As long as I can remember I have been a dog lover. In my humble opinion, dogs are as close as nature will ever get to creating a perfect being. Dogs are fun, funny, loving, fierce, resilient, intelligent, loyal… I could go on for days, but one gets the point. I also happen to absolutely love parks, trees, grass anything and everything green. It would make sense then, when combining these two thing that bring me absolutely joy, that a dog park would be my idea of heaven, right? The quick answer is no. Dog parks do not bring me joy and are the opposite of what I would consider to be a delightful place. Very much like summiting Mount Everest, I see dog parks as something absolutely enchanting in theory, but when put in practice, I can’t find many reasons to partake in the experience. If and when I go to a dog park it is to work dogs outside of it’s fence. I use the uncontrollable excitement inside the park to teach dogs I am working with to surrender to the fact that crazy dogs do exist and one should simply ignore them. Nevertheless, since my job with the pack is protection and direction, taking them inside would mean exposing them to that same energy in an unhealthy way. I see dog parks as a rave party, where almost anything is allowed, very little rules or boundaries combined with dogs with a lot of pent up energy. The probability of something going wrong with the smallest spark is huge, so why expose my dogs to that?
Dog parks are a great idea in theory. A place where dogs can interact and people can mingle. Almost like the community watering whole where everyone comes to catch up. If only this was the way dog parks were used. Unfortunately what ends up happening is most people use dog parks as their dog’s sole way of socializing and releasing energy. They put their dog in the car, drive to the park, open the gate and let their dog inside. The incoming dog is then met with a bunch of other dogs with the same pent up energy while the humans are somewhere else in the park, either talking to other humans or on their phones. No one is giving direction about how the dogs inside should meet the new comer and the incoming dog has no other imprint of the dog park other than fight – flight. Explosive energy meeting a bunch of other explosive energies with very little to no direction from the humans that actually brought them to this rave. This invariably creates a recipe for disaster. The dogs start imprinting that other dogs always mean excitement (fight – flight) and chances of brawls breaking out are very high. The humans in this scenario are usually reactive when something happens by being loud and tense and one more imprint of fight -flight is created. Trust and respect go out the window.
I completely understand the urge, in this hectic life that we are all living, to simply take a dog to the dog park so that they can get their “exercise” and socialize. Nevertheless once one understands how detrimental this type of socialization is and how much dogs need mental exercise in addition to physical exercise, one starts to grasp how counterproductive a dog park really is. The parallel would be “exercising” and socializing your child by taking them to only Chuck E. Cheese for example. Yes the child would be tired after it and most likely they would be able to socialize somewhat, but how balanced and healthy would that youngster be if that was their sole interaction with other humans?
If you love dog parks and really want to take your dog to one make sure that you first exercise your dog, maybe by walking them to the dog park instead of driving, secondly keep moving, don’t sit down on a bench and simply let your dog interact. People congregating usually means dogs congregating and that spells tension. Stagnant energy attracts restlessness. Thirdly, make sure your dog has a solid recall, that will save you a lot of heartache if a fight breaks out between other dogs. But here is a better idea: if you love nature and being out with your dog then going on a hike is the way to go. Pack walks are, by far, the best way to mentally and physically exercise your dog, socialize them and hang out with friends that are also dog lovers. So next time you feel called to go to a dog park, try switching it up and find a nature hike that you and your pup can enjoy. That will be way more beneficial both for you, your dog and your mental health.
Happy walking!
