Dog Park Etiquette from the Master

Last weekend I had the whole day with Hugo. My friend and I took Hugo and her dog, Remy, to the nearby dog park. It was a spectacular January day. Highs in the 50s and clear skies. There were dogs everywhere. Hugo stuck close to me, he can be kind of a baby around big dogs and prefers to play with only a few dogs at a time- he’s picky like that.

This is Hugo and Me, note I did not dress like this at the dog park.

My friend and I grabbed some chairs and were soaking up the sun when a couple came up to us with their puppy and asked if they could pet my Doberman. They pulled up chairs and after talking about our respective dogs for 10 minutes the man says “Why would you dock his tail?!” He looked almost offended. I answered that we got him when he was a year and a half and he already had his tail docked and ears cropped.

Hugo and his friend Remy

He continued, “Yeah, I think cropping ears is stupid, like, just leave it natural.” Mind you he said this while playing with Hugo’s cropped ears. I couldn’t help be a little insulted, so I countered, “Well, Hugo is a working dog. He is trained in schutzund (protection work) so he is supposed to do this to protect himself so that an attacker couldn’t grab on to him.”

That seemed to shut him up. The man then put down his barely week old puppy in the large dog dog park and proceeded to freak out every time another dog came to sniff his baby.

This made me think, what are the unwritten dog park rules? You know, the one’s besides “pick up their poop.”

1. Don’t insult another person’s dog. You might as well have just insulted the person’s face themselves and it makes for a very hostile environment. I will cut you.

2. If you have to put a muzzle on your dog you probably shouldn’t bring him to the dog park. Plus it looks scary. Everyone’s going to be thinking: why is there a muzzle on that dog?!

3. Don’t wear heels to the dog park. Or anything of real value anyway. There will be dogs there. That will probably jump, drool, lick, and slurp all over you.

4. If your kid is scared of dogs don’t bring them to the dog park. This is not the time to help them over there fear.

5. Know what dog play is. They are gonna bark and rough house each other. So don’t freak out if this happens. I’m looking at you lady on the cellphone the whole time. They also might hump each other.

6. And really though, cats are not dogs. And don’t dress like a cat to the dog park.

What do you think is some unwritten dog park etiquette?
Don’t forget to come say hi to Hugo (and our new dog Millie!) over on my blog!

PS. It is Kelly! Hi party people I just wanted to say thank you again for all of the well wishes.  I will be back to my blog in full force on Monday.  But for now, please go say hi to Helene. (comments turned off)