Dog Parks are places where people take their dogs for exercise and socialization. The people who engage in such kinds of activities are those who reside in apartments or in big cities. Therefore, these kind people do not have enough spaces where they can take their dogs for exercise. There are other people who engage in such activities to enable them interact with other people who have similar interests. This provides people with an opportunity to share their experiences on dog rearing issues.
In many parks located in Los Angeles, it has often been reported that dogs face various dangers while in the parks. Overly aggressive dogs can often run loose while in the parks thereby causing severe harm to people and other inferior dogs (Hess & Orthmann, 2007). There are other dogs which react by defending themselves when they are attacked by other dogs. In such cases, most of the dog owners are left wondering whether they should let the dogs deal with these issues by themselves or whether they should intervene.
There are other people who come to the parks with small dogs which cannot be able to defend themselves from the aggressive and antisocial dogs. They therefore expose the small dogs to the risk of being attacked by the big dogs. In addition, there are people who come with small children to the parks. Such children may play with different dogs without knowing the harm that the dogs can cause to them.
There are also people who are irresponsible to the extent that do not watch the activities that their dogs engage in while in the park. The establishment of dog parks assumes that dogs are well mannered and well-trained. However, this is not often the case because there are dogs which are very dangerous and cannot coexist with other dogs in a peaceful manner (American Planning Association, 2006).
In order to minimize the risks that are associated with dog parks, it is important for dog parks in Los Angeles to come up with a security policy which would be helpful in minimizing the risks that are observed in the different dog parks in the area.
Insecurity from dogs is a very critical issue that every person who visits a dog park should be well aware of. This is because it is very difficult to predict the dangers that people would face in a dog park where dogs of all characters are present.
To ensure that the security policy in the parks in Los Angeles is successful, there are various programs that need to be implemented (Hess & Orthmann, 2007). This analysis will therefore discuss the various strategies that parks in Los Angeles should implement in order to make the security policy successful.
Security Policy at Dog Parks
To ensure that parks are secure, there are certain measures that both the dog owners and the park owners should implement. The dog owners should be able to handle their own dogs effectively. This is especially the case for those people who bring aggressive dogs to the parks (Maluegray, 2006). There are various ways in which the owners of the parks can facilitate this process.
- They should notify the dog owners that they are supposed to take care of their dogs while in the parks at all time.
- Dog owners should be notified that if they do not take care of their dogs they would be forced to leave the parks.
- In case a dog becomes aggressive and the owner is not concerned, the staff at the park should file a complaint to the police.
- In case of a dog attack and the owner is unable to control it, the park owners should intervene and try to stop the dogs from the aggressive activities.
- While breaking up a fight between two dogs, the park owners should recommend dog owners to do so while holding a walking stick. This is especially the case if a person does not know how to break up a dog fight.
In order to make a dog park safe, there are certain recommendations that park users should follow
- The dogs should pass a test before being allowed to enter into a park. The dogs that fail to pass the tests should not be left to wonder alone in the parks.
- There should be parks for small dogs and big dogs since small dogs are more prone to being attacked by the big dogs.
- A dog owner should also ensure that he is a responsible dog handler.
To ensure most dog parks in Los Angeles are secure, people need to ensure that they are responsible dog handlers. To be a responsible dog handler, a person should follow some basic rules while in the park. These rules are as follows
- In case of a dog attack, a person run away from the park immediately to avoid the dog fight.
- In case you are not experienced at handling dogs, you should ensure that you go to the park during off-peak hours to minimize incidences of attacks from the fierce dogs.
- In case of a dog fight, you should ensure that you call your dog from the pack or chase the group of dogs.
- It is important for a dog owner to show his dog that he is more fun than the other dogs. Therefore, as a dog owner, you should ensure that you play the games that your dog loves to play.
- You should always ensure that you pay 100 percent of your attention on your dog in case it is off-leash.
- In case you wish to have a talk with other dog owners, you should do it when paying close attention on the moves that your dog makes.
Strategies for Security Policy Implementation
Responsibility is an attribute that dog owners should have especially if they often take their dogs to the parks. Dog owners should be able to track every move that their dogs take while in the parks. When dog owners are responsible, they can be able to interfere whenever they see their dogs engaging in dangerous activities such as attacking people or other dogs.
However, there have been instances whereby various dog owners in Los Angeles have been irresponsible thereby leaving their dogs to cause severe injuries to other people as well as other dogs in the parks (Bill, 2012). This state of affairs has instilled fear among different dog owners. Some of the people who have ever encountered a dog attack therefore find it very difficult to take their dogs to the parks for fear of repeat incidences.
Therefore, parks owners in Los Angeles should develop a strategy that would enable them to determine how responsible people are with regard to keeping a close watch at their dogs. To ensure that people take responsibility for their dogs while in the parks, the owners of the parks should ensure that they notify people who bring their dogs to the park of the various dangers that people and their dogs often encounter.
People should also be warned that in case their dogs engage in dangerous activities when they are not paying close attention, corrective measures would be taken such as making the owners of the dogs to pay for the damages that their dogs cause.
In addition, the owners of the dogs would also be banned from bringing their dogs to the parks in order to prevent such occurrences from happening in the future (Bill, 2012). Responsibility is therefore a very important attribute to consider from those people who bring their dogs to the parks thereby eliminating any incidences of danger occurring to other people who use the parks.
Every organization should be able to handle its operations with competence. To do this, it needs to ensure that its staff is competent to carry out its services efficiently. In the case of dog parks in Los Angeles, they need to ensure that the staffs that patrol the parks are well equipped with the different tactics of dog handling. This is because they play a big role in assisting dog owners whose dogs get out of control and they cannot manage to handle them for lack of adequate skills in dog handling.
For security reasons therefore, owners of dog parks in Los Angeles need to ensure that they inquire from the dog owners the various dog handling techniques that they know (American Planning Association, 2006). In case a person does not have sufficient skills of handling a dog, the staff at the dog parks can always keep a close watch on such people in order to prevent things from getting out of control. The staff can therefore be able to act immediately when things get out of control.
Safety measures are very helpful to an organization especially when people do not know where to report any incidences of danger. Dog parks pose very many dangers to people. As a result, people need to be given directives on what they should do in case of danger (Benson, 2009).
The parks in Los Angeles therefore need to set up alarms which people can easily access to call for help before any severe damage is witnessed. This form of investment would save the park owners time and effort of having to go round the entire park looking for any incidences of danger.
Dog parks are places where dogs are taken for exercises and socialization. As a result, a dog should be able to respond to its owner the way it has been trained. It is important to ensure that a dog is capable of responding to the signs that its owner makes so as to be sure that in case it gets involved in any form of danger, it would be easy to alert the dog and it would therefore refrain from engaging in a dangerous activity.
There have been instances in Los Angeles dog parks whereby dogs that are involved in dangers are not responsive even to their owners. This is an indication that the dogs have not been given adequate training to enable them understand the message their owners try to communicate to them.
To ensure that dogs do not get involved in severe dangers, it is important for the park owners to ensure that the dogs pass certain tests before they are allowed to enter the parks (Moore, 1995). This is because they would pose severe danger to other dogs especially if they are called and then fail to respond to their owners.
Small dogs are very prone to attack by the big dogs. The small dogs cannot manage to defend themselves from the big dogs when they are attacked. It is up to the owners to ensure that they keep a close watch on the small dogs because they would suffer serious injuries when attacked. However, in instances whereby small dogs have been allowed to relate with other big dogs, there have always been cases of the small dogs being injured. To minimize incidences whereby puppies have had to incur serious injuries, park owners should ensure that they set in place small parks where puppies can relate with other puppies without any serious injuries being reported (Moore, 1995). This would serve as a security measure aimed at protecting the puppies from the injuries that they might encounter from the bigger dogs.
The Implementation of private parks is also an issue that dog parks in Los Angeles need to lay emphasis on. This is necessary to consider because there is a group of people who come with dogs to the parks but they do not have the slightest idea of how they can separate a dog fight when their dogs are attacked.
In addition, there are people who come to the parks with antisocial and aggressive dogs which would easily attack the other dogs present in the parks (Wogan, 2008). As a result, such people find it important to protect themselves and their dogs from the attacks. The best mechanism to achieve this goal is when such people take their dogs to private parks where there is no interference from other dogs.
However, many parks have not been able to implement private parks successfully. As a result, incidences of attacks especially by non-trained and aggressive dogs have been common in the parks. To minimize these risks therefore, it is important for the park owners in Los Angeles to ensure that they provide adequate private parks in order to prevent incidences of dog attacks hence assuring safety to the people who bring their dogs to the parks.
To ensure that incidences of dog attacks are as minimal as possible, all dogs entering the parks should be screened to ensure that they are well trained and are highly responsive to their owners (Benson, 2009).
In addition, it is important for the owners of the dogs to reveal all the information relating to the dog’s behavior so that the park’s staff can easily determine whether the dog belongs in a private or a public park. In case of those dogs that become aggressive while in the public park, they should be directed to the private park as that would be an indication that they cannot coexist with other dogs in the same park (Wogan, 2008). This would boost the security of the parks since most of the dogs would be in their right parks.
It is true that there are those people who visit the parks with dogs that are antisocial and very aggressive. It is also true that there are people who love their pets so much regardless of their level of aggressiveness to such an extent that they take them to wherever they go during their free time. In case such people visit the parks with their dogs, it is important for the park owners to be prepared on how they would handle the dogs that such people bring with them.
With such dogs in the area, the park owners should ensure that they have competent staff that can be able to handle all dog related cases (American Planning Association, 2006). Such experts should be able to carry out socializing sessions for those dogs that are socially challenged.
The socializing sessions would be helpful in reducing the aggressive behaviors of such dogs hence making them less risky to those people present in the parks (Wogan, 2008). However, even after socializing lessons, the dogs should be kept close to their owners because socializing sessions might not be highly effective to some dogs.
In the case of antisocial, fearful, and defensive dogs, there is another solution that can be implemented. This is especially the case for those parks in Los Angeles which cannot manage to secure private parks mostly because of lack of sufficient resources. When this is observed, the high risk dogs should be fitted with muzzles to prevent them from biting or attacking people and other dogs in the parks (Bill, 2012). With those muzzles, the owners of the dogs would be sure that their dogs can safely relate with other dogs.
Fences around the parks also serve as very important measures of enhancing security around the parks. Parks should be fenced all around in order to prevent dogs from getting off the park. The dogs that get off the park may end up causing serious damage to outsiders.
It is therefore important to ensure that fences are present in order to ensure that dogs do not leave the park without the knowledge of their owners. The best fences that would be effective in limiting the dogs from reaching the outside environment should be as tall as 6 feet (Hess & Orthmann, 2007). In addition, the fences should be tilted to the inside.
The fencing should also be designed in such a manner that it can deliver shocks to dogs once they come close to the fence. This would eliminate any chances of dogs attacking people outside the park. Fences limit the movement of the dogs thereby enhancing security of the areas that surround the park (Maluegray , 2006). Therefore, effective fencing of the parks is one of the critical issues that park owners in Los Angeles should address.
There are instances whereby a person who is attacked by a dog may find it convenient to run away. In this case, a person might use the gate as the only option. As a result, the gates in the parks should be designed in such a manner that they would provide security to people in case of an attack by dogs.
Most of the gates in the parks should therefore be designed in such a manner that they would lock themselves from behind whenever a person passes through them. This would prevent a person from being attacked by a dog the moment he gets to the other side of the park.
The security of the dogs is of particular importance in cases of extreme weather conditions. There are times of the year when the weather is not conducive for people to take their dogs to the parks. This is because the weather might pose very serious health risks to the dogs. However, there are people who are normally not worried by the weather and they therefore take their dogs for walks at any time.
In such cases therefore, they look for the dog parks which offer both indoor and outdoor dog services. There are people are capable of providing their dogs with protective clothing especially during extreme weather cases (Bill, 2012). As a result, they can be able to access the park in any time of the year.
However, there are those people who would prefer their dogs to remain indoors for training during bad weather. Because of this, it is important for parks in Los Angeles to ensure that they are capable of providing both indoor and outdoor trainings for the dogs brought in during times of extreme weather conditions. The indoor training sessions should be carried out in tents where the dogs would be protected from extreme temperatures.
The indoor facilities should be spacious and have high ceilings. In addition, they should provide space for private owners as well as puppies to eliminate any chances of aggressive dogs attacking the other dogs (Moore, 1995). In this perspective therefore, the security of dogs is enhanced as the dogs are protected from extreme weather.
In addition, separate rooms are provided for ensuring that dangerous dogs do not attack the other dogs. This strategy would therefore ensure that the parks in Los Angeles are able to provide effective exercising and socializing services for the dogs at all times.
There are those dogs that normally have the habit of digging holes in the areas where they reside. This behavior has also been observed in those dogs that are brought to the parks. In this perspective therefore, it is up to the owners of the dogs to ensure that they keep a close eye on what their dogs are doing so that they can be able to spot their dogs whenever they dig holes in the park.
The owners should then ensure that they burry all the holes that their dogs dig. This would eliminate chances of people being involved in accidents that would be caused by the holes that the dogs dig. In addition, the staff at the parks should always ensure that they walk around the parks to ensure that no open holes have been left by irresponsible dog owners thus minimizing chances of anyone getting hurt in the parks (American Planning Association, 2006).
Whenever people visit the parks, they should be notified that they are supposed to bring in their own food which they would give their dogs. They should also keep a close watch on what their dogs are eating to prevent them from being given food that is unsuitable for them or which can ruin their health (Hess & Orthmann, 2007). Incidences of food poisoning can occur at any time and in order to prevent such an event from occurring, it is advisable for people to ensure that they keep their dogs at their vicinity and give them quality food.
From the analysis therefore, it is true that when the dog parks in Los Angeles focus on improving the security of their parks, incidences of injuries in the parks will reduce significantly thereby making the parks to be fun places for socializing and exercising the dogs.
References
American Planning Association. (2006). Planning And Urban Design Standards. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Benson , S. (2009). Dog Parks – 12 Tips on How to Keep Them Safe For You and Your Dog. Web.
Bill , E. E. (2012). 7 Dog Park Rules, Tips and Etiquette Standards. Web.
Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. H. (2007). Introduction To Private Security. New York: Cengage Learning.
Maluegray , T. (2006). Private Dog Parks: Can Be The Safe Choice. Web.
Moore, M. H. (1995). Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Wogan, L. (2008). Dog Park Wisdom: Real-World Advice on Choosing, Caring For, and Understanding Your Canine Companion. New York: Springer.