Comments

1
you should get a dog already charles.
2
That hasn't been my experience at various dog parks. Countless dogs racing around, barking loudly, brief fights. Chaos.
3
Yeah, I got a pretty good strain of dope at Uncle Ike's the other night too, Charles.
4
I don't know about dog parks. I do know a bit about Irish countryside dogs. They are the sanest dogs I have ever encountered, collectively. Happy and healthy. You see a dog tied up in front of a cottage, that dog isn't happy or healthy. The ones who work on farms and run free? Smart, engaged, friendly.

Of course, farmers are practical people. It just occurred to me, just now, that if a dog was a problem, that dog would be GONE. I mean, really GONE.

My new favorite quote, from "Think Like A Freak", a book written the Freakonomics guys, is "The plural of anecdote is not data." Charles' post and my story are anecdotes, yeah?
5
I took my dog to the park several times. She skirts the area skilfully ignoring other canines. She's open to playing with humans, though.




As soon as her circuit is complete, she heads for the gate and the car.




And gladly returns to a quiet home.
6
Too many generalizations for that entire paragraph to mean even a single thing.

All those statements may, or may not be true, situationally.

The only comments that aren't equally general and wack is #4 and #5, well done.
7
I've only taken my dogs to dog parks a couple of times, because they were clearly uncomfortable.
8
Charles, blog posts ought to be more meaningful and thought out than jottings and random thoughts you might put in your journal. You have a nice title, but virtually nothing in the body to demonstrate any connection to it. Do you mean to critique the idea of pets (animals as property) or somehow suggest that being in a house or apartment is unhealthy (a introvert-phobic prejudice you have revealed in past musings)? Either way, the idea is unformed, not communicated, not supported by your writing. Please think something through before you publish again. Thank you.
9
Hey look, someone on the internet wrote something stupid about a topic they know nothing about.
10
@ 7, my dog doesn't often get along with other dogs. But I'm also a total novice of a dog owner and don't get a lot of the etiquette and training yet. But we have a nice yard (blasphemy to Charles and also the departed Goldy, even though both live in houses with yards), and she gets good running around there. No need to go to a special dog park. (I wonder if those are primarily found where most of the locals are white and middle or upper class. That would be something worth Charles' time to write about.)
11
My friends dog shows better social skills with other dogs when she's off leash. I think it's true of most dogs.
12
Nothing like a randomized communist begging us to give up our private property rights so that we can be forever enslaved to corrupt, corporatized govt factions. What a wonderful world we live in. Asshole writer.
13
Seems doubtful you've ever been to a dog park. I used to take a friend's dog to the dog park on 3rd and Bell (that was formerly a park where homeless people lived). There was always a lot of drama b/c there was always at least one jerk there who refused to properly observe or discipline their dog. This friend's dog got attacked and bitten (and left bloody and traumatized) once at this park - I was not there that time, very thankful for that. Just like everything on earth good thing and bad things happen in dog parks.
14
@ 8) i really like to mix my posts up. i thought i wrote a very heavy post on friday and, as a reaction, really wanted to post something on the lighthearted side. this post is meant for chuckle, nothing more.
15
my dog loved Magnusson from the day he got his last shots until he died. he looked forward to going every weekend morning. charles' observation is correct in large parks - Magnusson, Mayrmoor. there is not much barking or fighting. in 8 years, he got into it with maybe 3 dogs. he got jumped by a pit once and won.

in small parks, it's very different.
16
@ 14, ah. Thank you.
17
Dog parks are fairly peaceful because owners with aggressive dogs know it's a big mistake to take them there. I disagree @10 that if you have a large yard that's enough running-around space for, say, a 50-pound dog, and even if you do have enough running-around space for them, it's good to socialize your puppy to other dogs by taking them to the dog park regularly.
18
This is his version of a Ziggy comic, calm down people.

Portlandia's dog park bit:

http://youtu.be/S9S-Dt2tWf4
19
They're different dogs, Charles. You're really not this dense, right?
20
As the steward of Genesee which is the park in Charles's photo, I totally welcome this lighthearted thought about dog parks in Seattle. The plural of anecdote may not be data @4, but I am very experienced with dogs and off-leash areas and Charles' antecdotal experience is most people's experience, especially in larger dog parks as @15 points out. Being off-leash balances dogs in many ways, as @4 says, and with more dogs than children in Seattle, this means more balanced lives for a lot of Seattle's humans. We need more and larger off-leash experiences -- Portland has 33 dog parks. Seattle has only 14, the last few that were added have been <10% of the size of Genesee. Would love a full story on that difference, Charles.
21
If you want to help bring Seattle more off-leash areas, start by joining COLA, the organization responsible for helping create Seattle's 14 OLA's in conjunction with Parks and Rec. Start by liking us on our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/seattlecola/
22
If you want to help bring Seattle more off-leash areas, start by joining COLA, the organization responsible for helping create Seattle's 14 OLA's in conjunction with Parks and Rec. Start by liking us on our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/seattlecola/

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