Disclaimer: This article is NOT to hate on dog parks. It talks about basic dog park etiquette or rules that every pet parent must know and follow if they decide to take their dogs to the dog park. It aims at busting the myth of ‘a dog needing other dog friends’ by shedding some light on why a lot of trainers prefer keeping their dogs away from dog parks.
Dog Park Etiquette: Basic rules every dog parent must follow
1. Pick up after your dog
This one’s a no-brainer. Scoop that poop… every single time. Trust me, if I’m walking in a park and I step into your dog’s poop, I’m gonna hate you forever. Not to mention, dog waste is the number one way through which other dogs catch an infection or a disease. So please, pick up after your dog for the sake of cleanliness and potentially save another pup’s life.
In a lot of places, public parks deny access to pets because of their litter that pet parents don’t clean. It takes a few seconds to do your bit and in turn, you’re doing so much more for the community!
2. Make sure your dog is vaccinated
This applies especially to new puppy parents. I know how badly you want your pup to have other dog friends. But if your dog is not vaccinated, you are actually putting your dog at a greater risk than the other dogs you’re exposing him to.
Think of it this way, if 2 dogs end up accidentally ingesting a rabid dog’s poop, the vaccinated dog has a greater chance of surviving the infection than a non-vaccinated dog.
3. Leave toys and food outside the park
We can only wish that dogs could grasp the concept of “sharing is caring” as well as humans do. Unfortunately, things work very differently in the dog world. Let your dog’s toys or food never be the reason for a dog fight to break out. Things don’t always end well.
4. Carry your dog’s leash at all times and never leave your dog off-leash without a collar and an ID tag
This is a recommended step that must be taken irrespective of how well trained your dog might be. Sometimes even the most well-read, knowledgeable behaviorists can’t say what might freak a dog out and cause panic and flight reaction. The last thing you want is to frantically search for your dog without an id tag on him.
5. Train your dog for a reliable recall
A recall is a life-saving command and should be one of the primary things to teach a puppy. Imagine a situation where you’re in a park and your dog jumps over the fence and is off-leash. Unless you can run as fast as him, how else do you plan on calling him back?
6. If your dog has aggression or anxiety issues towards other dogs, don’t let your dog in
Aggression stems up in a dog over a period of time. Before a dog shows aggression, he will give you several signs to communicate his discomfort towards a situation. Always notice your dog’s body language when he’s playing with another dog. If you repeatedly see avoidance, licking of lips, whites of the eyes exposed, tail tucked under, ears back etc in your dog or in the other dog that your dog is interacting with, immediately stop play and take your dog out of that situation.
Vice versa, if you see that your dog is the one who’s boisterous and is engaging in rough play with other dogs, don’t leave it to the dogs to “figure it out.” A dog fight can erupt and escalate in a matter of seconds.
7. Avoid getting your dog to the dog park if he/she is not spayed or neutered
Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many out there still let their intact female dogs play with other intact male dogs. This is one of the most basic dog park etiquette.
8. Be mindful of new dogs
If you frequent dog parks in your area, chances are you know most dogs and owners that walk into the dog park. However, when it comes to new dogs and owners, I guess this picture speaks a thousand words.
9. ALWAYS watch out for your dog
Sending your dog inside to play in the dog park does not mean you get your ‘me-time’ away from him. It, in fact, is your cue to be on extra alert. I believe that if everyone does a good job at watching out for their dogs in a dog park, we wouldn’t have so many accidents and horror stories in that place, don’t you think?
10. Keep kids away from dog parks
Dog parks aren’t places where kids can surround themselves with dogs and play with them. It can be dangerous to leave a kid in a dog park as you’d be subjecting him to redirected aggression more than anything.
Sometimes despite following every dog park etiquette, a situation can escalate quickly when there are kids and dogs involved. A slight miss can lead to a horrible accident.
6 Reasons why you’d rarely find a dog trainer’s dog in a dog park
1. Our dogs don’t need other dog “friends” to be fulfilled
A ‘natural’ environment for a dog is the setting in which he grew up. If he has been raised in a home without other dogs, the human companionship he gets is more than enough to keep him happy. If he was raised in a home with other dogs, why does he need other dog friends anyway?
As for a dog trainer’s dog, well I guarantee you, the amount of fun a dog can have with us is incomparable. So, he has absolutely no need for other dogs to be “fulfilled.”
2. We don’t trust every dog and every dog parent that walks into the dog park
A dog trainer encounters and deals with several ‘dog park horror stories’ on a day to day basis. Cases where dogs get bitten, severely injured, end up with severe fear and anxiety towards other animals, bad behaviors picked up from other dogs are just a few of the many.
While we’ve seen several pet parents follow dog park etiquette to the T, we’ve also seen aggressive, anxious, fearful and boisterous dogs walk into dog parks and wreak havoc in that space. It’s something we’d NEVER subject our dogs to.
3. Our dogs are 99% of the time “in-training” or “on the job”
Most dog trainers I know are constantly working with their dogs in every possible situation, training them to be the best versions of themselves. And, any dog in training or on-the-job, must not be disturbed.
Even when we’re desensitizing dogs towards a dog park or other dog-friendly places, we mostly do it from the periphery of these areas to take things at the dog’s pace. Putting a fearful dog inside a dog park in midst of several untrained dogs to get rid of his fears is like throwing a person having ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) into a pit of rattlesnakes.
Putting a fearful dog inside a dog park in midst of several untrained dogs to get rid of his fears is like throwing a person having ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) into a pit of rattlesnakes.
4. We put a lot of effort into teaching ‘calm greetings’ to our dogs. We’d like our dogs to have similar company
Having said all of the above, I still maintain that dogs sometimes learn fastest through other dogs; same species, duh! This includes picking up undesirable behaviors too. If I spend hours teaching my dog to behave in a calm fashion and at the end of the day allow him to hang out and play with a hyperactive Labrador and a really rowdy Jack Russel Terrier to relieve his pent up energy, I end up putting all that effort in vain.
What we allow our dogs to do when they’re amped up plays a very important role in deciding the demeanor of that dog. In your dog’s most active times, if you allow him to bark, destroy things and roughhouse, that’s the kind of dog he’s going to grow up to be. However, if you teach him to harness all the energy into fulfilling an instinct or playing sniffing games and other mentally and physically stimulating games, your dog grows up with much better impulse control and the ability to make better choices.
5. We prefer having ‘play dates’ and socialization sessions with dogs and people that we know and trust
It’s not like we don’t want our dogs to socialize and interact with other dogs. We just prefer to do it with dogs and people we know and trust. As mentioned above, dogs sometimes learn best through other dogs. This is why, especially in puppyhood, we encourage an appropriate dog to dog play. When done correctly and with the right kind of dogs, puppies learn the right way to interact and play with other dogs and bite inhibition, all while mentally and physically stimulating them.
Dog trainers and behaviorists also have playdates for their pups. It’s just done a little differently.
6. Our dogs get ample off-leash time in safe areas other than dog parks
We do a lot with our dogs. Walks, runs, sniffing activities, agility, hikes, treks, swims, etc are just a few of the plethora of activities we do with our canines. We provide our dogs with off-leash fun once we know we can trust them with that kind of liberty. And boy is it crazy amounts of fun!
However, dog parks just don’t cut it. We love our dogs too much to subject them to that kind of uncertainty!
