Bend Oregon Dog Park Etiquette

Musings of a Mutt . . . Bend Dog Park Etiquette

www.bestbendhomes.com

by Rocco

300 Days of Sunshine

Looks like the Bend Oregon real estate market is starting to heat up . . . my master is certainly busy, and it seems that downtown is bustling.

Speaking of heating up, this 300 days of sunshine shit in Central Oregon is getting me down a bit. I've been moving pretty slowly. My impervious, wiry black and tan coat, while great for repelling rain and shedding snowflakes, was just too hot during the recent unseasonably warm streak. Now that things have cooled down, I'm again ready to take pen in paw and elucidate.

A while back, I wrote a piece on the great Riverbend Dog Park,

located on a calm section (great dog-paddling) of the Deschutes River on the westside of Bend Oregon, just across from a really neat townhome community called, strangely enough, Deschutes Landing. I tried to use big words then and key phrases like "acute sense of propriety" in the hopes that the search engines would send spiders crawling through my post.

Etiquette at the Park

Anyway, today I'd like to talk about etiquette at the dog park. I can't say that my thoughts are original (or even things that I've figured out for myself) . . . many of them are courtesy of Mare Shey, a famous dog lady in Central Oregon. I attended her obedience classes when I was just a rambunctious pup, however, I'm not sure I got as much out of them as I should have . . . my master and I spent an inordinate amount of our class time in the equivalent of "doggie solitary"-our noses glued to the wall as our classmates, human and canine alike, cavorted about behind us. I was "invited" to "retake" the basic obedience course.

Before I enter the park, I look around with my alert brown eyes . . . I try to ascertain who's there and who's not.

Are they sniffing, playing, or scratching? If I feel at all intimidated or uncomfortable, I stroll up the street and admire another section of the river.

Sometimes, I even trot through residential neighborhoods and look (I hate to admit it!) at houses in Bend.

No Humping

I prefer to mingle with smaller groups of pets, usually of similar ilk. I don't like it when dogs bully each other or guard their toys. My master always says that the dog park is not the place to socialize ones beast. He's always telling me, "no humping, pinning, prolonged body stiffening or body slamming." He does have a way with words!

Here are a few more tips from me (and Mare):

• Pick up and dispose of (properly) all fecal matter and other waste
• Leave the toys outside the park
• Do not bring young kids to the park
• Don't bring more than 5 dogs to the park
• See my master's quote above

To learn more about real estate in Bend Oregon, dog parks in Central Oregon, or to comment on Rocco's voluminous vocabulary, please click here and use the comment form provided.

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