Anyone want to walk their dog with me?

Well, I'm not trying to be snarky or anything, but where do you live that you're afraid to come out of your house at 3o'clock in the afternoon? I think you might be being a bit sensitive. Really.
Come out and see, if you maintain your fear, it will eventually seem insurmountable.
Its like me and the cold...I hate it, but I come out in it because . a) I have to, and b) if I didn't do it, sooner or later I would never do it.
I can't think of anyplace in the entire neighborhood that would warrant being so afraid.
I hope you find someone to walk with, just so you can see that its really okay.

I like this idea. I definitely feel more protected walking with my big dog as opposed to just walking with my little guy. I'm interested in creating a dog walking club but can't do those hours. I usually walk both my guys after work which is around 5:30.

People who don't feel afraid to walk their dogs in the middle of the day should consider themselves lucky. I've been there, I know how it feels. There are plenty of people I don't want to cross paths with, and where our house is, there were ALWAYS off leash dogs running around. Ever have an aggressive, offleash dog run up to you out of nowhere? THAT'S scary.

If you don't find anyone who can fit your schedule, the one thing I found that made me feel a little safer was/is carrying HALT! mace. It sounds silly, I know - but it's basically a dog-grade pepper spray. Postal carriers often have it on them. I haven't had to use it (touch wood), but I'm willing to bet it would sting any human.

This is one of my biggest fears, we have had a few close calls. My one dog is very large and comes off as aggressive to dogs he does not know, my little one is a troublemaking punk. It is a bad combination. Honestly a can of mace may not be a bad idea. I am not afraid of people so much but trying to break up a fight between my big guy and an equally strong dog would be really really bad.

See, here's the thing. I love my dog, all nine pounds of her, and she is a lovey sweetheart to me and folks she knows.

But. BUT. That does not mean she will be friendly to your dog. Most likely the Chihuahua in her will perk up and she becomes crayzee. So...I really don't care if you say your dog "is friendly " as they bum rush my dog. I will cross the street and avoid you.

And dogs should not be off leash unless in an enclosed dog park. Period.

Agreed. My chihuahua is a sweetheart but you would never know it if you encountered her on a walk. I avoid other dogs at all costs, and they should avoid us! And I always walk with pepper spray--you never know what kind of human or canine nuts you might encounter!

this is true.. both of my close calls were with escapee dogs though, of owners I know and like and who are pretty responsible, but own fairly aggressive strong dogs. Escaped dogs are the worst, the dogs that are used to roaming tend to be a bit less excited by things, thankfully both of those incidents avoided injury. I am very afraid of my dogs getting out as well. My chi is a houdini though last time I found him squared off in the street against a big pit who looked mostly bemused by the napoleon act, with my big guy the situation would have been bad as the other dog would have seen a threat not a silly little dog dancing in the street.

Well if ya want a dog that you'll never lose, both due to size plus when it sheds it will set off the allergies in everyone who lives in Fishtown... there's always a malamute.

They're really fun dogs but man are they big and boy do they shed. You could recarpet an entire rowhome with their fur every year.

We don't have a dog but could use the exercise.
Are cats welcome?

only on a leash.

You could just take your dog over to Triangle Dog Park in lieu of a walk. There will probably be other people and you're behind a fence so it's totally safe from anything that can't open a gate, like my current fear, urban badger attack. I seriously thought we were about to get attacked by one the other night, but it turned out to be a black plastic bag stuck in the fence around Cohox.

Wait? I missed this story.

My little guy has some dog-space issues and he gets snappy when strange dogs get too close to him too quickly. I stopped going there when an overly-aggressive mutt started a pack gang up on him. No real snarling and biting, but enough to get me worried and get him all scared and backed into a corner.

I picked him up, and the lead dog was still jumping up at me. No thanks.

Also, my little guy is wily, and he's gotten out before and run into the Volvo lot across the street. At night. And he's black. No thanks, not with the way people speed down Aramingo right there…

That was my lil guy who was attacked and lost his eye. I am no longer involved with TDP because of that along with some other issues. Do you want to meet up on Tuesday, Jan 10 at 5:30 for our first dog walking club walk? Come one, come all!

Yeah, I stopped for a long time after that as well. I try to go before most people get out of work to reduce the chance of having to deal with a park full of large dogs. I wish we could go more to the park on the Schuylkill since it has a separate park for smaller dogs, but it's pretty hard to find parking down there.

oh, no! your pug? that's so sad. i didn't hear about this either.

we stopped going because many of the people who bring their dogs there don't pay attention to what the dogs are doing. dogs will start humping and causing trouble and many of the owners will just sit there, texting or talking to the other people. humping isn't funny; it starts fights. also, pepper gets ganged up on a lot there, which makes her very uneasy, and one time she got bit very close to her eye and she started bleeding a lot. that was enough for us.

You can just bring Pepper over here to play.

she slept the entire next day.

we will again. maybe you can have game night.

I second this. I have Trivial Pursuit.

my parents got us the new one last year. you can bet on whether people are going to answer the questions right or wrong. then you can use the tokens to buy pie pieces you're having trouble with.

Yes, Smeagol the pug. It is very sad but he's doing well.

I played that this summer - it's fun. Mine is an older version.

yeah, we have a couple of the olde ones. i think i like them better.

I stopped for much the same reasons.. It was just too stressful for me and my dogs. My big one is pretty friendly and really likes to play with other dogs, especially little dogs, puppies and females but other large adult males tend to get aggressive on him at 90lbs He is too big for me just to yank out of a scape too. He got nasty once for no reason, no harm done, but we never went back. I just cant take the risk that my dogs will get hurt or hurt someone else's dog. I really enjoyed going too, meeting different folks and getting the boys tired out.

We stopped going to Orianna Hill for the same reasons why people have stopped going to the Triangle. Our dog was attacked by a dog that had behavioral issues, but the owner was a friend of the folks who ran the place, so she got a free pass every time. (One of her other dogs died shortly after this incident as a result of REPEATEDLY ingesting non-food objects because she refused to crate him during the day.) As a result of the attack, our dog developed some aggression which we immediately tried to address with a very expensive trainer, but our Brooklyn still got into a couple scuffles and the management of the park rudely expelled us and even accused me of lying about the fact that we'd been working to address the aggression issues. Dog owners do the same things at Orianna as they do at Triangle, they sit around texting (or chatting, or DRINKING) and don't pay any attention to what their dogs are doing.

Anyway, if you'd like to come on over to the dog space at Pops Playground, you are welcome. We have a slight problem with members who refuse to pick up their dogs' poop or refuse to properly lock the gate so that non-members come in and allow their dogs to poop everywhere, but otherwise the membership is pretty respeloll of one another. We use a red bandana rule so that dogs with aggression issues wear the bandana and other members know to enter the space at their own risk if they see a bandana dog inside. It's worked pretty well. I wish we had more of a cohesive group at Pops. We've tried to get more of a community there, but it never seems to gel, and frankly I'm sort of burnt out on putting in all the effort. BUT, if you'd like to join up just PM me. Maybe some new blood will re-energize us.

we belong to pop's and go there to throw the ball. i actually enjoy the fact that there aren't any other dogs there much of the time, because i can tire pepper out without having to worry about a dog fight potentially happening. she used to get along with other dogs wonderfully, but now, as she gets older, she doesn't take any crap. she's never bitten another dog, but i'm afraid that it might happen one day, so i don't take her to dog parks anymore. she likes to play one-on-one with some dogs (like sdm's), so that will have to suffice.

Thursday @ 5:30 is good. What area are you in? Is meeting at Palmer Cemetary's entrance close enough for you?

Where is the meet? Lilly and Henry will be thrilled.

Let's meet at the corner of Palmer and Belgrade. I'll create an event on here for more peeps to know. This is a good idea!

Two quick dog park notes, if you're willing to drive.

The park up at 24th and Locust/Spruce used to have 2 areas; a big dog area and a small dog area. The owners I saw there were always generally responsible.

The park around 2nd or 3rd and Queen (just below South) is REALLY nice. We used to take Stella there when we lived on South St. It's a pretty small park, but ALL of the owners were consistently mindful and aware of their dogs' interactions, and the dogs were generally very friendly. We took Stella there when she was as young as 3 months and up til she was about 3 and a whopping 70 lbs. There were always small dogs and several Great Danes just chillin.