A dog, a man, a legend.
Not long after the off-leash area in Moody Park opened last summer, the city heard from an area resident who was barking mad about a noisy dog.
“It was one resident in the building, and it was one dog specifically,” said Jay Young, the city staffer charged with handling dog issues. “It was one dog in particular that was barking nonstop.”
By early September of 2015, the city posted a sign asking dogs to refrain from barking.
“We don’t expect dogs to not bark,” Young said. “The intention of the sign is to inform people to be courteous of your neighbours. It was supposed to be light, not heavy handed.”
The complaint has taken on legendary status among dog owners frequenting Moody Park, as the neighbour has been known to shout out to dog owners asking the dogs to be quiet – and some dog owners shouting back.
Young met with the complainant, a shift worker who tries to sleep during the day and was upset about the “very distinctive” bark he’d been hearing for “hours and hours” for weeks from one of the dogs at the park. He also met with the dog’s owner to explain the concerns and to resolve the situation.
“I have not heard from this individual since that time,” Young told the Record. “I don’t actually believe it’s been a problem since that time.”
The sign posted at the Moody Park dog park states that it’s a “bark free zone.”
“People questioned, ‘Why would you have a dog park that a dog can’t bark at?’” he said. “Our response was, our expectation is dogs would be allowed to bark; we are just looking at respecting your neighbours. If your dog barks, your dog plays, that is not something we are going after.”
While the city thought the signage issue was “old news” and had been resolved, it has decided to change the sign to better reflect its original goal. Instead of saying it’s a bark-free zone, the signage will ask that people be courteous of neighbours while in the dog park.
The city’s hope is that dog owners will play nice with neighbours, but the city’s animal control bylaw has teeth if people don’t comply. Tickets and fines can be issued to animal owners whose dogs produce any noise or continuous sound that disturbs the quiet, peace, rest, comfort and enjoyment by people in the area.
“The bylaw officers are trying to focus on education over fines,” Young said. “If people are continuously breaking those bylaws on purpose, that’s probably a different story.”
