They sound idyllic. Fenced fields, escape-proof, where you can take your dog to run freely without a leash or long line—and they’re even legal! Plus, there are other dogs to play with and other dog owners to visit with. What more could a dog or dog owner want?
Stop right there, please. Let’s just imagine that, instead of a dog, you have a child to exercise.
You want to take your child to run and play out in the fresh air and sunshine, somewhere there’s no chance of cars, motorcycles, or bicycles knocking your kid into a bloody mess on the street. You want a fenced area, specifically for kids, where other kids play, too, so your child might make some friends. All the adults there are parents or guardians, so you might make some friends, too.
You decide to check out the nearest location that offers such a area for kids. You strap your child into your car’s safety seat and head for the Kid Park. When you arrive, you see all sorts of cars in the lot, from shiny new SUVs to broken-down jalopies. In the Kid Park itself, you see many adults standing around. They are smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, talking on their phones, or interacting with other grown-ups. Every now and then, one of the children wanders up to a clump of them, but in general the adults do not interact with any child beyond a quick nod or a pat on the head. The grown-ups seem far more interested in the other adults and their conversations.
You get out of your car and stand by the fence so you can see the children. There are many of them—far more kids than adults, from what you count. The children, like the vehicles in the lot, are a variegated mix, some in expensive outfits with great haircuts, some in tatters and deeply in need of grooming. There are tall kids and short kids, little kids and big kids. You see babies who are crawling, toddlers who are toddling, and almost full-grown teens who are strong and able.
One little guy trips on a rock and falls over crying.
From all around him, other kids congregate—standing over him, poking at him, jumping on him—but no parent appears. He wasn’t hurt by the fall, but he’s crying for comfort. Once he’s surrounded by all the other kids, he gets scared. He doesn’t know them. They’re strangers. They’re jumping and poking and yelling at him. What do they want? They’re bigger and louder and the toddler is frightened.
Where is his parent?
Finally, from far across the Kid Park, a woman appears. She looks mad.
“What is wrong with you?” she mutters at the toddler. “Why can’t you just play with the other kids like any normal child? Now stand up and act your age! Get out there and have some fun!”
She stalks back to the group of other adults with whom she’d been standing.
“That kid,” she complains, “I take him all the way out here to have some fun and all he does is cry and run away. I honestly do not think he’s completely normal.”
“Why don’t you put him in the Toddler Area?” says one of the other parents. “He could be with other kids his age. Maybe the bigger kids are just overwhelming him.”
“Are you joking?” says the toddler’s mother. “He’s got to grow up sometime!”
You stand at the fence and watch the children.
Three teens, two girls and a boy, are chasing another kid, somewhat smaller and younger, around and around. The younger kid looks exhausted. The three teens won’t stop. The younger kid has no back-up. Her parent is sitting on a bench, looking the other way, talking on his cell phone.
Terrified and unable to escape, the younger kid starts screaming.
The three teens fall on her, pummeling her with their fists, kicking her with their feet, spitting on her and yelling obscenities. The younger kid rolls into a ball and lies there, helpless.
Her parent is still talking on his phone, paying no attention.
You shake your head and walk back to your car, hugging your own kid.
There is a very good reason why dog trainers, behavior specialists, and veterinary medical professionals don’t take their dogs to public dog parks—ever.
Dog parks can be dangerous.
Dog parks that are popular and populated can be very dangerous.
Dog parks can be unsafe for dogs.
Why?
Because dog parks are frequented by dog owners who generally lack knowledge (or worse, have the wrong knowledge) about dogs and dog behavior. Unfortunately, those inexperienced dog owners mostly bring with them inexperienced dogs—dogs that have no idea how to behave in social situations with other dogs because they have never been exposed to other dogs socially.
How does the average owner in a dog park act?
Cluelessly, I’m afraid. Not on purpose, of course. In general, even clueless owners love their dogs. They’re there at the dog park because somehow they got the idea that dogs should be socialized, and that a dog park is instant doggy socialization.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
Socialization is not throwing your totally inexperienced animal into the chaos of an uncontrolled and unsupervised pack of other animals. You wouldn’t do it to your human child. You probably wouldn’t do it to yourself unless you had absolutely no choice. It would be like wading into a brawl at the local biker bar with the idea of meeting some new people. You’d meet new people, all right, but you might get your throat slit in the process. It would not be safe!
Let me tell you about an incident that happened at a dog park not long ago. I read about it on Facebook. This particular dog park has, as many of them do, a specific area for little dogs. In this area, at the time posted about on Facebook, were several owners with little dogs . . . and one owner with a very large dog. The very large dog was clearly not about to exhibit appropriate behavior for interacting with little dogs. His owner seemed to have no inkling of how to elicit that appropriate behavior, so the owners of the little dogs mentioned to him that this particular area was meant for little dogs.
“It says Small Dog Area,” the man responded. “I want my dog in a small area, so that’s why I came in here.”
What, you didn’t believe me when I said owners could be clueless?
Next week, I’ll share some tips for making visits to a dog park safer.
