Dog Parks - Are They A Good Or Bad Idea?

          Everywhere you look, dog parks are becoming all the rage.
 
          On the surface, it seems like a cool idea. You need some social time, so you take your pampered pooch to the nearest dog park, and visit with your human friends while he romps and plays with his doggy friends.
 
          But is that really such a good idea?

          Before you decide to visit a dog park, consider these things:
               - Do you know every dog, and dog owner, who will be there?
               - Do you know whether every dog will be as friendly as yours?
               - Can you be sure that there won’t be dominance issues, because one dog is too big, or too playful, or too aggressive?
               - Will everyone be paying attention to their dogs, just in case there’s trouble--or will they all be sitting around gossiping and enjoying their social moment?
               - Can you be sure that every dog there will be healthy?
 
          Once you get right down to it, that’s a lot of variables. And even though you may be a responsible pet owner, not everyone else is.
 
          Just because your dog is sweet and lovable at home, don’t automatically expect that it will behave the same way around strangers, or their equally strange pets. Your dog may bounce right into the thick of things, and have the time of its life. But it’s equally possible that those other dogs might frighten it. And if it’s frightened, it may either cower at your feet or decide to attack.
 
          And don’t think that only big dogs are aggressive. Nothing is as aggressive as a little dog defending its territory, especially if it’s already scared to start with. And unless all the dogs are on leashes, and carefully separated (which defeats the purpose of a dog park!) it only takes an instant for a fight to break out, and one or more dogs to be seriously injured or killed.
 
          And what about disease? When you visit the vet’s office, the exam table is sterilized after each dog leaves. The same cannot be said of a dog park, where the dogs are free to lift their leg, or squat, and possible disease is only a sniff away. The better dog parks require each owner to use poop sacks...but it only takes a moment for parasites or worms to burrow out of one dog’s poop and infest the ground...and infect the next dog that sniffs in that same area.
 
          Most pet owners will admit that their real motivation for visiting a dog park is so they can visit with their friends who also drop by to enjoy the lovely day. If they were only trying to exercise their dog, they’d take it for a brisk run around the neighborhood, and then return home.
 
          There’s nothing wrong with a little social time. But isn’t it more sensible to meet your friends at the mall, or a coffee shop, and leave your dog safely at home? He isn’t going whine if he can’t play with Flopsie and Fido and Butch today or tomorrow or sometime next week...but he’s definitely going to whine if he’s injured or infected with a potentially deadly disease, just because someone else isn’t as good a pet-parent as you.