Support Your Local Dog Park

Little Rock has a fantastic dog park.  I feel lucky to live in a city where I can take my dog to a public park where he can socialize with other dogs and run as much as he wants.  We frequent Murray Park which is along the Arkansas River.  It's down the road from the Big Dam Bridge.  When I do a lot of running, I take my dog with me along the river trail, although the trail bridges have caused some controversy this year.  Big Dam Bridge is a pedestrian trail built over a lock and dam.  I have often been annoyed at the amount of dog waste I see there despite there being doggy bags at either end of the bridge.  I don't like litterbugs, much less people who allow their dogs to defecate on paths meant for foot traffic (sometimes even bare feet).  To me it is a no brainer: pick it up and throw it away!  If nothing else, at least discourage the dog from squatting until it finds some grass or shrubbery.  It's easy to do this by tugging him when he starts making the motions, and if you pause for a while in a grassy spot before getting on the bridge, it may encourage the dog to go before polluting the trail.  

I realize that I am going off on a tangent about the inappropriately located dog waste.  When I started reading newspaper articles stating that the mayor was going to ban dogs on the trail bridges, I was upset.  A new trail bridge recently went in near the Big Dam Bridge that connected to a peninsula jutting out into the river.  I was excited to be able to explore more in that direction and be able to take my dog on my long walks.  Then I was faced with the possibility of not having this privilege because so many other people don't clean up after their animals.  If you are a dog owner, and you don't clean up after it, just find it a new owner, because you don't deserve to be in charge of caring for another being.  Dogs have needs.  They have to be trained to follow the rules of our society in order to coexist with humans.  In return, their owners are expected to leave public areas as they left it before they brought their dogs there.  It may feel silly to carry a bag of dog waste around with you, but it sure beats contributing to a disgusting world.  The joys of keeping a dog far outweigh the inconvenience of acting as dog janitor on outings.  If you're really against carrying it yourself, train your dog to wear a dog pack and make him stow and cart it around.  The waste is in a plastic bag, so it's contained enough to get it to a trash can.  

At the dog park, the dogs have free reign to use any place they want for their own personal bathroom.  Murry Park's dog area has bag stations all over it so that even if the owner forgets to bring bags, there are still bags available.  The dog park also has lots of gravel so that even the messiest messes can be quickly cleaned up.

Don't make someone else step in it - clean up after your dog so we can all still enjoy local parks.