[Dailydrool] Dog parks

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

We're lucky enough to have three dog parks here in Nashville, TN. The  
way Metro Parks and Recreation Department handles pitbulls in the dog  
parks is to post signs at all the gates saying that all pitbulls and  
dogs with pitbull physical characteristics are not allowed in the  
parks. The parks police don't actually police the dog parks. In fact,  
I've never seen them stopping by a dog park to check things out or be  
a presence. The dog parks end up being self-policing, which sometimes  
works and sometimes doesn't.

Every so often someone will come in with a pitbull mix, but every  
time I've been there and it's happened the dog has been well- 
socialized and its human is on top of things. It's been several years  
since I've seen a young thug bringing in his pitbull street cred. The  
last time it happened while I was there, the guy didn't stay but a  
few minutes. Just long enough to make the point that he's big, he's  
bad, and he's got no control over his dog. Fortunately the dog's  
visit was uneventful.

The signs on the gates also say no unsupervised children. Funny how  
there seem to be fewer instances of pitbulls/pitbull mixes than there  
are instances of unsupervised children, at least when I'm at the dog  
park. Even more bothersome to me than the lone children are the  
parents who bring their children to the dog park as if it's some kind  
of petting zoo. They clearly have no clue that canine social dynamics  
are happening and constantly changing all around them. A dog park is  
really no place for an infant in a carrier or a wobbly toddler to be.  
Of course if something happens to a child in a dog park, it'll always  
be the dog owner's fault and not the parent's for using incredibly  
poor judgment.

What really gets me is the fool who periodically brings his two small  
children to the dog park I use, and all three of them are on  
rollerblades. Then he sits the kids down on a bench and lets them eat  
snacks. There's a reason the dog park rules posted by the front gate  
say "no food." All this situation needs is one dog with food  
aggression issues. Or our Elsinore and her ability to gently but  
effectively take a child's treat from her hand by easing her way up  
the child's body, stepping on the child's shoulders, if need be, to  
reach her hand with the treat held high. The last time this happened,  
I put Elsinore on her leash and we waited while that child ate her  
snack. I swear the kid deliberately ate more and more slowly. It was  
very unfair to Elsinore who was, after all, in her park and not on  
the child's playground. I've decided that the next time it happens,  
I'm going to tell the father that he's endangering his children by  
allowing them to eat around the dogs and they really should leave the  
dog park until they've finished their snacks.

Elizabeth