Should dogs be allowed at parades?

Someone posted this question "how would you react to a pit bull at a parade?" on another forum I am on.

I am getting bashed because I disagree with singling out pit bulls, and I disagree with taking dog owners freedom to take their dogs to public outdoor events away.

Just because someone there is scared of dogs should we be forced to keep our dogs locked up at home? Or because someone doesn't want to control their child and teach them not to run up and touch other people's dogs?

They also argue that parades are "family" events, and that apparently your dog cannot be considered a member of your family worthy of attending said events.

I'm annoyed at the number of outdoor events that people are no longer allowed to take their dogs to . . . but part of that is irresponsible owners (if you think its likely that your dog will snap at a child running up, don't take them. Yes, people should control their children, but in the chaos of outdoor events, this doesn't always happen). As for pit bulls, I don't think they should be banned, but people do need to think about whether their dog is going to be disruptive, because of size or reputation, or something else. That doesn't necessarily mean don't bring your pit bull, but it does mean you may want to think twice if its going to be very crowded indeed or if your pittie is anything other that PERFECTLY behaved.

So, there shouldn't be a rule. On the other hand, dog owners need to think of taking their dog to events as a privilege, not a right, and do their best to avoid problems, if only so they don't ruin it for the rest of us. My mother, who is a silver smith and goes to craft fairs, can't take her standard poodle along anymore . . . why? Because a deaf, poorly trained Great Dane freaked out and bit someone. Fairs all over the area are banning dogs now. This is not fair to the vast majority of dog owners, but it was sort of predictable . . . so if you are going to bring your dog, pit bull or not, make sure you will be a good ambassador.

I think they should be allowed.

See mah blog! lol

I took Ozzy out at a town fair. No one said anything to me, though Ozzy isn't a pit bull. A lot of people had their dogs out...

I would react like i would to any other dog at a parade. IF he/she is behaving thumbs up! IF not would be wishing the dog and owners would go home.

I agree with lilavati. I think it sucks that there are some places(public events) I can't take my dogs, but I can completely understand why they have those rules.

As a responsible dog owner it sucks, but as an attendee I wouldn't want an irresponsible dog owner to bring their dog! Unfortunatly, the only way to prevent that is to ban them all together.

Accept me ....accept my dog !

i love to take luce to parades (mushroom gets too freaked out). i took her to the memorial day parade last spring and some strangers took pictures of us and then asked for my email address so she could send them to us! very cool. we had our picture taken for the paper one year but it didn't make it in.

haha! that pic is great!

We take our dogs to all the parades in our town. Just this past Friday the Homecoming parade for the high school took place. We dressed Daisy up in one of my son's old football jerseys and my wife took her over to the street where the parade was to take place. (I was sick so I stayed home with the boys). She was the hit of the event. The kids in the parade were all pointing at her and saying "look at that dog!". She loves the attention and it's a great socialization and environmental training thing for them.

I agree, if a dog is not under control it shouldn't be there. I also think that as a dog owner, you have to realize that there WILL be kids who run up to your dog and if your dog isn't stable enough to handle that, and might react negatively, then you should leave it home. In a perfect world all children would be calm and ask permission and would be under the ever watchful eyes of both parents, and all dogs would be calm and non reactive, but that will never be the case.

I understand that some children will run up, and I would not take my dog if there was a chance that would cause a bad reaction. But they better not be afraid of my dog licking them.

However I also do believe that it is still the parent's responsibility to make sure their child behaves.

If my dog misbehaves, I will take it home. If their child misbehaves, I believe they should do the same thing.

If a dog is fine with the people and the noises and behaves- I think it is fine.

T-Bone gets overwhelmed, so we don't take her to big parades- smaller ones are okay, where we can stay in the background and I leave when I can sense that it is getting too much.

Our foster, Casanova, loved crowds. The more, the better. He would be the perfect dog, melt into kids when they petted him, sat pretty for everyone who wanted to check him out. He was such a ham.

A dog should never be taken into a crowd that isn't a hundred percent. THat should just be common sense.

We take our dogs to all our dinky parades. Were else could you test a dog with crowds,screaming kids,guns going off, ambulances,horses,loud farm equipment?

If I felt it was unsafe I wouldn't do it-but our dogs have gone since they were puppies. If someone was offended I'd probably tell them to screw off-never had a problem in the last fifteen years.

Actually, there is an alternative to allowing all dogs and banning dogs, but it requires that the organizers be willing to confront people with misbehaving dogs and ask them to leave . . . and that they are afraid to do. Partially for fear they will be accused of some sort of prejudice, and partially because no one wants to make decisions anymore.

I think any well behaved dog should be able to go. I took Reggin to a 4th of july thing when he was a pup still. Everyone loved him.

I see a lot of dogs at our local parade that is held every year. This year I seen a HUGE dane, 3 pit bulls, a st bernard, dachshunds, chis, a puggle, a pug, english bull dog, and many others. I love seeing them all.

I take Milo to parades...he's very well behaved and if he acts up, WE LEAVE.

I love going to outdoor events where I see tons of dogs. However, I HATE the people whose dogs are out of control.

I took Bronki once. He was already a therapy dog so i was not worried. BUt the sirens hurt his ears so bad, sirens always upset him. WE had to leave. I have never seen sirens affect another dog like it did him, the only one i have heard of is Ollie. We had to leave. YOU can test a dog out on crowds from a distance gradually working your way up. I would never just dive in a large crowd with any dog that i hadn't tested as in the pfl test. In that test you see if large unexpected noises will make them bolt, or if you can keep them on focus. IT also tests them for unexpected behavior, and costumes. I will be starting Pepper on her crowd training soon .It is good to go, but take your time and approach slowly.

At the Plaza ARt fair on friday night, the most crowded, two pet for life people were there training their dogs for their soon to be test. YOu do have to take them. BOth were small and were carried. IT is a lot harder for a big dog that has to walk it no matter what. WE had a huge great dane come at us from out of a sea of legs. SHocked both me and VIctor.

I'm not really a parade type person myself, but I like to take the dogs to them and other outdoor events as it's good for them (I feel) to be around all the noises and people and whatnot.

As long as a dog is well behaved, I believe they should be allowed at pretty much any outdoor event.

Actually, speaking of pit bulls at parades..

I wanted to organize a group of people and their pit bulls to have part at a parade and walk with their pit bulls and such, with signs about BSL and stuff being carried.

Of course, some people would be PO'ed...

I think they should be allowed and I think it's extremely stupid that people single out pit bulls.