Dog Parks, Doggie TV, and On Leash Greetings; the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Although it seems like a common stance in the dog training industry, I don’t bash owners for frequenting the dog park. After all, I was one of those owners.
Don’t get me wrong, dog parks are not a great idea for most dogs. But I’m not here to make you feel bad about your good intentions. Dog parks sound like the solution to all your high energy dogs problems. Until you dig a little deeper.
You may ask, what’s not to love about giving your dog the ability to run and play? To give them a chance to let out the cRaZy?! After all, they’re tired when we get home!
I can definitely see the appeal, and for a while I too thought it was the answer to my problems. However, one of the big issues with the dog park is it only addresses the dogs physical needs. The issue lies in progressive overload, or tolerance as some might better understand. It basically means your dog needs more from each outing to get the same results. In simpler terms: you’re building a super athlete. I’ve been there, done that. It happens quicker than you may think.
Accidental increased stamina is just ONE downfall to dog parks. Bear with me as I share the others… but in fairness to good intentions (and if you’re anything like I was, your ego) I’ll share the sliver of good that we found from dog parks.
I do believe my dogs gained a reasonable amount of positive experiences at dog parks (as well as many bad habits). My dogs learned that humans were for the most part good, and seeing other dogs wasn’t something to be afraid of. We also had good experiences with other dogs – at least that I was aware of at the time. Though I didn’t know much about reading dog body language, so I certainly could’ve missed some things. Knowing what I know now, there are MUCH better and safer ways to accomplish these couple things. So really, even the “good” of the dog park is outweighed by the bad.
Now for the ugly….
Worst case scenario, your dog ends up in a dog fight. This is something not many witness, but sadly, I did. Thankfully my dogs weren’t involved. I had Duke and Bera on the large dog side when I heard screaming and yipping coming from the small dog side. Without hesitation I sprinted over and saw a meek 100-ish lb. female straddling a big bulldog.
She was holding on with all her might as it shook a small, white, bichon-looking dog back and forth in its mouth – all while it’s owner tried to pull it from the bulldog's grasp. As I got closer, I noticed the bulldog's owner was missing a lot of teeth. Her dog had bucked up and back in its quest for the little white dog and knocked out all of her front teeth, which were lying on the ground.
The whole incident was pretty horrific. We were able to separate the dogs rather quickly and to my surprise the little white dog seemed to be okay. The whole episode probably lasted less than thirty seconds, but it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t get back to my dogs and exit quickly enough. I can’t imagine how scarring of an experience it was for the little white dog.
The sad reality is that it only takes ONE bad experience for a dog to develop BIG feelings about other dogs/people. I imagine the owner of the little white dog had a terrible time walking it around other dogs after that episode. What a lot of owners overlook is that a bad experience doesn’t have to be THAT dramatic for it to make an impact. It could be as simple as you not noticing your dog is trying to avoid interactions. Dogs are constantly communicating with us, and if we miss those moments, especially in a stressful situation, we set our dogs up to have the mindset to handle it themselves next time. This is one way reactivity happens…
Another way dogs can become reactive, I experienced first hand with my dog Duke. Because we went to the dog park so much my dogs learned that almost everyone we saw (people and dogs) they got to play with. So eventually, even on walks throughout the neighborhood, they started getting dog-park-level excited. I went from having dogs that were decent to walk (because let’s face it, our leash skills weren’t very good then) to having dogs that were wildly pulling and barking out of excitement. Not only was it embarrassing to walk them, it was a heck of an arm workout. With the initial excitement, add the frustration of not getting what they wanted (to go play) and the barrier of being on leash — and now instead of an overly friendly dog, I had what seemed to be a borderline angry and aggressive dog.
I was so perplexed. I KNEW my dogs were friendly. There wasn’t a single dog they had met that they didn’t get along with. Why was this happening??! I knew something had to change.
Fast forward to working with a trainer. She pointed out all of the things I’m highlighting. I didn’t know then that it all ties together, that everything matters. It wasn’t JUST the dog park, but it surely wasn’t helping.
On the flip side of excitement, is nervousness. If you have a more reserved, timid dog that maybe lacks confidence, dog parks can make these traits worse. If a dog is overzealous or bullies them into interactions, your dog quickly learns you won’t advocate for them. They then can learn an effective way to handle a situation is by barking, growling, and/or snapping — because when they do, they can keep others away (ie, reactivity).
Dogs can also pick up poor social cues and practice pushy behaviors while at dog parks. Not to mention most of them are breeding grounds for bacteria and diseases.
IF you take the risk and go to the dog park despite my plea not to… here are some things you can do to help your dog.
Clean their paws off upon exiting. You don’t want them licking their paws and ingesting the bacteria they’ve undeniably picked up
Make sure your dog is up to date on all vaccines
Upon entering the park you’ve essentially unleashed a sprint session, with no warm up, which in the athletic world is a recipe for injury. Pay attention to their typical gait (walking motion) and watch for any lameness (limping) or favoring certain areas. Dogs can easily twist a joint, pull a muscle, or over do it.
Don’t bring toys or treats. Those items often can trigger guarding behaviors and can result in fights.
Be observant. Don’t fall into the habit of going for your social hour. Too many owners fail to pay attention to their dogs.
Plan to attend with a group of dogs and owners you know. It’s easier to recognize when a dog has had enough, gets too rowdy, etc. if the group is consistent. New dogs each encounter makes for a much harder read of the dogs.
If your dog starts pinning others down, excessively herding, or snapping at others, etc… OR becomes disinterested and tries to get away from the other dogs — it’s a sign you should leave ASAP.
Upon exiting use a cue that signals end of play like “All Done!” or “Enough!” to start letting them know the time for crazy and fun is now over.
Practice some place time, down stays, or crate time when you get home. Or at the very least give them something to work their brains with.
Now that you have learned the bad and the ugly of dog parks, here’s a few GOOD ideas as to how you can use them. The best idea is to train and interact OUTSIDE of it….
Practice engagement and recall.
Practice neutrality - sit on a bench and JUST BE. Practice existing around the crazy, without being crazy.
Practice obedience.
Play fetch with a long line, play tug, do some personal play. Run around and play chase with them. Anything. Just let your dog know YOU are fun.
If you have a reactive dog, work your way towards having your dog noticing the other dogs, not losing its mind, and paying attention to you!
The next topic is Doggie TV (the real life kind). I’m sure you’ve seen a dog losing its mind in a window or behind a door. There can be many reasons for this, but one thing you need to understand about dogs is that they find barking self rewarding. Meaning it feels good. They can bark for a reason, or they can bark for no reason. Either way, it can be annoying and it can lead to an anxious state of mind, or even to reactivity.
People often think “I have the best guard dog” when their dog barks at people walking past their home. Unless your dog has been trained in protection sports (or as a personal protection dog), they’re not really protecting you. It’s more likely you actually have an anxious dog whose brain is in overdrive, and is constantly searching for something to do. These dogs often need a combination or more physical exercise, mental stimulation, structure, and/or boundaries.
When someone approaches the house, your dog barks. Then what happens? The person keeps walking and passes the house – because that’s what would’ve happened even if your dog didn’t bark (WE the human know this). But it seems to your dog they’ve just successfully made the person go away. They think (I imagine – I’d love to be able to talk to dogs and know for sure) “Wow, that was so much fun, I love barking,” or “Phew! I made the scary person go away” – but either way, they learn barking works, and will continue to do this with each encounter.
It’s especially important to discourage this window watching behavior if you have a reactive dog. This will not help their reactivity and almost always makes it worse. If this sounds familiar do yourself a favor and stop allowing them to rehearse the behavior ASAP.
Trust me, again 😉 …I once helped build storage boxes for my dogs to perch themselves on in my mudroom — giving them the best window watching positions allll day long.
I even upholstered the tops… comfort with a view!
Mix that with frequenting the dog park and it was no coincidence that Duke became reactive on walks and started attacking the window when the mailman came. It was scary stuff.
For the longest time I didn’t want my dogs to be bored while I was at work. I felt bad being away from them for so long. They didn’t chew the house (anymore) and they weren’t having accidents. Doggie TV seemed like the perfect idea. But I now know just how wrong I was.
I started my training business because I made mistakes in my dog ownership journey. Mistakes that took a lot of time, energy, and resources to navigate—not to mention a lot of confusion and frustration. I set out to help owners avoid making the same mistakes I did. My hope is that owners can truly enjoy all stages of puppyhood through adulthood despite the challenging moments.
Dog parks and doggie TV are two of the biggest mistakes I made and two of the biggest ones I see other owners making. The worst part is that it comes from a GOOD place. So it’s a tough pill to swallow. We want the BEST for our dogs. They LOVE looking out the window all day. They LOVE running and playing with other dogs, BUT it’s not always good for them. It IS good for our ego, because we think we’re providing them with everything they want and giving them the very best life.
My dogs have taught me one of the hardest thing about dog ownership. That it’s not always what they WANT that gives them the best life. That it’s what they NEED. Two ways to do that is to stop allowing them to look out the window/door all day and to stop going to the dog park.
My original instagram post that sparked this article also mentioned to stop allowing on leash greetings. There’s not as much to say about that topic, but it’s still important. The leash is a source of frustration for a lot of dogs. Even friendly dogs can get funny while greeting another dog on leash, especially if it’s nose to nose.
Most times there’s simply not a good reason to let dogs meet on leash. They can’t go run and play, so what’s the point? While out on a walk, in a store, etc. and someone says “can they say hi?” Just say no. (Or no thank you). Period.
What happens if you allow on-leash greetings?
Your dog makes a new friend? Not quite… that’s a human concept.
Your dog maybe feels uncomfortable and now doesn’t trust you to keep them safe? Very possible.
Your dog now starts barking, growling, snapping, lunging, etc. to keep dogs away from them so they don’t end up in that position again? Also very possible.
It’s also possible that won’t happen, but for us, it’s just not worth the risk. Remember, it only takes ONE bad experience to send a dog down the road of reactivity.
On the flip side, you allow the greeting because your dog seems comfortable and like a willing participant. What happens now?
Your dog pulls you to greet every dog they see. Yep, still not worth it.
Allowing on leash greetings only hurts your relationship with your dog. It proves to your dog 1 of 2 things:
A. Other dogs are more exciting than you, or
B. You don’t have their back.
Either way, it’s a lose-lose. Now you may be thinking, wow, that sounds harsh… People are just trying to be nice. Which is usually the case - BUT it’s your responsibility as their guardians to do what’s best for your dog. And SO many times that is NOT caring what people think. Believe me, if they lived through these mistakes and if they knew better, they wouldn’t be asking.
