AN AMATEUR'S GUIDE TO PLAY WITH YOUR DOG

God, we are nuts about our dogs

You could say we are stupid about our dogs and I wouldn't exactly disagree. North Americans spend billions of dollars on our dogs, from overpaying for them at a breeder, to allowing vets to tell us that a biweekly "wellness" test really will add 100 years to our dog's life, to buying it Organic Naturally Caught And We Cried On the Salmon's Spirit dog food, to buying the dog the absolute latest in squeaky-flying-floating-spinning-smellsjustlikeasquirrel toy .. And yes, there is a pretty full doggie toy box in my house

We love our dogs. We want them to be happy. But sometimes I think that we want so much, we've forgotten about what they need.

I spend a lot of time in dog parks and not just the one I'm paid to spend time in. I mean public dog parks. I've written about them before, probably ad nauseum.

Our new house has put us in proximity to Earl Bales Park which has a large fenced in public dog park. It occurred to me that all of dogs, Gigs Hayley and now Terra, have enjoyed this park for some part of their lives.

These parks have their place and their purpose. They are a good place for dogs to gather and for dogs to socialize. Society is important to dogs ... I often see Miss Terra in the yard, on her lounger, sipping green tea and purusing the New York Times Society Pages ... Ok, that's an exaggeration of course. She reads the Yarker Times. It only takes 2 seconds to read and it is completely appropriate to pee upon when you're done

But dogs being able to be dogs in the society of other dogs, that is a very positive thing. Though we often ignore things like age and gender and alpha/dom status as we toss all the dogs in there and wonder why things get sometimes .. wait for it .. hairy

Dogs need to communicate with other dogs in the ways that only dogs can. As much as we love them and as much as they us right back, us sniffing their butts .. well .. it's just a bit creepy. Yeh, just a bit.

But dogs do need to socialize with us, dogs need to be with us, dogs need to play with us. Play. With. Us.

People run with their dogs, cycle with their dogs, hike with their dogs, swim with their dogs ... these are all great. All dogs need exercise and they want to be with us so why not combine the two

But what about playing with your dog. Just playing with her. A ball, a stick, a frisbee, a stuffie, a rope .. I'm not one for playing tug of war with my border collies but I don't universally condemn it; it's a dog game and I leave dog games to dogs, hence the dog parks

Play provides your dog with exercise but that's not the strength of it, like the co operative play with other dogs, the dog wants to play with you two. And if you play the games where you are in charge, as in let me throw this now you bring it back to me, you establish your dominance in a very co operative way.

Some people and their dogs do canine sports, like competitive frisbee or flyball or agility. These are great. I do a little of that with Terra but just on our own in the backyard. This establishes such a deep lovely bond with your dog and, again, while you are playing, your roles are clearly defined.

Dogs like to have these roles defined

Not everyone has the time or temperment to do an organized sport and that goes for people as well as dog. Terra certainly could participate in organized sport but then I'd have to be around all those people .. ugh

Watching these sports on TV can seem imtimidating. I watch some real experienced dog trainers and feel Hell, I can never do that. I also watch some dog trainers and think Hell, anyone can do that ..

Don't worry about that. Anyone can play with their dog.

 Take her to the dog park, take her on nice long leashed walks but don't forget to play with her. Do whatever works for the two of you, don't worry if "you're good at it" don't be concerned how far you can throw the stick or the frisbee or the ball. Just throw the damn thing.

I'm running into people, lots of people who say "Oh I can't throw that" well yes you can, even if it's only two feet who cares, your dog will be happy to go for it. Other people will say "he won't bring it back" Well this happens, Hayley was not the world's greatest retriever so we developed a format of walking in the park, I'd throw the stick, she'd run to get it then wait till I caught up, drop it then go again .. At least she was giving it to me, in her way, that's co operation

You can train your dog to retrieve. Start small, make it easy, set up for success. Start in your living room, sit on the floor, have the dog just a few inches away from you, throw the object, if she catches it encourage her to bring a back. Use a treat. Dogs are bribeable, they don't feel ashamed about it. When the dog doesn't return the object just keep encouraging her, it may require patience, go through a variety of rewards until something clicks, then Reward, Praise, Love, Repeat.

Find out what works for your dog. Some dogs, like border collies, track objects. If your dog follows the course of a toy while it's in the air then there's a good chance it may learn to take it out of the air. If it waits till it hits the ground then it may not be a flyer but if it looks at the toy, if it becomes interested in it once it lands, then it should retrieve.

Take your time, don't give up, keep at it. Training can be play too.

Look at your dog. Right now, look at his eyes.

Know what he's saying to you?

Come play with me.

WHOS POOP IS IT?

Last evening I went to a meeting to determine if Viewmount Park, the local park I take the girls to, should have an official off leash area. No, it does not. Yes, I off leash my dogs there. Yes, that's a violation of a local bylaw. Go ahead, make the call. I'll just sit here and wait for CICIS, the Mounties, the local SWAT and the Dept of Who Gives A Fuck to come arrest me.
It was a lively little debate. You would expect there to be two main camps: The Yes to the Offleash area camp and the No to the Offleash area camp. Of course, it never breaks down that way. It was really Yes to dogs or No to dogs. On leash, off leash, anyway except on a bun, we don't want your dogs. Funny how some of them professed to have dogs of their own. Of course, the dogs in question are probably the size of my shoe, are named Princess Chloe Mummy's Sucky Rat Dog and never go outside anyway ... OK, that was hostile .. but read on, you may learn why.

People were very passionate about the issue. Well, not the issue really; the issue at hand was whether or not there should be a fenced area where people could legally off leash their dogs. Yes people were opposed to that. But a lot of people were opposed to the ideas of dogs period, on or off leash.

Viewmount is not a huge park, but neither is it tiny. It is about five acres. Now it has a lot in it, a playground, tennis court, baseball diamond. There are paved walkways that link to neighboring streets. It is a heavy usage park. That's why I understand the issue, sometimes, when the dogs are running free, but my closest alternative is a good 20 minute walk away or a drive through some really dreadful streets.

So I do get that people feel intimidated by the dogs, there are of course some butt head dog owners who are not in control of their dogs and there are some filthy pigs who don't clean up after their dogs. So I would think that the idea of an enclosed area, a little off to the side, where the dogs would be off leash, would be a welcome compromise .. well, that seemed a foreign word at the meeting

There was a loud, very vocal group who did not want the dogs there. The common excuse was some danger to their children. Again, if the dogs are behind a fence, with gates, I don't see the danger Frankly, I don't know why we just don't enclose playgrounds, have gates and maybe medal detectors and armed guards at the gates .... seriously, they made the situation sound that dire. Like if a dog breathed on a kid, the youngster would suffer some permanent damage. OK, some doggie breath is pretty nasty, but let's face it, so is the breath of some humans

Another big complaint was the dog shit. No argument, that park gets really disgusting, especially during the winter where these doltish owners seem to think that dog poo will melt away with the snow. But if you have an enclosed, demarked area, it gives people less excuse not to pick up. It does happen, I've stepped into dog shit in an offleash area, but I'm a dog owner and chose to enter that space

There were many suggestions to have an off leash area elsewhere, way far away, and the implication was clear: Take all the dogs there and keep them out of our park. NIMBY is Not in My Backyard. This is NDIMW .. No Dogs in My World. Sorry folks, that just ain't going to happen

I know some of this is fear, I've written about this before. But you would think your fear would be somewhat placated by having the dogs enclosed; nope, we need them gone, just gone. Hey, you know, I have a deep seeded fear of Conservatives do we think we could .. um .. wow, if only

There was no compromise in these people. Even when most of the audience, dog owners included, thought the City's proposed location for the offleash would interfere with the park too much and we had it moved, the dog haters just wouldn't let up

A pretty valid point was made about the whole procedure though. A young dog hating mom kept asking how the process ever got started and how it could be halted. It turns out that under the current system, one person (and no it wasn't me) proposed the area and the city is going right ahead with it; yet there seemed no concrete way to stop it. No vote was taken at the meeting and although there was some vague noise about "taking the pulse" people were told that even if a hundred anti dogites showed up, it really wouldn't matter. The smirking city counsellor who showed up for ten minutes merely said "You already had your vote, last election" Honest to god, he actually said it. Then Mr Howard Moscoe waved his hands and left early

That kind of thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Our current political system seems to have evolved into a self aware, self serving beast that prowls right on, regardless of us and NOT regarding us for one moment. These people were frustrated by the system and I can't blame them

On the other hand I was dismayed by their lack of willingness to compromise. I kept hearing this phrase of "our park" As if it was run for a specific group of people, mostly parents it seemed to me. Well this my neighbourhood park too. We've been using it for about 7 years now. It's designated a multi use park, hence the playground and baseball diamond and tennis courts. People made point about the kids who played soccer and the Phillipino's who set up volleyball nets .. Well, I'm a person (mostly) and I choose to use this park to exercise my dogs. As is, I'm restricted in how I do that, by leashing them up. I don't agree with this restriction; the offleash law as it stands does not guarantee any one's safety and clearly doesn't guarantee a cleaner park. I've seen dog owners not pick up after their leashed dogs. I've also seen dogs on leash attack other dogs (including mine) and bother non dog owners. But the tickets do bring in revenue, don't they Mr Moscoe.

Public spaces are all about sharing, all about compromise. What kind of world do you live in where you get to custom design a public space to suit your own personal needs? And what kind of world do we want where dogs are not allowed to play? Not one I care to inhabit and just so you know, I don't have enough flyer points to go to Mars just yet

So yup, that's your dog poo too. Don't worry, I'll pick it up for you. That's the kind of nice guy I am

DOG OWNERS ARE PEOPLE TOO: A LOCAL CALL TO ARMS

I'm a dog owner. I'm a citizen of my city. Give me my rights.


Toronto city council, an organization that thought by banning legal gun clubs that have existed in this city for a hundred years would stop gangsters from shooting each other, has had yet another stroke of brilliance: Let's ban dogs, leashed or otherwise, from the most popular beaches in the city.

The whole thing has to do with Toronto wanting to acquire a "blue flag" designation of environmental cleanliness for its beaches. I have yet to determine if this designation really means much in the way of pollution but since its international, and people will read about us in the press, city council has a hard on because now the rest of the world, to paraphrase Sally Fields, will "like us, they really really like us" They have yet to study the issue if dogs on the beach, if dog feces, will affect them getting this blue flag, they will get to that study some day but in the mean time, with no clear evidence to support their thesis they are denying me, as a dog owner, my rights to use a public space.

It really is an amazing thing. Anyone who has ever been to the area in Toronto called The Beaches knows the popularity of this area to dog owners; on a weekend hundreds of dogs will amble along the beach. I know people who have moved there because it has always been known as a "dog friendly" area. And yes, there is an issue with people not picking up their dog shit, I've posted several times about that, but the fact is, all these people who go to the beach with their dog .. ARE CITIZENS OF THIS CITY AND DESERVE TO BE TREATED EQUALLY.

Sorry, I'm trying to shout from North York down to City Hall

Two years ago they started posting that dogs were no longer allowed on the beaches, even on a leash, outside of the two designated off leash areas, those being Balmy Beach and Kew Beach. Fair enough, I guess. Dogs had been allowed on leash in those areas before but since the two off leashes are pretty big, I was OK with what I thought was a compromise. And in the winter, dogs have always been allowed off leash on the beaches from the snow fence down to the water line. Now that is all gone.

I quite frankly don't buy the environmental concerns, mostly because it has yet to be proven. The city and the province can't seem to be able to come up with anything conclusive that proves that having dogs on the beaches is a hazard to any one's safety as it relates to the water. Everyone is pulling out the old "we have to think about the kids" argument which is bullshit in this instance. We are supposedly talking about water purity; to me, when they bring up child safety the agenda seems more oriented to safety, to dogs being out of control. Fair enough, I've blogged about that as well, there are too many owners in this town who do not have control over their dogs and we need to address that .. but be honest about it, don't hide it behind the environment.

So we have this dubious argument, that cannot be proven,and this action, of banning dogs from the beaches, that no one outside of this city seems to support. And that seems to be a good enough excuse to take away my rights, because that is really what we are talking about: my rights, the rights of every dog owner. These are PUBLIC lands, to be used by the PUBLIC in any legal fashion, and now I am being denied those rights. It is simply a case where our elected leaders are deciding who gets to use the beach. Yes, you can say I can still use the beach, just don't bring my dog ... well, that is why we go there. We don't go there to swim, the lake is usually too cold and its been dirty a long time, and not just from e coli, but from general pollution. We don't play volleyball and we don't lay around getting skin cancer .. we go to play with Miss Hayley. Isn't that my right? We've always followed the rules .. pick up the poop, keep her on leash in the on leash areas, monitor and control her behaviour in the off leash, avoid heavy traffic areas .. because the rules made sense. This does not make sense.

I want to keep this post brief and to the point. Here it is: Dog owners are being denied rights they once held and I think it is unfair. Surely, city council should wait until they have completed the study that will tell me what, if any impact, having dogs on the beach will have on the Blue Flag label. And surely, they should have waited until more people in this city have had their say; this is just not an issue for the Beaches neighbourhood, it is an issue for all dog owners in the city, many of whom travel some significant distances just to enjoy the beach.

This is a call to arms. If you are in the GTA contact your local councillor and ask him/her how they can deny certain citizens of this city the right to enjoy a public space. Contact Councillor Paula Fletcher, chair of the parks committee who defends this action; ask her how an elected official can so blithely deny rights to thousands and thousands of city residents. If you are not in the GTA contact the provincial gov't and your local councillor, this is not just a Toronto issue. While in Parry Sound a bylaw officer told me that dogs were not allowed on the beach for this very issue .. so you and your dog, or your friends who have dogs, are being denied enjoyment of public spaces to indulge an unproven political whim.

This strikes me as very arbitrary and that is very scary. Think about it; the politicians who are supposed to represent YOU are now denying ME the use of PUBLIC space that I PAY for because it MAY have some kind of detrimental effect on .. um .. something ...

I'm pissed off. I want you to be pissed off too. Miss Hayley is not pissed off. But look at this video and you will understand, that if she can again go back to that beach, she will just be very sad.

A RUMINATION ON WHEELS

Spring in Toronto .. permit me a "Yay!"



For me spring in the city means, among other things, taking Hayley for long wanders in the park. We are lucky. We live in the former North York (of Mel Land as I like to call it) with lots of big ravines and lots of big parks. Lots of walking trails too so me and border collie can go wandering around in search of errant sheep and tennis balls.

We went to one of favorite parks, Cedarvale, that connects on to a ravine trail and has lots of nice big open spaces. Now, this is what the World's Smartest Dog and I are pursuing: open spaces. Hills. Grass. You know, all the stuff from which us urban prisoners are so deprived. I am only one of about three million people in this city but I pretty much figured that other people felt the same way.


Well (and you knew there was a "well" coming) off we go and indeed the park is filled with people. But here's the funny part: all the open spaces in the park are empty save for dogs and their humans. We have all this lovely grass to ourselves. Why? What gives? What are the other, sad border collie-deprived humans doing? Where on they?


They are on the pavement. Sidewalks run thru the park. In Cedarvale there are a lot of sidewalks and they go a good distance. In the little park right by my house, there are sidewalks and they seem to go nowhere; you can walk across the whole park in about a minute. They ripped up a good chunk of the home park (Shermount) and laid down a couple of new sections of pavment that made no sense to me at the time.


Now I am getting it. In our concrete jungle where grass and open space are at a premium, there is one thing people truly desire: Wheels. All kinds of wheels. Any kind of wheels. Wheels on bikes. Wheels on skates. Wheels on boards. Wheels attached to things I first took to be dwarf all terrain assault vehicles but are actually Infant Conveyance Device (ICDs)



I was baffled ( a state that increasingly becomes my natural state). Here we were in Cedarvale park, with all these huge open spaces, fields large enough to play soccer and cricket, and what were people doing? Cramming these narrow walkways, shoulder to shoulder, so they could use their wheels. I understand the desire to avoid cycling/skating/boarding in the streets in Toronto .. I dont even like to drive my car in the streets of Toronto ... but I really was sort of confused.


A beautiful spring day. Warm and sunny after a long and snowy winter. Air that you could breathe without a mask, grass that at the time was dry and almost green, and what did the throng come here to do (come here in their cars to do, most of em)? They came here to go .. and to go fast. There they were, all massed onto that narrow walkway, zipping around as quickly as possible. There is no one in Toronto who does not bitch about the traffic; so here they are in a traffic free zone and they create their own. Really, I just dont get it. Hayley didnt get it either. She is trained to sit on the side of a trail when a bike goes by; she was spending more time on her butt than on the move.


Cedervale park is one thing; its big and the sidewalks are fairly long. Little Shermount Park, by house is another thing. Its small. The new sidewalks really don't go anywhere. But there are jammed too, filled with wheels, wheels just moving for the sake of moving. They got rid of grass in that park, just so we could have more wheels.


This past weekend we had the threat of a transit strike in Toronto. No buses, no subways. Thankfully it did not happen but the possibility had the entire city on edge. No transit!! What shall we do!! This will mean more cars!! More traffic!!! Oh no!! People were frothing at the mouth with despair. The subject of wheels was more prevelant than hockye .. yeh .. it was a big deal. We need wheels they whined, we need them to transport us but if they take away our public wheels the private wheels will overwhelm our city!

So lets get away from the wheels. Go to a park. Relax. Jump on some more wheels. Ride them around in circles.

Whatever. This weekend Hayley and I will return to our park. And we'll use our feet.

DOG PARK ETIQUETTE OR WHOSE POOP IS THAT?

Its spring in Toronto. That's what they tell me. When Hayley and I went for our walk today we were being pelted with snow and there was ice underfoot. But its spring. Sure. And the check's in the mail.

But it has warmed up recently and the snow has been melting and that means two things: Mud, muddy dog, dirty muddy dog, dirty icy muddy dog, dirty icy muddy dog who jumps up on the couch before we get her to the tub ... Ok, that counts as one thing. The other thing that spring means to a dog park? Poop. Lots of poop. Poop everywhere. (Hayley glares at me. OK, not your poop.)

There is just an awful lot of dog poop in our little local part. As Cheech Marin might say "Homes, thats a lot of cheet" Where does all this shit come from? OK, I know where it comes from in terms from where it was issued (again, Hayley glares at me, like her golden bum could ever issue forth such organic dread). A lot of dogs come to our park on a daily basis, I know most of them. But really, there is more shit than mud. And shit in the mud. Or mud in the shit ... ok, that is way too many occurrences of the word shit in one paragraph, sorry. But you get my point.

What it all means, is that people in this city have no no real concept of dog park etiquette. I mean, rule number one "Pick up your shit!" (I said shit again but its a new paragraph, I do it like that) That seems an obvious rule, golly, they even have signs and illustrations and everything. Still, people ignore it. Cause people have no idea of dog park etiquette.

Another terrible breach of etiquette is the situation about toys. My toys (Hayley cocks an eyebrow) OK, her toys. We bring them, we want them back. Often, in the case of sticks, I hunt them down like Steve Irwin in search of sting ray stingers thru mud, snow and (you guessed it) dog poop. They are our toys. We want them back.

Fetching seems an arcane skill these days, rarely practised, barely understood, whispered about in shadowy alley ways and cloisters and kept back from the masses. It seems such an easy thing; human throws sticks, dog brings stick back. Or, it Hayley's case, human throws stick, border collies chases stick, runs with it for a time and drops on command. That works for us, keeps us both moving.

Now, Hayley, being a border collie and all, would much rather fetch dogs than sticks. And since people seem to object when I snatch up their pekipoodlelabdoo (or whatever) and hurl it across the park we've worked out a compromise: Human throws stick. Average-unfortunately-not-smartest-dog-in-the-world chases stick, border collie chases dog, dog returns stick, border collie slides in after the dog and smugly asserts "There, I brought his hairy hide back" Applause and happiness ensue.

Buy it doesn't happen that way. What happens is I throw the ball, dog chases the ball, Hayley lunges off in pursuit, dog catches ball, runs with ball .. runs with ball .. runs with ball ... Hayley stops, stares for a second and looks over her shoulder at me saying "Now, where the hell is he going?" I pose the same questions to his human and the response is usually "Oh, he won't bring it back" and off they walk, after their dog. With Hayley's ball. Sadness and regret ensue.

If they are not fetching they are also not dropping. And if they are not dropping I am the one running after them (ok, its more like a hobble but I've grown fond of it) putting them into a stay and prising the toy out of their jobs. All the while their owners stand there, muttering "Gee, he never gives it up for me" To which I respond "No shit, have you ever tried?"

Its annoying. And its rude. There are more breaches of dog park etiquette but its late, the morning comes early, and I have to go out and buy me some new dog toys