Promoting Discussion

An anonymous comment was left by another Chieka follower on yesterday's post. I decided that it needs to be promoted to a new post because it brings up an issue that's important to me, off-leash opportunities for dogs. Let's kick off with the comment and then start discussing.

"Cheika and Bug are walked in Buena Vista and they are almost never on leads. I have always worried about the tiny dogs who aren't on leads. I think all dogs in a well-trafficked park should be on lead to protect the dogs, people, wildlife and gardens. Although it seems like a drag, the leash laws make a lot of sense."

I'm not going to disagree that there are calculated risks to spending off-leash time with your dogs but I do disagree with the way the comment leans toward victim blaming. I did a quick search and found that there's a relatively large section of Buena Vista Park that is designated for off-leash walking of dogs* so it's important to be clear that Chieka was well within her rights to be walking off leash in an area she knows well.

I don't know the specifics of the Buena Vista laws but I'm extremely familiar with the hard-won off-leash privileges in New York City so I'm going to work with them instead. For years the Parks Department extended a courtesy to dog owners that said that in designated areas of city parks dogs could walk unleashed between the hours of 9pm and 9am as long as they were within their person's vocal control. A few years ago a group of neighbors to a park in Queens made a big legal stink about dog people not cleaning up after their dogs**. The dog community in the city rose up, enlisted legal representation, and had the courtesy made law. Which is all to say that having time for one's dog to experience off-leash play is really important to a lot of people. Living in cities with a heavy reliance on public transportation and a low percentage of privately owned land it can be difficult to get sufficient exercise for young or high energy pups of all sizes. This law is a godsend for many of us. My dog in particular would be unmanageable without his time off-leash. We go every day for at least half an hour in the mornings and sometimes return in the evening. We also go on long leashed walks at other times of day.

Not every dog can be off leash. Emily was off leash for some of her younger years but became unpredictable enough in defending herself from perceived slights by other dogs*** that she spent about half of her life leashed only. We didn't go to the park during off-leash hours because that was a drag for all of us. Sometimes quite literally for me. For the purposes if this discussion let's compare apples to apples and talk about two bully breed dogs, Bu and Stella.

Bu's people describe him as an inherently optimistic dog. Despite, or perhaps because of, spending nearly all of his first 8 months of life in a shelter cage he sees every new experience as an opportunity. Every person he sees on the street could be the love of his life. Every bite of food is the most delicious he's ever tried. Every dog is his best friend...unless they have designs on his ball. Even then he'll give a warning growl and move away. Sure, he's been in tussles. When he first arrived his optimism overflowed into a boundless, unfocused energy to the extent that people feared for the safety of his grown ups and some folks (for instance the first people who adopted him and sent him back) might have given up on having him off leash or living with him all together. But his grown ups have worked with him enough to capitalize on the optimism and he usually looks for their guidance and help before taking action. In fact, when he was so badly injured, Jen, Stella's grown up, said that even in the middle of the melee he looked up out of the scrum as if to say, "This is not fun. Where is my grown up? He'll fix this." Throughout the blood-staunching and travel in a strange car he remained perfectly calm, almost frighteningly so, until the vet techs removed him from Robert's embrace at which point he wigged. So Bu spends a lot of time off leash. He's in the park for a little under an hour nearly every day. Most of that time is spent communing with his ball and leaning up against unsuspecting strangers to get petted. He fetches like a madman but is often just as happy to lie on the grass chewing the toy until he goes into a trance. Robert does make him run a circuit of the park a couple of times a week. That requires withholding the ball so he'll travel at speed until we call him The Coursing Pitbull, an extremely rare breed. He races optimistically around the edge of our couple acres of park enjoying every view and stopping at intervals to make sure that Robert is keeping up.

Stella is relatively new to life, the park, and everything. Her people got her when she was under a year old and they've worked diligently to make her a good citizen. She's a favorite among our group of friends and has a string of dogs who seek her out for a good, tandem roll in the dirt. She is easily as strong and sporting as Bu but if he's Michael Phelps she's more George Foreman. Bu is loose and ready for the next race, looking to his inner music and teammates for cues. Stella loves her people, that's not up for debate. She seems, though, always to be waiting for the guy in the other corner to trash talk her. She'll shake hands, she'll put in her mouth guard but she wants to tussle be it with a toy that needs destroying, a squirrel that needs skinning, or another dog who needs to bow to her superior skills. She embodies the thrill of the chase and the joy of a battle to be faced head on. Her people, too, have worked hard to capitalize on her focus, speed, and strength with a number of unleashed strategies but have recently come to the conclusion that it's safer for them, for her, and for other dogs if she doesn't spend significant time off leash any more. She gets to wrestle with her favorite dogs, like Bu, and she's allowed to chase squirrels (who have a healthy head start) up nearby trees but the leash never comes off. It's always available to pick up again. At first her grown ups were apprehensive not because this meant more work for them (they now run with her several miles per day) but because they feared she'd feel left out. After a talk with a great trainer and some dedicated observation of their girl they realize that it's not the case at all. As long as she's getting enough exercise and getting to interact with people and dogs in some way she could care less about how much leash freedom she has. She is, also perhaps like Foreman, perfectly happy just to be at the party. Lesson learned and now everyone in the family feels good about the arrangement.

In relation to Chieka's situation I want to stress again that I am not privy to any details of the altercation. I only know what's on Flickr (that photo is not for the faint of heart, it's new and she's still doing well but it's upsetting). Under the assumption that a larger dog approached her and injured her, I would place not blame but responsibility. I would say that the responsibility for controlling and perhaps leashing a dog lies with the other dog not with Heather and Derek in this case. I'll use my dog as an example here. He has a few triggers that will put him over the emotional edge into a place where he will not respond to my verbal, and sometimes physical, restraints. One of those triggers is unneutered dogs. There is a gorgeous red headed, unneutered pit mix in the park who is escorted by a man and sometimes a small yorkie mix. The dog used to be off leash regularly but is less so now. He's always sported a big harness for use as a handle. I've never seen him act aggressively toward other dogs. Eddie will run at him from yards away and just harry him. He nips at elbows and barks in ears and runs in circles until anyone in their right mind would give him a smack down. To date that dog never has. The man usually leashes him and holds him tight, despite a lack of overt reaction by the dog, and I'm left running in circles like an idiot around man and dog trying to retrieve my single-minded, ever-elusive terrier. By and large Eddie is a great dog off leash. He has good recall from far away, he checks in with me frequently of his own accord, and he's not especially inclined to stray. This dog is a trigger and the situation always goes the same, embarrassing, possibly dangerous way every time so when I see the man and his dog I take it upon myself to leash him up until we're well away. My dog is the aggressor in this situation so I think it's my responsibility to prevent an interaction that could go South.

It's a risk to allow off leash interaction between pets. There are fights in our park nearly daily. Usually it's a small scuffle akin to the shoving to wedge oneself on an overcrowded subway car. Occasionally something tragic and frightening happens. Yet I still believe it's invaluable, especially for high energy dogs like my own, to have this freedom, within parameters. Having that benefit outweigh the inherent risks depends on owners and training and the community at large. As the saying goes, one bad apple ruins the barrel, so there are no perfectly safe situations, that's what led me to write a whole post about my fears for my dog (and the realization that he can be a bad fucking apple). However, I know that for me for now the benefit is on the heavier side of the scale, keeping me rising at 6, loading my pockets with treats and trudging the blocks to the park. Inside the walls I unclip that leash and, after a quick treat and a release command, my dog's joy is, for me, undeniable.

*If I understand correctly what I read that section has some cross over with a designated hot air balloon launching section of the same park. I'm putting that on the list of places to go in case I need my dog's head to explode.

**It was later proved that the neglected excrement belonged to migrating geese and therefore had nothing at all to do with dogs or lazy dog people.

***For better or for worse she never injured other dogs but did sustain a number of small injuries herself. Eventually I was too afraid for her safety.