Dog Park Etiquette

 

 

We hope that you and your dog will enjoy the experience of using the off-leash dog park.

For everyone’s enjoyment, please use these etiquette guidelines:

  • It’s important to supervise your dog at all times. Please clean up after your dog as soon as you can.
     

  • Spread out and use the whole park. Too many dogs in one area can lead to ‘pack behavior’ and this may lead to problems.
     

  • For the safety of people and dogs, entry points into the park should be kept clear unless you are entering or exiting the park
     

  • Please monitor your dog for inappropriate behavior. If any conflict arises either with another dog or person, please handle the conflict with kindness, respect and good manners.
     

  • If your dog is continually misbehaving, consider enforcing a ‘time out’, leashing your dog or removing your dog from the park for a short time.
     

  • Remember that some dog breeds are more vocal than others and have different play styles. This is OK, but pay attention to assess the situation, in case conflict should arise from different play styles or intentions.
     

  • If you bring children to the dog park, they should be closely supervised at all times. This is a dog park and not a child’s playground so please be aware of the risk of bringing children into the park.

 

Appropriate versus Inappropriate play

 

Appropriate play is quick back and forth play between two dogs where each dog gets a turn at being ‘top dog’ and play is non-aggressive.

 

Inappropriate play is when one dog is ‘bullying’ and always being the ‘top dog’.  Biting, pinning, humping and not letting another dog be ‘top dog’ is inappropriate play.

 

 

 

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