Here are some of the pictures I took at the Candiac Dog Park, it's the one I go to with Finley.

To view the rest of the set, click here to visit my Flickr page. 

After that first experience at the dog park (in Brossard), I wanted to find a different one to go to. Some research online showed that there was one nearby in Candiac. I drove by it first with my dad to see if it totally fenced in and after seeing that it was I took Finley later that week.

The second visit to the dog park went better than our first; the Candiac dog park is by far my favourite park and I think that after going a couple times for about 6 weeks now, we are comfortable there. It’s not that big but big enough that Finley can go off and does her own thing if she doesn’t want to play with the other dogs. She spent most of her time sniffing stuff and pretty much ignoring the other dogs when we went the first time. Since we where there in the afternoon there weren’t any dogs there for part of the time.

She wasn’t too keen on the dogs when she did see them and she spent most of the time running away from them and hiding in the corner behind the garbage can. I would then retrieve her and bring her back into the middle of the park. After a while I sat down at the picnic table with her in my lap so she could watch the dogs, since she did seem to have interest in them...albeit from a distance.

When I left that day I knew something would need to be done since I wanted to be able to take her to dog parks. Now I realize that not all dogs are social butterflies when they are around other dogs and for a while I thought this might be the case with her. However, when she saw other dogs when we were on walks or through the front window, she wants to go see them. Same with at the park, from a distance she acted like the wanted to be around them, until she ended up in the middle of a pact.

I don’t think she was properly socialized when she was a young pup or something happened with one of the owners (or between owners) since she seems weary of other dogs. Other dogs parents at the park noticed she didn’t seem to happy and had her tail between her legs a lot. Thankfully, a couple of owners were nice and patient with us and brought their dogs over, away from the crowd, so she could meet them and just give a butt sniff hi. This did help a bit but it didn’t make her want to go hang out with the other furballs.

While this dog park trip wasn’t a huge success, it did end better than the first time we went to one. This was encouraging enough for me to try to help my little girl socialize better and go back to the park. I just wasn’t too sure what I should do or what would work. To this day, I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing but I have seen some improvements, but I will save that for the next part of this series. 

I was incredibly nervous the first time we took Finley to the dog park. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react to other dogs or if I’d be able to get her to come to me when it was time to leave. I know that if she didn’t come I was going to have to resort to bribing her because running after her wouldn’t accomplish anything other than making me tired. She’s just way to fast to catch. She had come across other dogs at the pet store and on walks and seemed to be interested in them, so I figured it would go alright at the dog park.

When we got to the park, we went in and let her off the leash while my dad and I walked around the perimeter to check it. She sniffed around the benches near the door and then seemed to follow us closely. Fin wasn’t too happy about the other dogs though, she didn’t go near any of them and when they came near her she acted afraid. Her tail would curl up under her and she looked at us like “Help there’s a dog near me”.  This wasn’t too encouraging. Although when the other dogs left her alone, she seemed very happy to sniff around and even get to run around like crazy.

One guy showed up with his two beagles that are about the same size as Finley and they wanted to play her. She wasn’t having any of it; she had no interest in playing with any of those dogs. I’m not sure she was ever taught how to play with other dogs or socialized with them. I let it play out for a little bit though because I didn’t want to coddle her even though she was afraid because it would only make the situation worse. Basically, what ended up happening was she got chased by the beagles around the park. She’s fast so they had trouble keeping up to her but she was afraid and would come to hide behind my dad or I. I didn’t appreciate that the beagles’ daddy was encouraging his dogs to chase after Finley either, especially since it was clear she didn’t like it.

We didn’t stay long after that because I didn’t want this to be negative experience for her. I think it’s important for dogs to be able to run off leash and since Finley has some running away issues the only place she can do that is in a fenced-in area. While her first experience wasn’t the best, I was reluctant to take her back to a dog park but I did, to a different park and during the day when I suspected it wouldn’t be as busy.  More to come on those experiences in future posts. 

Dog parks, do you like them or hate them? Personally, I’m a fan of certain ones and others really not. When I first got Fin, I waited a few weeks before taking her to one, after all she had to respond to her name and come when called first. I knew of two dog parks in my area and so one day I stopped by the first one. It’s this really nice dog park in St-Lambert that looks well fenced and is separated in two areas, one for small dogs and one for big dogs, and has two sets of doors for access so dogs can’t run out while you are trying to get in and out. I had seen this particular dog park while driving on the highway and when I went to see the La Ronde fireworks from the St-Lambert Seaway Park I had gotten a better view.

Sounds perfect, right? Yes, quite but not so much. Turns out that a couple years ago, the city revamped its dog park and now you need to swipe a card to get access. This card is free to citizens of St-Lambert but if you live outside the city it costs $115 a year. I love my dog but I’m not about to pay that much considering I have to drive 20 minutes to get there so I find this price a little steep. I can understand the reasoning behind it, they invested quite a bit of money to make it nice and safe for dogs and apparently it was getting overcrowded because of its popularity and dogs where getting injured because of aggressive play from some dogs -but $115 a year? Now when I drive by the park I rarely see dogs there unless it’s a Saturday or Sunday, quite sad. By the way, when walking through the Seaway Park I noticed an unlocked gate on the side of the big dog area, so much for the needing a swipe card.

Obviously, we didn’t go to that park. I had seen another one in Brossard, on boulevard Rome near Quartier Dix30. My dad and I ended up at this one instead. I have to say, I will likely never go back to this dog park. It’s an alright park, better than nothing I guess. First off, it’s not totally fenced in, the two sections, where the arrows are, show where the city failed to put fencing. I do hope they fix this before a serious injury (or worse) occurs.

Now, I get that most dogs will probably not jump down seeing as it would be a drop of a few feet, but when they are playing and running around it’s quite likely that they could fall off by accident – Fin did come close. This is, likely, the biggest reason I wouldn’t go back. I didn’t like that there are quite a few areas where the fencing doesn’t quite reach the ground and if you have a small dog, they could easily slip under if they wanted to get out. The day I was there the park was far from clean and you couldn’t take more than 3 steps without having to move to avoid stepping in poop. I was not impressed. Needless to say, it seems reasonable why I never want to go back. Although I would be willing to give it a second try at some point...possibly.

When I got home, I looked up other dog parks in the area hoping to find one that wasn’t too far away, turns there was one in the next town over. I have to say that I enjoy going to the Candiac dog park. It’s a fair size and has some trees and one picnic table but no benches. Save for the last time I was there, the poop bag dispenser always had bags and most owners do pick up after their dog, although there are some that haven’t. I think the city also cleans the park up once a week since the messes aren’t multiplying and taking over. I also appreciate that the city (or someone) has gone to the trouble of adding plastic fencing or chicken wire in the areas where the chain link fencing doesn’t reach the ground – especially since the park is right beside the busy highway.  I also like that there is a doggie water fountain for when dogs get thirst from running around. Overall, this has been my favourite park to go to and I’ve gone back a couple times a week since finding it.