children: dogparks

Bringing children to the dog park is insane. I'm mean little children, four-year-olds and tottering toddlers. Our dog park is a rough playing field filled with single-minded canines with nothing else on their minds but freedom and space. Dogs who, though they may be affectionate and loyal and gentle under other circumstances, are "in it for the game" and "ain't gonna stop for nobody, nowhow".

What's a teeny, tiny child doing in the middle of all that chaos?


Yesterday, an older couple, (I'm assuming grandparents) came with two petit, fragile-looking girls, one still with baby teeth, the other barely walking...let's say four and two. The couple, well-turned out and seemingly intelligent, also had with them their own black lab on a leash. They were encouraging the little girls to be adventuresome with the dogs, to try to get to know them. They cautioned the girls to be "gentle" and not "run at the dogs", which is exactly what they did. They chased after my two toy poodles, who are cute and woolly but wary of children and they are ball-obsessed. They were focused on the tennis ball in my "chuck-it" and ran from the kids, the grey male, Hutchie, barking nervously.

"Don't chase them," I said to the kids. "They're very shy. They're afraid of you." But the kids persisted. In the meantime, there were dogs and balls and frisbees whipping by.

The owner of Maisie, the four-month-old yellow Lab, bent down and obligingly put the wiggling puppy in a "sit" and let the girls pat her. (She is a bright, committed elementary school teacher.) Maggie, my ten-month-old Great Dane, who towered over them, sniffed them and gave slimy slurps, but I could see she was a little cautious, as well. A few other dogs congregated.

I completely concur with the need to socialize children and dogs at an early age. I could see how the couple with the Lab were giving their little ones a lesson in dog treatment and dog behavior. Children exposed to dogs learn compassion, confidence. Children unexposed to dogs tend to be timid, withdrawn, persnickety. Dogs force a persepective beyond themselves.

But in this precarious situation, the little ones' response was unrestrained. They were all over the place, squealing.

And then the...well, the entirely possible happened. Tuxedo, a black-and-white Pit Bull ran in and attacked the lab on the leash. The dog retaliated. The owner of the Lab pulled him away and Tux's owner raced in and hauled Tux off, shouting "Tux, no! Nice!" But Tux lunged in again. And again: each time provoking a fight. And each time the Lab's owner used the leash to save his dog. Other owners rushed in to get their dogs away from the confrontation before it became a pack situation.

The little girls were right close to all of this. It makes me sick to think of what might have happened had the Lab not been on a leash.

Tuxedo is about ten-months-old and has been a "good player" but lately has shown some aggression. In fact, his owner told me he usually runs Tux and his "sister" Calley, a Pit Bull/Viszla for five miles with his bike. That apparently calms them and keeps them from getting into trouble at the park. But not this time. Tux moved in fast and viciously.

I don't think it was necessarily a "Pit Bull thing". I've seen two Golden Retrievers go after each other with scary fierceness. And there are a couple of Huskies who have been mean. Also the unlikely Mavis, a rotund Basset Hound/Labrador. Most any dog can get into a fight. My toy poodle, Gracie, once forcefully defended her ball from a Welsh Terrier. "He'll never start a fight," said his owner. "But he'll finish it."


In the end, Tux's owner flipped Tux on his back and invited the Lab to come over and sniff him...while he was in a submissive position. The Lab did and Tux remained passive. I don't know if either of them learned a lesson. I don't know if the couple with the small children learned a lesson. They left right after.

But that's what the dog park is: unpredictable and potentially dangerous. I mean, it's purpose is canine-beneficent and almost everyone there is a good dog citizen with a (sort-of) good dog. We don't know what we'd do without it. BUT IT'S FOR DOGS. Unless you keep a kid on the sidelines, well out of the fray, on top of a picnic table, say, it's not a safe or ideal place to educate him/her on the pleasures and characteristics of dogs. And yet I see so many wee kids in the middle of the action, fearless kids who have their own big dog at home. If they get knocked down, the parents say, "Oh, she's used to it," and say to the kid, "You're fine."

In the park, a dog, no matter how friendly or trustworthy, only wants to get in there with the other dogs. Little children are vulnerable obstacles and parents who put them in the way are irresponsible.








In the end, Tux's owner flipped the dog on his back