We’ve been to three of the four dog exercise parks in Lake County and have discovered that all dog parks are not the same. All dog owners are not the same either.
We love Prairie Wolf — it’s the one closest to us and the one we visit most often. It’s clean. The people are friendly. The dogs are, well, dogs. There’s nothing we don’t like (love!) about this park and I’m very thankful that this is the one closest to us, particularly since Lola can’t manage to hold the contents of her stomach long enough to go much further than that in one sitting.
We like the Independence Grove park but it’s closed right now due to construction along Milwaukee Ave. We discovered this yesterday when we attempted to visit it. Oy. We should have checked before we left but we didn’t — so we decided to drive the extra 11 miles to go to another one, since we were already out there. Lola’s stomach actually held out (though she didn’t quite make it home again, poor dog.)
The Duck Farm park is big and wide open. There’s not a lot of shade. The few wooded trails aren’t cleared enough for people to enjoy walking along them with the dogs, though the dogs did enjoy rambling through them a little bit. The dogs also enjoyed romping through the prairie and since there were fewer dogs than at the other two parks, they did a LOT of running with each other. There aren’t many water (mud!) spots at this park either. A real let down for our two mud lovers.
And, we encountered a couple walking a PACK of huskies. It was a literal pack, as in when the three off leash chased Skeeter, who yelped as she does when surrounded by dogs that intimidate her, the woman yelled to her male companion “be careful she’s alpha and she’s going to attack to protect her pack.” And she did. Or tried to. The dude launched himself on the alpha of the pack while his female partner screamed at him that he was out of line for doing that. While he yelled “What was I supposed to do, let her attack someone else’s dog” and… it was ugly. And uncomfortable. And a little scary.
While I agreed with the chick that his reaction wasn’t the best, she clearly had no control over her pack and her attempt to control the alpha weren’t doing the job, either.
It’s people like this that give dog parks a bad name. If you have a badly controlled pack of animals, a dog park may not be the best place to exercise them off-leash (even if your alpha is on a leash.)
I think I was more troubled that they were arguing about why they came to the dog park anyway BEFORE there was any trouble. Then there was the fact that those dogs didn’t just have trouble with our dogs–but EVERY dog they encountered by the yelling we heard. Then there was that other dog of the sort that gives bullies a bad name when it should just be the people who don’t seem to properly handle their dogs. It wasn’t just a “one bad apple spoils the whole bushel” experience as far as I can tell. (and why didn’t those people take their “pack” home once they realized it wasn’t working?)
It seems telling in retrospect that ALL the dog people with more socialized dogs seemed to hold their breath as our dogs approached. Hard to tell if a newcomer is going to behave appropriately if that isn’t the norm in the park.
Then there was the general disregard of the pick up after your pets rule. I know this isn’t always particularly fun/easy/feasible–but that was bad. (particularly when they provide bags at the entrance)
Yes, we don’t have the best trained dogs in America. No, we aren’t perfect. Yes, they’ve managed to engage in poor behavior in the dog park and elsewhere BUT not dangerous, not handled, not the same way. We’ve run into other dogs who’ve not always behaved in appropriate dog park ways–but darn it, their people tried. Their people were polite, responsible.
We never took Duncan to doggie parks. She was not one of the good ones when she saw other dogs. People she loved; other dogs, not so much.