« Dog Park Meeting | Main | Dog Park Meeting »

January 11, 2003

Pooch Patrol article

The Grand Rapids Press article, POOCH PATROL: Changes in leash ordinance worry dog owners, appears in today’s paper.

From the article... “We want to take our dogs off the leash, legally. We’re not criminals,” said Rhodes, adding that she plans to submit a 2,000-signature petition supporting a city dog park to officials this month.

We’d like to hear your comments on this! Please post your comments below.

Posted by Gwen at January 11, 2003 11:55 AM

Comments

OK, the quote below is not very helpful:

Quote:

"But others, like Cerie Sorenson, who walks her bichon frise, Goober, daily, worry dog-on-dog fights would ensue.
"I think it's dangerous to have a lot of dogs running together," she said. "Scares me to death."
John Bouma agreed the price could be a pound of dog flesh. The 42-year-old carpenter said he "can't really be responsible" for Buford T. Justice, so the 13-year-old black and tan hound always is leashed.
"I always thought (a park) was a great idea, but I don't see how they could stop them from fighting."

End quote.

We have about a dozen dogs in our neighborhood that play together. I can think of two more that are always leashed due to aggressiveness, and one more that is territorial and is picky about his friends. In other words, the owners know what to expect from their dogs and there are very rarely any problems.

Bottom line: a dog park would be a place for friendly dogs to run. Anyone not sure of his or her dog should not bring it into the park, even leashed, since the unleashed one will want to meet it. I would hope that people would have enough common sense to realize this.

BTW, the darling of the neighborhood, the dog that every other dog adores, is a pit bull named Sadie.

Posted by: Patrick Snyder at January 12, 2003 04:31 AM