Dr. Jan Bellows

Dog parks are a popular place to take your pet. Your dog can run around as much as it wants completely off leash, as well as interact with other dogs and play doggy games while you associate with other dog owners that love dogs just as much as you do. Dog parks are one of the only places that you can safely let your pet roam free in the entire city. However, there are various pluses and minuses to taking your dog to a dog park.

Benefits of Dog Parks

• Increased Exercise – Your dog needs to exercise to stay healthy. Taking your dog to the dog park is a great way to give it that exercise, because you do not have to walk a great distance or to an unsafe area. Your dog can simply run back and forth within the confines of the park and tire itself out.
• More to Do – Dog parks are also great for you as the dog owner. They give you more options of games to play with your pet, including a greater space for fetch and Frisbee. At any given point your dog can also leave you to play with other dogs, allowing you to simply watch as your dog tires itself out on its own.
• Better Socialization – The more your dog can socialize with pets and people, the better it will handle strangers and strange dogs. Dogs both learn from other dogs and learn to tolerate other dogs, and all of these are good things for you as the dog owner, because they make your job raising your pet much easier.

Weaknesses of Dog Parks

• Safety – Most dog parks are not monitored, and some tend to attract less than ideal dogs and dog owners. Smaller dog parks that have less dogs, more confined spaces, and are in lower class areas can sometimes attract dogs that have not been properly socialized, and due to the tight spaces this can be very dangerous. Dangerous dog fights are not uncommon in some dog parks, though in larger and more populated dog parks it is less common.
• Disease – There are some very serious dog diseases that could affect your dog if it has not had its shots recently. Most dog parks have unenforced rules about dogs having vaccinations, but you never know what diseases a dog may be taking with them, and in such close quarters your own dog could catch them.
• Poorly Educated Dog Owners – Not all dog owners know what they are doing, and this can interfere with your own training techniques. If your dog runs up to a stranger, the stranger asks your dog to sit, and your dog lies down and rolls over, the stranger may find it cute and give your dog a treat, but the reality is that your dog did not perform the trick correctly, and rewarding it for the wrong command can interfere with your training.

Those that go to popular dog parks look out for one another, which is very useful for reducing problems with safety and disease, but they should always be a concern.

So Should You Go to Dog Parks?

Overall, despite the safety risks and disease, the socialization that occurs in a dog park is unlike any other, and is very beneficial for your pet – especially at a young age. If you can go jogging with your pet and have a way for your dog to interact with many other dogs without the dog park, then the park may be unnecessary, and could possibly be avoided. But since many people do not have other options at their disposal, a dog park is one of the better places to go.