What’s Wrong With Dog Parks?
Remember how when you were a teenager, sometimes your parents would drive you to a party with other teenagers? And the party was always in one big room with nowhere to hide? And you never actually knew anyone at the party? And when your parents walked you in they shooed you along and just watched as all the other teenagers ran up to sniff your butt without even asking?
Okay, that last part didn’t happen. Hopefully none of the stuff that came before it ever happened either, because that sounds like cruel and unusual punishment for a teenager. So why, then, do we put our dogs in that position?
What we’ve described is your dog’s experience when you take them to a dog park. In fact, the vast majority of the behavior that you think is them “having fun” is actually them expressing anxiety and trying desperately to keep the peace among all of these different personalities in the room. Dog parks are stressful and potentially dangerous places that we never recommend as an activity, here’s why:
Your dog is pack-oriented. This means that it is very important to them to feel confident about their job within the pack, and confident that everyone else is working together to keep the pack safe. When you take a walk with your dog, you are a pack of two. When you take them to a dog park and stand in one place while watching them run around, you’ve temporarily kicked them out of your pack and have told them to go find a new pack in the room. For some dogs, this feels like a betrayal and will undermine their trust in you. Additionally, it is almost always impossible for them to introduce themselves to the pack in a safe way, as there is almost never a real pack in the park—just a bunch of dogs running around trying to see who should be leader. It just feels like chaos to them.
You give up your ability to control and protect your dog when you give up the leash. When you’re not connected to your dog via the leash, your reaction time is slowed and pulling your dog away from a fight can be dangerous—one very wrong twist when you grab their collar and your hand is very broken. Even if you think that your dog has excellent recall and would come back to you if called off a dog fight, you can’t guarantee that they’re going to be able to focus on you amidst the chaos of the park.
You can’t trust the other people in the park. Yes, we mean to specify the humans are not to be trusted. You can’t trust that they know their dog well enough to trust them in a dog park, or that they’ve given their dog all the necessary vaccines. You can’t trust that they’re going to respond rationally if your dogs get into a conflict, they may escalate the situation and make it worse.
So if you can’t take your dog to the dog park, what are you to do? Dog on dog socialization is encouraged, but introductions should be made very carefully and time spent together should be structured. Setting the right tone for playmates is so important, and we’re here to help! Making dog introductions is something we’re really good at—we’re going to get to know the personality types of all the dogs involved, set up routine pack walks to get everyone used to each other, and watch for signs for when we can graduate to off-leash introductions.
If you want to set up a date for your dog, contact us today!
