Thursday, March 22, 2012

Cautions For Dog Owners

Be careful with your pooch -- there's some scary stuff out there right now:
  • Someone is putting out squirrel poison in the alleys of Edgewater and Rogers Park, and so far five dogs have eaten it and died.  Hasn't happened in Uptown yet, but it very well could.  Please keep an eye out on what your dog eats during walks and if you see anyone doing this, contact the Bark Bark Club, which is keeping on top of the situation.  Here's more about the story, and this is what to look out for:
  • A small Pomeranian was attacked and killed by a larger dog at the Montrose Dog Beach last week.  You can read about it here.  A very sad situation.  A reminder that, per the Chicago Park District, dog owners are responsible for any damage caused by their dogs in the parks and on the beaches, including vet bills.  That goes for Clarendon Bark, Puptown, and Challenger Bark, as well as the Dog Beach. 

10 comments:

  1. My dog found a pile of kibble-esque items on the ground in front of Puptown yesterday. It looked a lot like what the picture demonstrates.

    Not taking any chances, since he'd gotten a few of them down before I could interrupt (and stealing straight from Puptown's FB page): I pour some hydrogen peroxide down him, to force him to ... aspirate.

    Then we stopped off at the vet, just to make sure.

    He's fine. He's pissed at me, but he's fine.

    Short version: keep an eye out, folks. It may not be limited to Roger's Park, or Edgewater.

    It's disgusting that someone would take rodent control upon themselves without any sort of regard for the well being of the non-rodents.

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  2. I have a small poodle, Poochy and he often gets frightened by the bigger attack dogs. Their owners tend to be very irresponsible. Perhaps we should ban certain breeds such as Pitbulls, Rottweillers ect...Many suburban towns have these laws.

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  3. americanlt,

    You can't assume all dogs of intimidating looking breeds have bad owners. I (a very responsible dog owner)have a dog that looks like a pitbull and I'm somewhat afraid of poodles. I'm petrified of weimaraners, but you won't see me looking to have them banned.

    I have a great amount of sympathy for the dog owner who lost their pet, but if my dog was very small I would not take him to an uncontrolled environment such as a dog park. Call me risk averse.

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  4. Why am I not surprised AmericanLT has a poodle?

    Is Mr Poochie also scared to walk by bars or liquor stores?

    I need a drink.

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  5. Matt, your logic is insane. So only large dogs should be allowed in a city sponsored dog park? That is a 100% stupid comment. Period.

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  6. Uptown Superhero, I won't speak to Matt's bizarre first paragraph, but I do think there's a strong argument that at the very least it's a bad idea for owners of very small dogs to bring them to the dog beach. The size disparity makes it so much more dangerous for them in just about every way.

    Sometimes dogs will tussle with each other, or just play rough, and it may take even the most conscientious owner a few moments to get to them to separate. For most dogs this is ok, but a tiny toy breed could easily be seriously hurt or killed in this amount of time.

    Beyond fights though, there's just the danger of getting run over! Lots of dogs at the beach run like crazy, which I think we'd all agree is exactly what the dog beach is for, but that sometimes results in accidental collisions and dogs getting run over. I've seen even medium size dogs take NFL-level hits that made me cringe. It's a definite risk that you assume when you bring your dog there. This risk is probably greater with a small dog.

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  7. I was bitten once by a toy poodle. So now, should we ban all toy poodles too??

    I was also threatened once by somebody's child. So lets also ban children.

    Sort of an ignorant proposition.

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  8. Atlas, I'm not for a ban on pit bulls, but your argument is intellectually dishonest and/or stupid, and definitely one of the lamer things I've read here in awhile. Pit bulls AS A BREED have a much greater capability and potential (in the hands of the wrong owner) to severely injure and kill other dogs. Toy poodles and children do not.

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  9. I'd be in favor of banning children from the dog beach. I've seen parents there playing with their kids that dont have a dog with them.

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