Welcome to Dog Parkology, a show that looks at the concept of dog parks through our relationship with dogs, with each other, and with the land. In our prologue, we explore the creation of the first official dog park in the world. The Ohlone Dog Park was created to address residents desires to let their dogs off leash and have a space to play. Since then, over a thousand officially designated dog parks, and counting, have blossomed.
I think the intention of Dog Parks was to create places that could invite dog people to come and take their dogs off leash. Every concept has to start somewhere, right? And then if it doesn't evolve, it becomes outdated. So how do we give dogs access to freedom to off leash experiences? This is Tina Patel, who runs the Dog Lando Enrichment Center in Orlando, Florida. I first started Dog Lando in 1999. We have six acres and our whole goal is to integrate dogs into a naturalistic lifestyle.
For Tina, the question of how we might reconsider dog parks ties to our larger relationship with dogs in general. Dog I never understood living with animals in captivity. I was born and raised in Kenya, in East Africa. And so my perception of living and living amongst other forms of animals involved allowing them to live with wilderness. Our treatment towards them reflects how we perceive them, how we think about them.
This really facilitates a very different kind of relationship between human and dog, especially in this Western way of living with dogs where their rights to freedom are really revoked. Our laws prohibit us from taking our dogs everywhere we go, taking them off leash. We live a very compromised life. lifestyle with dogs, and we have to result to dog parks. Dogs don't need fenced in areas as much as people need fenced in areas. Offer them any outdoor space.
I think that the idea of a dog park gives people a sense of relief. At least their dogs are contained. But your dogs are contained at home. Your dogs are contained when you're walking them. Around the neighborhood on a leash. So why do we go to a dog park to contain them? Isn't a dog park to satiate a different kind of need? Through DogLando, Tina has studied specialized parks. She believes having many forms of enrichment could provide great benefits.
I think our spaces need to be designed with function, meaning with purpose. There can be one park that is just botanical, and the whole park would be of plants and herbs and things that dogs can eat, ingest, smell, to give dogs an opportunity to access this. Things that they should have access to in their ecology, so that they can function as a whole. There are so many opportunities we have now, understanding from a design perspective, how we should create dog parks.
Tina also feels that we, as humans, need to be more involved at dog parks. Many people can fall victim to bringing their canines to a dog park and thinking the job is done. But that's missing the opportunity for so much more growth and enjoyment on both sides. I see in kid playgrounds all the time, the parent will come with a child and say go play. But a child wants a playmate. A child wants somebody to play with him or her on that swing and on this and on that.
And the parent, they're not engaging, they're not interacting. And I think the same about dog parks. They notice somebody they know, and they just form little huddles and they start talking or sit down on a bench. They're not engaging with their dogs in this park. My thought is, if we can't enhance their intelligence, then what do we have them for? We're not protectives. I know you think we are. I'm more afraid of my dog not having a life worth living.
Dogs don't go to a dog park just to exercise. They're going there and they are learning. They're learning about people. They're learning about dogs. They're absorbing so much information. If we want our dogs to have a more meaningful experience than just getting their zoomies out in a plot of dirt, it requires a more studied and concentrated effort. That brings us to the theme of this episode. Guided play is a learning concept and technique.
The general idea is to allow the freedom to play with innate curiosity. While the supervisor is on hand to help gently steer the ship and assist in the learning process. Although guided play is a concept typically applied to teaching children, there are parallels to how we can look at our personal time spent with our dogs. Guided play also brings in an objective, such as teaching awareness and developing intellectual, social, emotional, and physical skills.
And since play is naturally free and joyous, there are positive emotional connections in the learning process. It's important to remember that all dogs are not going to learn or act the same, just like with differences among kids in a classroom. Every year, somebody will call me and the guardian will say, you need to come out and meet with me and my dog. Cause my dog hates going to the dog park.
This is Camille Ward, a certified animal behaviorist who works with dogs and humans in her community of Ann Arbor, Michigan. And then I'll question them a little bit more. Is your dog aggressive to other dogs? Is your dog able to be around other dogs? Are you able to walk your dog? How does your dog respond when he meets another dog? And a lot of times people will say, All of that's fine, he just doesn't do well at the dog park.
He gets really stressed and he picks fights, and he should enjoy going to the dog park, right? And I have to tell people, No, there's nothing wrong with your dog. A big step in choosing the right space for your dog is really looking at it through the dog's perspective and personality. I think we misunderstand dogs a lot. We label them a stubborn or they don't get something right away. They're not very smart. All these human terms that we use sometimes. to describe the dog when we're frustrated.
Your dog is somebody who may not like going to a big loud party or a karaoke bar, or they do better one on one or with maybe a few close dog friends, but that's okay. There's nothing wrong with your dog. That's his or her preference. Camille herself has had different experiences with her canine companions. Over the years, I've had many dogs. Marty, my first dog as an adult, the Yellow Lab, he loved the dog park.
Everyone was a friend he hadn't met yet, and he was the quintessential dog that should go to a dog park. But I see a lot of dogs at dog parks who are just managing the environment. They're not necessarily loving it, but they're coping. And so I always try to impart to owners, if your dog's not having fun, then maybe you shouldn't be going. Maybe you should be doing other activities that you like with your dog.
Maybe your dog prefers to go and do agility or go on long hikes or do sniff or scent classes or nose work. So really looking at your dog as an individual. rather than who you think your dog should be. Through observing these interactions, we can start to better understand our dog's personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. In order to truly find the solution that's best for your dog, you have to remember to reserve expectations or judgments on their behavior and preferences.
Let them speak to you with their actions and reactions. What we thought at first was that Edie had puppy fear. This is Meredith May, the author of Loving Edie, How a Dog Afraid of Everything Taught Me to be Brave. I wanted to be able to have my fun dog life back. I didn't sign up for this. What's the point of a dog that can't move through the world with you?
Meredith's past experience with Golden Retrievers had led her to believe that all dogs of that breed would be well behaved and the life of the party. However, when she got her Golden Retriever, Edie, that was not the case. Edie was too scared to interact with other dogs, even hiding in the corner at a group play date. It got to a point where Edie couldn't even walk on a city sidewalk, she'd get scared and have panic attacks, and her fight or flight was off the charts.
And I also thought, I've trained two wonderful golden retrievers, what am I doing wrong with this one? Like, I'd somehow lost my mojo. Meredith and her wife, Jen, tried to figure out what to do. They sought out a specialist who sat them down and gave them a reality check. Saying they had to be more conscious and considerate of how they planned their daily life with this dog. It was through that process that Meredith started to reverse engineer her thinking around who Edie actually is.
She realized she needed to put her breed expectations aside and put Edie's needs first. Meredith and Jen decided the city was too much stimulation for Edie, so they moved to a mountain area with a rural, winding road. Once there, with more space and calmness, Edie was able to come alive and thrive. We live 1, 800 feet up on a mountain, but the beautiful thing is she's really come alive here.
She can do a lot of things now that she couldn't do before, just given the solitude and the time to think about it and relax. And so have we. I am so glad my dog is teaching me what slow means. It's something I have struggled with my whole life. No longer feel the need to pace. Push this dog to be the dog that I felt I was somehow cheated out of. Geez, Edie for a reason. We need to view every dog as their own individual personality. And when we do our bonds can grow even closer.
Another factor that can amplify and assist in that process is the design and setup of the dog park. You're going to, to embrace these opportunities for play or learning. for bonding. My whole idea with dog parks was let's create a dog park for dogs and people. Not, let's put up a fence and call it a dog park. This is landscape architect Leslie Lau, founder of Bear Grass Landscape Architecture, who designed the five acre Hugh Rogers Wag Park in Montana. I grew up in Canada.
From day one, I was outdoors, hiking, fishing. Backpacking. And I had friends with a German shepherd and the German shepherd. I went everywhere with that dog. We went fly fishing. I think it just cemented that I love dots. And that was really the start of it. Since then I've had 25 years of having wire haired pointy Griffons. So, it really got me involved in agility, in obedience, and because I have hunting dogs, they are in the outdoors all the time.
And they love water, they love ponds, they like all surfaces. So I really wanted to design a park that would engage dogs, get them interested in exploring and learning and trying new things. I think when you do that with a park, then you have a lot less conflicts. If you have a large enough space and you give them options to explore different stuff, then play becomes much more prevalent, exploring becomes much more prevalent.
Not having anything for dogs to do, just a piece of lawn and calling it a dog park, I think it's really a huge disservice. When a dog park is set up with activities or ways for the dogs to play together, the humans can even join in and be part of the experience. We're trying to create a bond between the person and the animal, instead of just being static, just standing there talking while the dogs play with another dog. Yeah, it's a part of it, but it's a minimal part of it.
I start thinking about what natural amenities are there. Is there a great area for a walking trail? Is there water? Do we want water? Can we bring in water? Do I need shade structures? How does the community want to utilize the park? Leslie shared some examples of her approach. I came to Whitefish, Montana and started to work on Whitefish Animal Group's Wag Dog Park. I provide two beaches.
So that both small dogs or puppies could use one quiet beach off to the end and then an area that I set up huge rocks as an amphitheater. So, one, it keeps the gravel from sliding into the pond and two, it just became a play area for people to sit on, for dogs to sit on. That's just one element. So another element is a whole creek area and sometimes it has water, it's got trees, it's shady. Okay. Then there's an obstacle area that allows that interaction.
And so when we see that cooperation between the owner and the dog to be empathetic, to take care of that animal, to treat that animal with respect, it's awesome. We want that to be a healthy bond. Really what drives me is just seeing happy dogs, people with their dogs. And that to me is the biggest reward. These types of parks can facilitate opportunities for all kinds of activities. From a simple game of fetch to agility exercises.
Our dogs spend a lot of time inside and they can always use more to satiate their appetite for play and engagement. It's our responsibility as they're humans to give them that opportunity. Through using the tool and approach of guided play, we can provide a more complete and tailored sense of enrichment for our furry best friends. Thank you for listening to this episode of dog parkology. I'm Jenna Blum, your narrator.
This show is was created by, as it should be productions, the creators of dog, save the people and dog walk meditation podcasts with executive producer, Scott Benalio and producer and editor Jack summer. Be sure to check out the entire season of dog parkology by following the show on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow us on social media at dog parkology. You can visit our website, dogparkology.
com, to learn more about the show and to buy custom designed merch, like our t shirts. If you know of any great dog parks in your area, or you've created your own dog parkology moment, you can email us at dogparkology at gmail dot com. We'd love to hear about your experience, and if you've enjoyed listening Listening to this episode, please share it with a friend. Enjoy a trip to a dog park today or wherever you go with your dog to appreciate nature, meet others, and make a better life together.