Always look down.
It is unsolicited, yet good and obvious, advice for anyone visiting a dog park.
The wisdom could also come in handy when walking along a sidewalk—believe it or not everyone is not fastidious about scooping their dog’s poop from public right of ways—but it seems more useful at a dog park.
Beginning this month and through November Chula Vista plans to operate a fenceless dog run at Memorial Park on Third Avenue.
Canine champions will undoubtedly be thrilled. Having a place for Fido to frolic is always welcomed by those who consider their dogs their children.
The houseless who frequent the park or the kids and families who gather to play games or picnic may not be as ecstatic. Nothing like squishing a left behind pile of excrement with your feet to cast a cloud over a sunny afternoon. Patrons are advised to keep their eyes open. And always look down.
Another piece of advice I offer to anyone visiting a dog park is stay off your phone.
Yes, your dog is special. And yes your dog is usually well-behaved and yes it’s always someone else’s fault that your dog was teased to the point of not being able to keep from knocking over a six year old girl so that she would lose her grip on a messy hot dog sandwich and your precious pooch swooped in and gobbled it up while she lay their crying in shock and hunger.
But, had you not been talking on the phone with your bestie, or taking a selfie of you looking cute for your Instagram page or texting your buddy to find out “What’s up, bro?”, you would have seen that your little doggie was about to be tempted by demons and sucked into a vortex of evilness that would send you running at full jog to rescue your darling.
Stay off the phone, keep your peepers on your puppers and you can probably avoid any chill killing drama.
Stay away from other dog people.
Dogs are great. They are better than people and too good for us and we agree that people who have dogs are almost on the same par of excellence as canines.
But stay away from other dog people in the dog park if you want to avoid long, pointless and never-ending rounds of dog Q and A. One innocent, polite question about “What kind of dog is she?” could land you on the receiving end of a tale that reveals Princess’ harrowing tale from shelter to veterinarian to a fur-ever home.
Avoiding other humans will also spare you the burden of having to remember another stranger’s name. At my park I can point out Rocco, Daphne, Axel and Zeus. I do not know the names of the people who walk them even though we have met dozens of times. At best they are “Rocco’s human” or that dude who owns Zeus. And it’s probably best. After all, being at the dog park is about being there with the dogs. And looking down.
Always look down.
