Running with a Pack Again, stressing the power in numbers, you might want to consider the formation of an umbrella group composed of groups with a common vision. Seattle’s COLA has led the way in this manner, and has been recognized as the official sponsoring group, entering into a formal agreement with the city to perform various stewardship functions in their off-leash areas. New York City’s dog people have recently banded together to form NYCDOG (“nice dog”) in response to that city’s recent draconian crackdown against off-leash recreation. According to Dr. Terry Fonville, “it is hoped that this will give us strength and unified voice … as well as helping all the diverse users of the City’s parks find common ground … our outreach abilities will be employed to better educate dog owners regarding responsible use of the parks.” We certainly wish our doggie friends in the Big Apple a lot of luck. There are many similar umbrella groups across the country, such as Judy Green’s ArlingtonDogs in Virginia, SFDOG and DogPAC, SB, all of which understand the importance of unity. Putting on the Dog: Position Papers and Presentations A position paper serves a variety of purposes. It will help to synthesize your thoughts and prepare you for the public speaking circuit, and it will be the central part of your proposal (which should also include case studies and supporting affidavits). A shorter version can be used as a handy and ever-necessary “fact sheet” (important for policymakers with short attention spans), and as your press release (get to them before your opponents do). A volunteer with a nose for Internet research can really help out here. There is a lot of good source material available online to get you started. An excellent example has been produced by SFDOG, “Managing Off Leash Recreation in Urban Parks,” found on their web site (see resources). They analyze topics such as the benefits of dog ownership, the importance of socialization and exercise, the cycle of violation and enforcement, park guidelines, community organizing and outreach activities etc., with maps illustrating their findings. Another thorough analysis was prepared by students from the University of Southern California, “The Case for Space: An Analysis of Off-Leash Recreation Areas in Los Angeles,” written for Freeplay, the off-leash group in Venice, California. One of the most remarkable finds on the Web is a must-read report from Australia, “Public Open Space and Dogs: a Design and Management Guide for Open Space Professionals and Local Government.” Reading this might convince you to pack up your dogs and move down under, where there seems to be a very enlightened view of the place of dogs in society, including in parks—think “multi-use” and not separate little dog runs. As evidence of their forward thinking, this is what the report says about dogs as a threat to wildlife: “Another argument for restricting dogs’ access to public open space is that their presence (behavior and smell) frightens away native wildlife … the most direct failing is that the scientific evidence to support this view is far from sufficient to constitute the basis of a management prescription. The second failing relates to the fact that dogs are not the only agents that may frighten wildlife. Humans, especially children and teenagers, park maintenance staff and their machinery are likely to have as much impact as dogs.” Makes you want to burst out in a verse of Waltzing Matilda! For some visual inspiration, there are two excellent videos, Your Dog Off Leash, prepared by Dog PAC, SB, and the Point Isabel Video Project. Both demonstrate the benefits of off-leash recreation and provide convincing proof of its efficacy—especially useful for people who have little first-hand familiarity with the joys of dog parks. They are invaluable resources. Pointers Taking a clue from Seattle’s Jan Drago, focus on points that demonstrate that “this is not a dog issue, it is a people issue.” Even though we know we are doing this for our dogs, few policymakers care about them. Discuss the benefits of pet ownership in general, citing examples from both physical and mental health literature. New studies are cropping up every day. Your vet might be able to help with these citations. You can find many excellent reports of this kind from the Delta Society catalog. In our increasingly fragmented and isolated society, any positive opportunity to bring people together into a common space with a common interest is a rarity that should be rewarded and cherished. Recognizing this community (“constituency”) is a concept most policymakers will appreciate. Your group’s willingness to become a dog park sponsoring group, or to take on stewardship responsibilities, such as self-policing, maintenance chores (ranging from poop clean-ups to wood chip disbursements), fundraising, assistance in shelter adoptions, increasing dog licensing compliance, etc., should not be lost on policymakers. Make sure to include such positive stakeholder assistance in your press release. There will never be enough officers to prevent people from walking leash-free dogs in parks, no matter what New York’s Mayor Giuliani feels—so better to make an alliance with dog people that can take on some of these responsibilities and help to educate others as well. Discuss the importance for the elderly with dogs to be able to use parks for leashless recreation. Not only does it provide a social avenue, but for those with mobility problems it can be very difficult to walk, much less exercise, a dog on lead. Every local group probably has a dog park champion such as Ruth Wightman, of Alameda County, a “career-change” senior who went from retirement into the “field” of dog-park activism. She attends the bureaucrat’s meetings that other advocates can’t because their work schedules conflict with middle-of-the-day meeting schedules. She’s there keeping careful watch, and she’s having a blast with her new dog as well. Dog owners are taxpayers, paying taxes into a system that provides parks to the public, yet most of us rarely use these greenspaces for anything but walking our dogs. If you can, get some budget numbers from your recreation department to show the public resources that are being spent on sports. Or make graphs or maps showing how much park area is devoted to a single-use activity, like baseball diamonds and tennis courts—contrast that with how much is set aside for your favorite recreational pursuit. Public Health Benefits There are great societal benefits, including enhancement of public safety, in allowing off-leash activity in parks. Dogs provide a safety component in the parks themselves; in fact, many marginal open spaces have been reclaimed for use as safe public space because dog people have “reclaimed and civilized” the space for the whole community. This happened in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, where an ad hoc dog park drove away the drug dealers and other less desirable users from a park that the rest of the community had abandoned. But, as is often the case, after the dog people transformed this park space, others, such as parents with small children, were once again attracted to the park and tried to dislodge the dog people. In many instances, the majority of dog park people are women, many of whom would not venture out to some areas of urban parks without a “guardian” dog. We all know that the more a dog is socialized, the less likely it will be to develop aggressive behavioral patterns. Exercise not only tires a dog out, but “also generates ample supplies of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which has a mood-stabilizing and calming effect on personality,” as Dr. Nick Dodman describes in his book Dogs Behaving Badly. He also adds that you should exercise your dog “preferably first thing in the morning for an effect that lasts all day.” A more relaxed dog also leads to one less inclined to bark the day away, proclaiming her lonely state to the neighbors. Finally, Jane Dirks, in a paper presented at the 1996 conference of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco, had the following to say about the public benefits of dog parks: “For ultimately, the Dog People find in the Dog Park a sanctuary, a space for healing. Dog People exult in watching their animals run, feeling that an hour or two’s romp with their dogs is essential to health, theirs and their dogs’, and makes up for a week of sedentary working hours. Dog People roam the trails of lower Frick Park [in Pittsburgh], alone or in groups, peeling away the stress and cognitions of the human world, cleansing themselves in the world of nature through the heedless antics of a happy dog.” Now, isn’t that well worth fighting for? Illustrations: Michael S. Wertz (title illustration) Red Canoe /Caroline Kavanagh (call out illustrations) TO PREVIOUS PAGE TO BEGINNING OF PIECE HOME | TOP | CONTACT US | ABOUT THE BARK | WEBMASTER Dee Tilson, East Bay Regional Park District, Park Supervisor “…Dog fights are rare. In fact, there have been very few reported incidents involving fighting dogs in the last three years…Further, there has never been an incident resulting in litigation in the history of the special dog park off leash use since 1975 over a dog fight incident.…The interactions between dogs and people have been very positive.…”