Lately there has been lots of bad news for dogs in the Bay Area. Two things in particular have troubled me, and likely are troubling you. There are plans afoot to greatly limit dog access to many of our favorite parks and beaches by up to 90%. Poison meatballs found in San Francisco have killed at least one and injured several unsuspecting pups.
These awful developments threaten “life with dog” as we know it. It’s more important than ever to teach our dogs not to eat things found on the street and to support action to fight the canine ban via saveoffleash.com. However, it’s also important to reflect on why there is such a strong anti-dog sentiment brewing in what has traditionally been an extremely dog-friendly region.
We dog lovers may find it difficult to believe, but not everyone likes dogs. Some people find them a nuisance or are downright afraid of them. It’s our job as dog-loving folks to represent well, to put dogs in the best light possible in our communities.
This isn’t that hard to do, but it does require a certain level of thoughtfulness rather than entitlement. I’d be rich enough to buy a private dog park if I had a nickel for every time a dog-owning person has said to me with great indignation, “I pay taxes, too!” – when they have to leash up near the toddler play area in a park, for instance.
I have a few ideas for you that can help keep your dog safe in public places and help sway public opinion in favor of our furry friends:
First, teach your dog a solid “leave it” and practice food refusal exercises. Both will help tremendously in keeping your pup safe. We teach this in every Sirius beginner class, for both puppies and adult dogs, because it’s so useful. It may actually save your dog’s life one day, too, when applied not just in public parks where dogs can get into all manner of unsavory (to us) or downright dangerous delights – such as cooked chicken bones, rotting carcasses, feces, and poison – but also in our homes when, for instance, we accidentally drop human medication on the floor and don’t want our dogs swooping in to swallow it up.
Important keys to sucess when teaching “leave it” include…
Keep it simple, don’t ask for too much impulse control at once.
Reward heavily for success. The key to “leave it” is to convince your dog that something even better is coming – from YOU, if they don’t snatch food up off the floor.
Never let your dog self reward (help herself) at the end of the exercise.
Next, teach your dog a rock-solid-reliable “emergency sit.” Recalls are all well and good, but when the pooch is about to hit the fan – or knock down the small child, or crash the Frisbee game, or raid a picnic spread at the beach – a super-fast sit will stop them in their tracks. This will avert a canine PR disaster and allow you a moment to regain control of your dog. It may even impress the people around you enough to turn them into dog fans.
If you want to change the minds of the anti-dog folks when out and about, please leash your dog when the rules say to do so, especially in human-concentrated areas such as playing fields and playgrounds.
And here’s another simple rule to live by: Never let your dog approach strangers, human or canine, without both an invitation from the other party and permission from you. Please do not shout, “It’s ok, she’s friendly!” from a distance as your dog charges full speed ahead to greet passersby.
This is the epitome of rudeness and can be quite dangerous. It also demonstrates your general lack of control over your dog. If your dog is not trained well enough to stay near you and leave others alone at your request, keep her on leash until you decide to seek help via manners training and perhaps some professional lessons on impulse control.
The following pointer is perhaps the most important of them all. Keep your eyes and attention on your dog, always. Do not talk on the phone or play with Facebook while your dog is off leash in public, even at a dog park. It is your job to supervise your dog as you would a toddler, constantly. How can you control her if you don’t even see what she’s doing? How can you clean up after her if you don’t see her go?
Which brings me to my final tip. Clean up after your dog! Do so without exception. No excuses. Just do it, please, for the benefit of all.
Now let’s go out there and win over some new dog fans!
Kelly Gorman Dunbar is Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, where she recruits and trains the instructors for the Dunbar family business, SIRIUS® Puppy & Dog Training. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-detection program, and is in the process of bringing the French sport of cavage (truffle hunting) to the US. Kelly is also Founder and President of Open Paw and consults on various matters.
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