Dog-Friendly Cities
Our cities are becoming more inclusive with our dogs every day. Find out how you can participate in this movement.
If you live in a city, no matter what it is, you may have realized that there are few or no spaces shared with dogs. This may have worked 50 years ago, but things have changed.
“If you review the areas most densely populated by dogs, you will notice that the latter predominate in neighborhoods in midtown Manhattan, the Upper West and Upper East, Greenwich Village, and Chelsea.” Rattner, a resident of East Village, N.Y.
Although Manhattan is one of the cities with the largest number of dogs in the world, it does not mean that it still has much to improve in terms of 'dog friendly' spaces. What many cities have achieved is worth imitating, but the change has more to do with us, the owners.
As I have always said, what is directly related to a dog's behavior is its human behavior. Do not feel bad if you are struggling with your dog's behavior, there is no blame if you do everything you can with love, but we can improve what we do. Our best friend can be a source of happiness or one of anxiety and stress. What factors influence? Although there are many, we will only talk about a few.
The way we educate the dog is the key to everything.
In order to make dogs more and more accepted in the places we always visit, we must understand the owners of the premises and the other citizens as well. Going to a park for a run and arriving home relaxed is not the same as having stepped on anonymous poop. Not only is it difficult to remove, but it can ruin part of your day. Just as awkward would be having a rude dog at the next table in a restaurant. So the first thing we must do is educate people and teach them how to live with dogs in cities. Surely you know of festivals that accepted dogs but they have had to cancel it.
Professional training is important, yes. But as in everything in life, love and conscience play a more important role. Basically the idea is this: if you want your dog to be accepted in more places, educate yourself. The time we spend with our dogs should be of quality, not just feeding them, taking them for a walk and watching them play with the children. It's about creating a connection of mutual respect and knowing that you are the leader. If with love and patience we teach them to obey, control and respect each other, the task of making them a more civilized and social dog will be much easier.
The basic things a dog needs to learn first are not jumping, flipping, and swimming. It is to control and behave in their interaction with other humans and dogs. If we achieve this, which more than difficult is really a matter of patience and love, we will be ready to share with a large community of people and dogs in our city. If you don't know how to do it, you can read or look for videos where it is shown that in a short time you can educate your dog in the basics. But I emphasize, hitting, yelling, pulling and punishing your dog in a cruel way is considered animal abuse and you will only create frustration and fear that will not help your life or his life to be better. Patience and love are the key.
There is much work ahead. Some cities are more aware of pet love than others, and it took them years to achieve that. You may think that your country or city is not ready for this yet, but when changes come suddenly we adapt in a matter of months. Now is the time to understand that dogs are part of our lives and cities, whether they like it or not, are going to change their structure little by little to continue accepting our educated dogs in some of the places we visit.
Do you have any suggestions for things that can be done to be more dog-inclusive in your city?
Comment what you think and let's share ideas.