Author: Henriette Bylling, Owner and CEO Aller Petfood
We all want that feeling of freedom where we can just be our self, so it is only natural that we also wish to “spoil” our dogs with the experience of this feeling.
I am glad to see that at least in Denmark, Europe where I am based, there is an increasing number of “dog forests” being established. Here you can let you dog run around freely, this giving the dogs and dog parents their own domain for freedom and play.
But not all dog parents are privileged to live near a such sanctuary.
A trip to the park…
Last summer my family and I returned to London for holidays, having lived in Paddington just up the road from Hyde Park for many years, this was the obvious destination. We spend a fair bit of time playing and feeding the squirrels in Hyde Park. As always I noticed the many dog parents were using this as the closest, they could find to a sanctuary in the city center…
Everyone in the park were enjoying their freedom – the squirrels, the adults, the kids and the dogs -everyone respecting each other’s space.
However one dog parent wished to take this freedom to the next level for his puppy, so he let him of the leash… As he was still a puppy, he was very playful and not quite used to listing to his “father”, so he decided to chase my 6-year old son through the park. My son got scared and started running even though we tried to get him to stand still and thereby calm the dog down. This made the dog think that he wanted to play resulting that the puppy started snapping after him. We all know that it is easy to be comfortable with a dog we know but are naturally wary with dogs we do not know. Meaning my son was panicking!! Eventually I managed to get him to run over to me and as he stopped the dog did the same.
The dog “parent” was very apologetic excusing the situation with “he is still a puppy” however – despite apologies – my animal loving son is now very wary of dogs.
Then what is my point of this story?
…Well there are several.
– I think that cases like this are working against more dedicated dog “freedom” zones being created – which would be a great shame.
– I believe that this can make some people scared and even against dogs… I find it a great shame if this means that they will be missing out on all the joy a dog has to offer (this is not likely to happen to my son as I am slowly introducing him to calm and friendly dogs).
– I think this underlines that we as a dog “parents” have a responsibility of raising socially responsible dogs -exactly the same responsibility as we have for raising socially responsible “human-children”.
Please feel free to let me know what you think about this topic…
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