Should dogs be allowed at parades?

^^^ Hit the nail on the head. Sad, but true. Bans are so much easier for organizers to implement rather than using discretion, good judgement, and having the courage to tell individual irresponsible owners that they must remove their misbehaving dogs. It's the same with out-of-control kids in public schools ... nobody wants to be the one to tell their parents the truth.

Around here if there are outdoor events you can bet dogs will be brought (except the county fair). I've never seen any dogs misbehave at these events, except for the chihuahua that almost bit me in the ankle when I was walking by his people to go somewhere. They had a stroller and were standing in their chosen spot to watch the fireworks, and out of nowhere their little dog runs out from behind the stroller and nearly gets me. I did nothing to provoke him except exist. That's an example of a dog who should have been left at home.

Also, nobody here seems to notice or care if there are pit bulls present. There isn't a lot of "breedism" in my area that I've noticed.

I had to deal with this this summer when I was socializing my pup. The ball park wouldn't allow dogs "because people are afriad of them". I was pretty upset with the guy. Thats not a good reason at all**

I think dogs should be allowed at Parades, too.


**Not to mention he would tell some people to leave that brought animals, but not others

I always bring Summer outside with me. She's really really really good with people and decent with other dogs unless they're offleash and in her face. I've had some people get really annoyed with the fact I bring her on campus, but most don't care and like her. It's not against the rules, and she's not a very imposing looking dog, plus she behaves herself. I don't see a problem at all.

The Gateway APBT Club has marched in the mardi gras pet parade every year for the last few, I believe. Here is Loki getting ready to march with the rest of the crew (in 2004 or 2005 I think). She handled it as well as all the other dogs there did. We only had one dog that was iffy, and the guy worked really hard to keep him under control. (I don't think he'll be marching in any more parades until he's got some better training under his belt.)



More parade pics at the following link:

http://www.gapbtc.org/page5.html

I take Smidgen to the Xmas parade when I can - we put all the beads on her and she loves the attention! But she's also "bomb proof" so I don't worry if kids come running out of nowhere to pet her. I wouldn't say it would be a good place for a dog that is questionable with kids, just because you can't trust people to train their kids to not pester strange dogs. I've yet to see a dog at a parade cause a nuisance, and in my area, that usually includes a few pit bulls.

I had fun browsing the pictures on the link, looks like a great time!