to be the first step.
