I had a client the other day, a beautiful Springer spaniel named Charlotte, who experienced a terrible trauma while at the local dog park. Since then, she had started to behave peculiarly. Charlotte's owner had asked her roommate, another college student, to not take Charlotte and the roommate's 8-week-old puppy to the dog park, but the roommate did anyway. Unfortunately, Charlotte then witnessed a dog at the dog park viciously attack and kill the puppy. Charlotte was horribly traumatized by the incident. This terrible tragedy gives me an excellent opportunity to once again talk about the dangers of dog parks. Dog parks can be a great place to have fun and reduce your dog's excess energy. It can also be a place for dogs to get hurt, learn anti-social behaviors and practice their dog-on-dog aggression skills. Dogs don't learn dog fighting techniques over night. It's something that they need to practice in order to become more skilled and confident. The dog park is an excellent place for these practice sessions to occur. Owners who refuse to see their dog's escalating aggression allow their dogs to become more confident and proficient at being bullies. Eventually, this bullying behavior will develop into a full-blown attack. This is one reason why young puppies are not allowed at dog parks and why I discourage owners of small dogs from taking their pets there. The youngsters and small dogs can easily be severely injured or killed in these attacks. In a perfect world, all dogs would get along and everyone would play nicely with each other. Unfortunately, the world is not a perfect one. Dogs, suffering from pent-up energy, frustration and in some cases mental illness, attack smaller and defenseless dogs. Death can be the result. The incident that Charlotte witnessed is the second death at a dog park that I'm aware of within a year. What can be done? In both cases of dog attacks resulting in death, animal control was not notified. This needs to change. Aggressive dogs need to be banned from the parks and their owners put on notice that the dog's behavior will not be tolerated. Some people can use the parks effectively to teach their dogs social skills with other dogs, and that is fine. But people who allow repeated aggressive acts to continue without punishment and consequences are only teaching their dog to become better and more confident at fighting. These people are actually training their dogs to some day attack and seriously injure another dog at the park. If you see such attacks, ask the dog's owner to leave. Call animal control if they don't. Get the person's car license plate, and give it to animal control if the person continues to be a nuisance. Animal control can trace the plate and have a chat with the owner. Be proactive. You may be saving a dog's life. Terry Jester is a nationally recognized companion animal behaviorist. To learn more about companion animal training, visit www.rockymountainrawhide.com. For questions about your own pet, call Jester at 568-7585 or send e-mail to arriniranch@aol.com. |
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2 comments:
This is such a sad story. I have an 85lb 17month old golden retriever and I am on the council of my local dog park. While dog parks provide an excellent space for socialization and exercise they are also potentially dangerous. Not all dogs are dog park dogs. It is up the owner to know his or her dog and make a cautious, educated decision as to whether the dog will be a "safe player." Unfortunately, many owners seem to have a blindspot in truly evaluating their dog. As is evidenced here, it can lead to terrible tragedy
I was injured at a dog park by a dog that repeatedly came after me. My dog was also injured. My dog died.
I took the people to court. They claimed to have never have seen me, that I probably just slipped on the wet grass. It didn't matter that I had attempted to contact them via email and mail. They said they had never heard about the problem.
Even though there were witnesses. My dog is dead.
I do not recommend dog parks.
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