Apparently we cannot all get along

I usually switch between a local radio station and Sirius satellite radio on my drive to work in the morning. Today I decided on the local station and the dj's started discussing a topic that has come up in the news recently: local state parks wanting to close the designated dog park areas. This should be interesting, I thought and listened as the dj's and callers gave their input. Apparently 2 local state parks, Chatfield and Cherry Creek, want to close off the designated dog areas due to "vegetation being trampled, local birds and mammals leaving the area, and water being contaminated". This I can believe. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a grossly overpaid government employee) to "study" that when you have multiple dogs running around, plants will get crushed, birds will high-tail it out of there, and dogs will do things they shouldn't do in the water. However, these are small areas of land that are fenced in and I think that these problems can be dealt with.

One caller in particular irked me to no end. It was quite obvious she was not a dog lover, or even liked animals to begin with, and her "suggestions" were laughable. "People who live in the city should not own dogs as they cannot care for them properly and dogs should only be owned by people who live on acreage where they're away from the general public. They're running rampant all over this city and should be eradicated ." Umm, what? 'Running rampant' to me means they're like an infestation. Yes, Colorado is an outdoorsy state with the majority of its residents owning dogs to go along with their outdoorsy activities. But putting down all the dogs because she doesn't like them? Wacko! And people who live in the city can and do properly care for their dogs.

She went on to say that if people want the companionship a dog offers, they should get a hamster. Yes, nothing makes me feel better than when I cuddle my hamster. But in all her rambling, she did make one statement that I actually agreed with: "dogs should be well behaved, they should be kept from jumping up on people and not be allowed to bomb bard people without being invited to do so." I couldn't agree more. These are the same issues that I have with a majority of the dog owners in general. I spent a lot of time training Finley to be obedient and it worked. She's an extremely smart dog and the time I spent on her training shows: she doesn't attack dogs or their owners (clothes-lining the Jack Russell Terrier a couple months ago doesn't count as she didn't see the microscopically thin leash he was on...I didn't either), she behaves just as well off leash as she does on, she is fully aware of what "drop it" and "leave it" are and does each when they're said. Basically, she's not an annoyance and the compliments I get on how well behaved she is are well worth the effort.

I love dogs immensely but it drives me absolutely insane when people get a dog and don't do anything with it! Just because it's a dog and not a human doesn't mean you just slap a collar on it and say, "ok, my work is done!" Dogs need to be trained. Period. And the excuse of, "I can't afford to take her to obedience school," is just an excuse. I didn't pay for obedience training; I did it myself. Don't know how? Go to the library and read up on books about obedience training. People by and large are lazy and full of excuses. I flat out refuse to go to dog parks anymore. It's been about 2 years since I set foot in one. They're a hot bed of untrained, unruly dogs and their equally ignorant owners. It's the place to go to let your dog run wild and chat on your cell phone. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm the Messiah of dog owners, nor is Finley the perfect dog. But when I have Sparky repeatedly trying to molest my dog and Fluffy jumping all over me with muddy paws, I lose any patience I had. So I stopped going. Now we go to an area of north Boulder that has a lake and trails surrounding it. She's allowed to be off leash and can run and swim to her heart's delight. The majority of the dog owners here are respectful of other people and their dogs are behaved for the most part.

I think part of this problem could be rectified quite simply: hire a full-time person to patrol these areas and police the dog owners. Make sure people are cleaning up after their dog (another huge pet peeve of mine...scoop their poop people! And get fashionable hot pink poop bags like me!), make sure the dogs aren't harassing other people and dogs. The state parks have rangers that pass through on occasion but that's all they do...pass through. It's not like it would waste any more money than the dollars spent on repeatedly doing surveys of what to do about the problems. I would gladly welcome a park patrol person to make sure we're all behaving. I have no worries about Finley. Maybe people would actually take owning their dogs seriously if they were to start getting fines for violating the rules that are already in place but never followed.

Posted by Mandy at 9:39 AM