I have watched and rooted for the building of your Dog Park at Trancas. It was a much needed amenity for a dog-loving community like Malibu.
However, I’m afraid that the designers of the park were wrong in not including a separate small-dog area. Although the park is a place that you enter with your dog at your own risk, the city should provide an option for small dog owners. I was very sad to read Schlomo Peppers, story and of the Pepper family’s constant “fear of attack by large dogs.”
Owners need to be savvy to things that can happen at a dog park. A few things to know:
Number one: dog fights happen.
Lesson two: “Dogs are dogs,” not human. Their instincts are not manageable through reasoning, legislation, or lectures.
Lesson three: fault is a human concept. People who engage in angry blame games are only aggravating an already bad situation. See to the dogs’ condition first. Act like an adult, even if you don’t mean it.
Lesson four: Just one example of what starts a dogfight. It might be a penetrating, silent stare-a challenge to the dog at the other end of the stare. Whether the other dog notices, responds, avoids or engages is anyone’s guess. A friendly dog romps by or a tennis ball flies past-he may chose to chase rather than fight. Though no one noticed, the staring dog thinks he won the challenge and trots off, satisfied, tale erect.
Lesson five: A responsible dog owner knows his/her dog; learns the signs of impending aggression; always pays attention to the whereabouts of his/her dog.
Lesson six: Learn to stop a fight before it becomes a brawl (not enough time here).
Lesson seven: Learn the right and wrong ways to stop a fight. Have at your disposal a tool or special word that always gets your dog’s attention. “No” is usually useless. Use a distinctive word “AAAWWK” in a tone that sounds like you’re going to beat him to death (of course, you are only bluffing, but they don’t know it).
Most important lesson for small dog owners: Be aware that a small dog being chased by other dogs, even in fun, can trigger prey drive in others, suddenly the little dog is viewed as prey, resulting in tragedy.
I’ve trained more than 4,000 dogs, having worked with dogs my entire life. I offer the parks and recreation department to conduct a free, perhaps, monthly one-day workshop on usage of the dog park. It’s about the safety of dogs at the dog park. I often visit dog parks without my dogs because I’m often away from home teaching other dogs.
The City of Malibu needs to address the absence of a small dog area at their otherwise lovely dog park.
Steve Morrissey