Well-Behaved Equals Well-Received
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By Amy Fernandez
Dog-friendly environments are a scarce commodity these days. Unless otherwise specified, it’s safe to assume that dogs are verboten virtually everywhere. Guidebooks and websites regularly update the dwindling number of dog-friendly cities, hotels, campgrounds, etcetera and a thriving offshoot of the travel business now caters to dog lovers seeking to vacation with their best friend.
Perhaps nothing confirms this ongoing marginalization more dramatically than San Francisco’s endless “dog wars”. America’s bastion of peace, tolerance, and cultural quirks has become ground zero of this encroaching social trend. The controversy centers on the National Park Service’s infamous Dog Management Plan, which essentially restricts canine access to Bay Area federal parkland. According to some, it’s draconian, bureaucratic nonsense. Others call it desperately needed and long overdue.
The 80,000-acre Golden Gate National Recreation Area attracts more than 15 million visitors annually. Currently unleashed dogs are banned from over 99 percent of it and the Park Service is determined to shave a few more acres off that remaining sliver of territory where “off leash dogs under voice control” are permitted to run and play.
Noting the need to balance the interests of dog owners, environmentalists, and other groups, the Park Service points out that most national parks prohibit dogs. Rare exemptions to that general policy restrict them to specific high-use areas like parking lots and campgrounds, and don’t allow them off leash.
Arguing that San Francisco is not Montana, dog owners emphasize that fenced yards are a rare luxury in this high density urban environment. For decades, they have exercised their dogs in the park simply because it’s the only alternative. They also contend that environmental extremists are attempting to gradually reclassify the entire GGNRA as a restricted nature preserve thus banning public access to most of it.
Environmentalists comprise a vocal faction, but they are not the only group advocating a “dog-free experience”. Nothing underscores their position more convincingly than the escalating level of canine mayhem. Along with dog damage to the park’s flora and fauna, canine crimes run the gamut – crashing picnics, chasing everything from horses to joggers and hang gliders, dogfights, and biting. Maybe dogs have enjoyed this public space for decades, but according to the Park Service their behavior has gotten progressively worse.
San Francisco’s dog wars have inspired lawsuits galore, debates on Capitol Hill, and a recent online petition that garnered over 40,000 signatures within days. After 15 years, there is no end in sight.
It seems unfathomable, but there was a time when dogs went everywhere. Planes, trains, cruise ships, hotels, shopping malls, living spaces, and as reported in the June 1945 AKC Gazette, they sometimes accompanied their owners to college.
The author of this fascinating slice of lifestyle history, Dorothy Long, entered Vassar in 1942 along with her Collie, Puck, and she wasn’t alone. Her article profiled the experiences of four freshmen who initially met eight years earlier in what was then known as children’s handling. Their subsequent friendships continued as they competed with their various breeds in conformation and obedience before setting off for college.
Vassar’s 1942 freshman class also included Marjorie Vietor and her Sheltie, Knut, and Virginia Brady with her two Poodles. At the same time, the legendary Ed Jenner entered Cornell accompanied by his Doberman, two Poodles, and an impressive pack of Beagles. All four kept their dogs at their sides throughout their college years. “And what did the colleges think of this distinguished gathering? Vassar promptly put up a notice reminding students that dogs were not allowed on campus, except on leash, or permitted in the buildings. This official attitude, however, only added to the zest of lawbreaking to our venture and made us doubly thankful that we had obedience trained our dogs,” she said. Long conceded that this never amounted to a laissez-faire policy. In large part, academic tolerance for this unconventional arrangement was due to the popularization of dog obedience training during WWII.
“We could tell them to ‘down stay’ and know that when we came out of the post office, even though 800 people had walked by in the morning rush, our dogs would be right where we left them or we could leave them with the command ‘wait’ and be sure of finding them in front of the chemistry building when we came out from a three-hour lab,” Long said.
Still, Vassar drew the line at dogs in the dorm. Students weren’t permitted to have cars. Consequently, their off campus living arrangements entailed daily four mile bicycle rides “the dogs heeling alongside.”
Dogs invariably facilitate social introductions, a formidable hurdle faced by every college freshman. “Waiting long hours for us on the library steps, the dogs soon knew more people in the college than we did,” she said. Dogs have a knack for breaking the ice and sparking conversations in surprising ways, such as countless humorous incidents. “Explaining that my dog hadn’t really grown, or for Marjorie, that hers hadn’t shrunk, as people hopelessly confused our sable Collie and sable Sheltie,” Long laughed. That Sheltie Collie mix-up was one of many memorable episodes that consolidated an overall favorable impression. “Cornell has a free and easy atmosphere about its canine population: there are no rules enforced about dogs being in or out of the buildings. If a dog wanders into class, he is greeted joyfully, the professor grimly tries to rise above the situation…how Ed’s assortment of dogs get on so well together is a source of wonderment on the campus and they have made him a well known figure,” she said.
In 1943, Virginia Brady and her Poodles transferred to Michigan State where her 12-year-old Ch. Ilka Hugo CD CDX UD “was the most popular member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority…King went everywhere in Ann Arbor from lectures to college receptions- even to the movies. He was one of the outstanding students at the university…according to many professors, he paid much better attention than the average student,” Brady said.
Yes, they were impressively well-mannered, but dogs are dogs. “Of course there were minor breaks in our perfection,” she said, such as Puck caught in the act of “pillaging President MacCracken’s garbage can” or “leaping into the center of the assembly room, tail awag, to receive the applause intended for a noted lecturer on Marxist economics.”
Dogs long ago mastered the art of cultivating human affection. Their questionable antics and good behavior seemed equally effective in that respect. Brady continued, “Unofficially, the dogs became favored members of the college community. The Poodles were the mascot of the lacrosse team, the reindeers in the Christmas skit… Puck slept peacefully through two years of Plant Science and Marjorie’s Knut attended Zoo lab faithfully for three years, became the leader of the Riding Club, and made numberless friends.” Within four years, these canine invaders successfully infiltrated every aspect of academic culture, including saving Long’s part-time job with the Economics Department. “Although they found my filing system abominable, they liked my Collie,” she said. Nothing illustrated their popularity more than Puck’s special invitations to a dinner hosted by Vassar professors for graduating students. Following that honor, “Puck finally broke all precedent by including herself in the formal academic procession of our graduation.”
In both authorized and unauthorized situations, these dogs won the hearts of students and faculty and ultimately converted many of them to purebred fans. “This part of our college life has given us a lot of fun, not to mention the wholesale admiration of the good behavior, the beauty, and the devotion of the dogs we have raised and trained,” she said. Nothing confirmed their overall positive impact more definitively than each student’s subsequent career.
Ed Jenner’s varied successful career in this sport is well-known. The international fame of his Knolland Farm resulted equally from his Saddlebreds and top winning dogs. He exhibited over 50 breeds and ranks among the few two-time Westminster winners; in 1973 with Ch. Acadia Command Performance and in 1990 with Ch. Wendessa Crown Prince.
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1945, Virginia Brady Calkins attended Johns Hopkins and went onto a long, successful career in medicine.
Marjorie Vietor Kittredge-Carr served with the Red Cross in Korea before establishing her internationally-famed Windrush Farm, the epicenter of the groundbreaking field of therapeutic riding. She founded the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, and co-authored standards and guidelines that became the foundation of similar programs throughout the world. Closer to home, Windrush launched Horses for Heroes, the innovative therapeutic riding program for veterans disabled by combat injuries or post-traumatic stress. Her pioneering work led to her involvement with equestrian events for the International Paralympics.
Dorothy Long, of course, bred the legendary Noranda Collies for 40 years. Long trained the breed’s first conformation/obedience titleholder, Ch. Master Lukeo of Noranda CDX. Obedience training was only part of her lifelong mission to promote Collie versatility. Her breeding program produced top winners like Ch. Cadet of Noranda, Ch. Inkspot of Noranda, and Ch. Noranda Daily Double, the 1968 national specialty winner. Noranda provided the foundation of countless successful breeding programs.
This unorthodox academic experiment exemplifies the magical canine ability to adapt and enhance to the most unexpected situations. “It is well worth the effort, we assure you, and incidentally, dogs too love their college days,” Long said. However, it doesn’t happen by accident. She said, “To give a dog a college education requires training, tact, and resourcefulness, lest in the community he becomes a pest instead of a welcome addition…this is the crux of the matter.”
Those irate San Francisco dog lovers should keep this in mind. Dogs love to run and they have framed this as their battle cry. But off lead privileges in shared public space involves a tradeoff of rights and responsibilities. Restrictive legislation is the predictable response to complaints about dog behavior. But it’s not inevitable. A backlash to anti-dog legislation is slowly making headway. Currently, laws are being revised to acknowledge that dogs per se are not a health hazard and actually enhance many aspects of life. Lets not undo the progress.
Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=95697
Posted by ralbee
on Jan 15 2016. Filed under Current Articles, Editorial, Featured.
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