Photos: Monica Click/BigStock.com, otsphoto/BigStock.com62
PETS | Life with pets
August http://www.facebook.com/petsmagazine
Just like parenting children, being a pet
parent can leave you at the mercy of
everyone’s advice. Without knowing your
dog’s story, many are quick to judge and
jump in with personal opinions on how
you should be looking after your dog.
And, just like with children, nowhere is
this more common than at the local park.Danielle Chenery^
explores what happens
when dog parents behave
badly at the dog park.Dog park Dog park
bull iesbull ies
Most dogs love playing
in an off -leash park and
meeting other friends.Laura Greaves, pet parent to Tex (nine)
and Delilah (six), both Nova Scotia Duck
Tolling Retrievers, has experienced this
firsthand. Tex has an anxiety disorder,
which was only diagnosed when he was six.
This sometimes manifested as snappiness
towards some other dogs. “Now that
his anxiety is properly managed (with
environmental management and Prozac),
he is rarely anything other than friendly
with other dogs,” Laura explains. “Once I
was walking both dogs and heard a woman
loudly remark to her friend, ‘Oh, one of these
dogs is nice but the other one is terrible.’ Tex
was the ‘terrible’ dog, in her opinion. I don’t
recall ever having seen this woman before,
so I don’t know where she got her so-called
information about either of my dogs. I
explained to her about his condition — I’ve
done a lot of research so I was able to hit
her with all sorts of facts and figures — and
she looked a little sheepish, though she
didn’t apologise. But the worst occasion wasPLF070_pg062-064_Dog Park Bullying.indd 62PLF070_pg062-064_Dog Park Bullying.indd 62 28/06/2017 1:51:13 PM28/06/2017 1:51:13 PM