What makes some dogs act like Mean Girls (and Mean Boys) at dog parks?
When dogs declare their dominance, should owners be concerned or assume it's just part of wolf descendant nature?
As I marched through a field of grass with my Hound mix by my side, I had two thoughts: 1) My light grey shoes are about to be so dirty; 2) Junee will never step foot into a dog park again.
Two days later, I learned absolutely nothing. I wore the same grey shoes to the dog park again, and it was all because Junee dragged me back to the scene of the “mean girl.”
Here’s what happened.
I hadn’t been to a dog park in about a year. The irony is I was constantly at a dog park or a dog beach on a weekly basis before I owned my third dog. It was fun to walk somebody else’s dog by the lakefront, or sit in the sand or on the rocks and watch dogs leap around soak and wet. But when you’re walking your own dog three times a day, you can get kinda stretched for time. I’m not sure what made me decide to go to the dog park after I hadn’t been there since last summer. It just seemed like fun.
Recommended Read: “Dogs wanted, rental backyards included ~ Dog-loving homeowners are renting out their backyards as a new side hustle”
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When Junee and I arrived at the dog park, I remembered there was one entrance gate for small dogs and another one for medium- and large-sized dogs. Only, it was inconvenient to get to the gate for the small-sized dogs because pet owners would have to walk an extra block. It was much easier to just cut through the “big dog” side and walk to the opposite end of the dog park. And so I did.