As I reached Ambassador, the highest level of Girl Scouts, I was eager to pursue the Gold Award, the highest, most prestigious rank for a Girl Scout.  When I saw the newspaper announcement about how Hopkinton was intending to build a dog park on town-owned property, I knew I wanted to help.  I reached out to Parks and Recreation and submitted a proposal to my Girl Scout Council.  I wanted to help create our park rules based on the best practices and help educate people about the best way to use a dog park so that the experience was safe and fun for all. 

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I have always been interested in animals.  I am striving to become a veterinarian and will be pursuing an undergraduate degree in animal science at Rutgers University.  Adopting a rescue dog with fear and territorial aggression really opened my eyes to the importance of socializing a dog early and how the lack of socialization can affect a dog’s personality and well-being.  My dog’s behavior often puts all of my family under a lot of stress.  However, because of her behavior, I have learned how to notice a lot of the signs of aggression before it happens.  My dog park research has made me realize how much fun she is missing out on by not being a well-adjusted dog.

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As my team and I were visiting local dog parks and surveying dog owners, I was encouraged by the amount of people who were willing to participate in my research survey. Beyond that, they enthusiastically shared their experiences and helped us find more hidden dog parks in our region. As their dogs interacted with others at the park, they explained their dogs’ personality traits and gave us insight on how the dogs played together.

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The presentation that I have created contains practical information on how to use a dog park and have fun. It also contains simple, yet important, information on how to identify impending negative behavior in a dog and prevent the situation from escalating.  Many of these skills can carry over into other situations beyond the dog park.  It is important to know how to keep your dog and yourself safe in all situations.

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