The other day my mom wanted to visit me but I was taking Donna out to the dog run.
And what does she do there, my mother wanted to know.
Oh, she runs around with the other dogs… you chase me… I chase you … like children.
There is a rather child-like quality about dogs that gets endearing, isn’t there?
This white husky looks bigger than Donna but she is only 7 mths old to Donna’s 4 years :P
The dog was perhaps 8 metres away from me. She was stooped facing me, peeing with one leg lifted slightly off the ground. She was staring at me all the while, a glimmer in her eyes, a roguish smile. I looked on. She was done. And then she launched toward me. A hurricane of a dog barreling closer and closer. Closing in. 5 metres. 3 metres. Half metre away from me, she veered off to the right.
“I knew you were trouble when you walked in…” – Taylor Swift
Music dogs and kids shouldn’t sing when their humans/moms are around ;P
Anyway, the recent weekends were busy for us with various medical, family and other commitments that we were not able to find the time to take Donna to the dog park. As a result, Donna hadn’t had the chance to be off leash and let loose somewhere outside for quite some time.
But we always made sure she gets her everyday walk at least once a day. The other morning at the park we saw a squirrel and a pigeon around the same tree and I stopped to take a picture. Unfortunately by the time I clicked, the squirrel is plastered to the tree and the pigeon was on the other side of the tree so… well, can you spot them?
And as I was amusing myself with my camera phone, Donna was sitting by my side, and a man walked by with his beautiful black dog. And that black dog was pulling and prancing around even as the man continued walking. And the most amazing thing? Donna remained sitting with her loose leash!
Picture: Pretty, if restive, pure black dog. Yes I sneaked a picture, but their not identifiable anyway :P so it hurts nobody!
We continued our loop around the park when it struck me that there was something new near the fenced enclosures that I don’t believe were there before! Ok, they were just “pick up your dog poop signs”. But for the longest time I was lazily wondering what the fenced enclosure was for.
And since there was no other signage identifying the use for the enclosure, I took it that I could bring my dog inside and just give her the luxury of running free on her temporary private grass patch for a while.
Although I start to get some misgivings within 5 seconds of getting in there. For one, the gates were designed to be latched from the outside and there was no hole for one’s hand to go through to comfortably latch the gate from the inside. So yes, we left the two gates unlatched.
Two, for an empty enclosure, this place is surprisingly full of flies! and red ants.
Three, Donna started sniffing the unknown bone like things sticking out of the ground. I kicked one and it broke and I still don”t know what they are. Some form of fungus maybe. But given my dog’s penchant of suddenly deciding to perform certain hazardous taste tests, one can’t be too careful.
Four, the remnants of a large tree could have been interesting, except that it was crawling with termites.
She didn’t take the opportunity to run much, being more interested in sniffing out the new place. But we did have to run once we got out of the fenced enclosure, just to shake off the flies.
The good news was Donna returned home with no ticks or other such parasites, the bad news for her was we showered her thoroughly anyway. Muahahaha!
Another place where Donna gets fearful in is the dog park. The first time we brought her there, she had a little bit of fun inspecting the the grass, sniffing the golden retrievers who were older and not too interested in playing with her. Her terror started when a school-age boy brought in his small dog and the first thing that dog did was to rush towards one of the Golden Retrievers, which in turn ran away from the rushing dog and unfortunately, both headed in the direction of Donna. = =!
Poor Donna tried hiding under the park bench and then jumped onto the bench as the Golden Retriever ran headlong to the park bench and plonked itself by the bench while the small dog played merrily around the two harried dogs. Donna could not be persuaded to leave the bench for a long time afterwards.
At first I felt bad for not having been able to protect Donna from the rushing dogs, but at the same time, I didn’t want to pet and comfort Donna and make her feel she was right for being scared and to reinforce that behaviour. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I sat with Donna on the park bench and watched the other dogs having fun, hoping that by not being tense myself, Donna will stop being nervous and frightened after a while.
image from – http://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/dog-park-etiquette-rules
The next time we visited the dog park, it was empty, but it seemed Donna’s memories have already ingrained a fear of the place for her and the minute she entered the dog park, her tail tucked between her legs and she made a beeline for the park bench.
Thankfully, a lady with a beagle came along and after a suitable period of assuring herself that the beagle was not an alien, that the beagle was harmless, Donna finally got down the bench to inspect the beagle warily. They even had a game of chase-chase. But that fun was short-lived.
A dog walker came along with big dogs – french bulldog, labradoodle, golden retriver, some hound-type of dog – and they all rushed in = = ! So yes, the same flight to the park bench played out.
Inwardly, I wish dog walkers are dog trainers who are good at making sure dogs don’t rush into dog parks, and that parents have good guidance for kids that help the kid to ensure his dog doesn’t rush into dog parks. But then that will be a perfect world, and we know that’s just not going to happen.
So, the help Donna to get rid of her fears at the dog park training continues. And predictable the opening scene has been and will be
Flight to the Park Bench,
followed by These Dogs are Not Aliens,
followed by Perhaps We can Play Chase-Chase,
followed by I am Inspector Grass,
and then the humans will be tired and the grand finale of our soap opera will come along Let Us Go Home.
After the first bad experience at the dog park, I was interested in what we were doing wrong to have resulted in the bad experience for the dog, so I did some research. To be honest, it made me feel better that maybe the problem was not only me, that I was not able to protect the dog, but that it could also a problem with the other owners.
If you are interested to know more about helping dogs play well and safely in the dog park,
Dr Sophia Yin has a great poster on Dog Park Etiquette that can be downloaded for free as well as tips how to train a dog to prevent him from being part of any unhappy situation that may escalate in a dog park in the dog park.
Southslope.org has a nice Dog Park Etiquette Poster with lots of useful tips for adults and for parents with children on how we can help make the dog park an enjoyable place for all humans and dogs and also what to do, if a fight breaks out. Although, I don’t think I can break up a fight, Donna and I at least can stay along the sidelines and er… inspect the grass. :P
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