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Community Corner

Do You Need a Leash to be in Charge?

The success of dog parks like the Sepulveda Basin Off-Leash Park depends on good training habits and well established boundaries.

My dog is my responsibility. If I sink below that mark, I've become a bad owner. If I take responsibility for my dog and occasionally pick up a sloppy owner's left-behind poop, too, I'm an even better owner that day.

Good dog owners think it through:  Where am I inflexible? I am not willing to have my dog bite me or others, for instance. If there is biting, then we have to take action.

I am willing for them to bark once or twice as an alarm, but I'm going to train them to stop barking once I am awake and in charge–because they need to respond to me as the leader. (Ironically, this is easiest done by teaching dogs to bark on command. Weird, huh? Then you have an easier time getting them to stop, because you are the conductor of barks.)

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A Park That's Bigger Than Its Bites

What makes parks good is their amenities, acreage and layout. What makes a park great (or not) is the sense of responsibility of ownership the human visitors offer: the love they transmit, the attention they pay to their dog and to one another. Excellent owners, and their dogs, demonstrate responsibility and boundaries, which translates instantly into control, respect for others and community.

Let's discuss a park I re-visited this week here in Encino.

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The Sepulveda Basin Off-Leash Dog Park is nicely divided into three areas: one for small dogs (under 20 pounds),  one for small-to-medium (or timid) dogs, and one for large dogs (more than 40 pounds). Each is separated by strong wire fencing. The grounds are usually clean, and it was looking really good last weekend.

There is some shade in each area. There are water fountains, and each section provides park benches–but you should know some owners let their dogs walk all over the benches, so don't expect to do your picnic here. Besides the germ hazard, there are signs posted to keep food out. (See photos). Also, if you sit on the little white plastic chairs, know that I watched the dogs pee all over them, including wee-weeing on a chair inhabited by an unknowing, elderly  man, who sat and watched his little spaniel.

Bad Dog=Bad Owner

I walked over to him to warn him that he was a spray victim when a Dobie came and peed on his leg. The man stood up, I snapped my report-in-action photo. The man shook his leg with futile regret.

The old man, having sunk to being a doggie toilet, seemed humiliated, as he looked around for the owner. I was approaching him, without a dog, having just taken his picture during the sprinkling; and the old man's eyes squinted and glared right at me. I shrugged, as if to say, "I don't know this dog." It didn't translate. He'd made up his mind. I was the problem.

The owner of the Dobie, on a cell-phone, noticed the incident and noticed the aftermath, and spun around like he was on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, taking no responsibility for his dog, offering no phone number to cover a laundry bill, showing no care or control over what his dog did next. Amazing.

It's an occasional problem at all dog parks, not just this one. Naughty owners skip teaching discipline to their dogs, they skip actually playing with their dogs. They treat really nice places like this as a way to let others exercise their dog, socialize their dog, pick up after their dog and discipline their dog.

Good dog owners have to stick together, keep the community strong, keep our parks socially positive and be willing to do what a few others are not always willing to do.

It's a better park if we are all willing to pitch in and help other owners, pick up poop left by badly trained owners, confront the uninformed to pay attention.

For instance, ask people to show tags revealing that their dog has had shots; It's the law to display a collar with registration and vaccine tags. It's OK to mention that, because the ranger won't be so easy-going if he stumbles upon an unlicensed dog. 

Some of us also carry extra biodegradable poop bags. There is a stand where you can pull plastic bags out of a container for your own use, but it was empty when I checked.

Migration of big dogs into the small, "timid" zone can be a problem.

Back to the Dobie, marking the old man as his territory. It may seem odd that an 80-pound dog was in the small-to-medium "timid" dog area, running wild, but he wasn't alone. Owners don't always want to take their dogs to the big dog area, especially if they're going to stay on a cell phone. The big dog area is fairly heavily and successfully policed by concerned owners, making it a safer bet for responsible visitors.

The irresponsible owners get called on the carpet, in the big dog section, for ignoring their dog's poop or aggression, when it  is over the playful level--particularly when the wild dogs' owners are not even watching.

Typically, this type of owner moves his or her dog to the small dog area, and they are chased out. They then move to the more ambiguous small dog area, for those dogs over 20 pounds and timid. Oddly enough, in the timid dog area, I saw only a few timid dogs. The timid ones were running from the not-timid dogs who were 40 - 80 pounds and very self-assured. Nothing serious happened, but the fact that owners were ignoring the rules means the separation into this third, distinct area (small dogs that are timid) is not completely successful, unless we as a community cross our comfort zone and confront those who are defiant.

Here are some tips for a better stay:

  • Is your dog trained? If your dog is trained, you'll have more success and be treated as a better community member as well. Others will see your relationship and want to copy it, so you will spread the desire for better ownership.
  • Are you respected by Fido? You should be your dog's main concern when not in a dog park, and, when you're here, you should be able to get that back by asking. This means before trouble starts, you can interfere, and your dog will cooperate with you, because it trusts you as a kind and loving owner.
  • When you say, "No!" Does your dog respond, or does Fido push the issue? This takes a lot of positive reinforcement, hands-on work, but you should have a relationship with your dog in which you can tell him to drop something or release his grip, and he does it. If every owner passed that test before entering the park, there would be close to zero trouble.
  • Have you trained your dog for off-leash control? This helps you, and it helps everyone else. If your dog comes when you call, you can withdraw Fido from a wilding-in-progress gathering participants and momentum. At the very least, you can pull your dog out of a situation where tension is escalating and reduce chances of a vet visit.

I wish the Dobie owner had apologized. I wish the old man hadn't gotten peed on. Imagine if everyone treated his or her visit as a working visit, in which they stood up, watched their dogs, stayed off the phone and visited with others while keeping their eyes on the ball and on their mutt as he chased it. That would make every dog park better.

 

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