While dogs are often called “man’s best friend,” they can still bite.
To help dog owners better understand canine communication and improve their pets’ behaviour, the City of Montreal is offering free workshops in various dog parks until September 18.
Dog owners can learn about managing dynamics in dog parks, canine play and communication, preventing bites, and understanding aggression between dogs.
“I’m really here to help people with their dogs. We talk also about the laws with the cities that we need to follow with dogs, but yeah, it’s also to help people not to do bad things,” said the professional canine consultant Roxanne Nantais.
The city says there has been a 40 per cent increase in dog ownership since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some new dog owners might struggle with training their pets, which can lead to behavioural challenges.
“Sometimes you have problem with dog being aggressive. Feel free to call the 311 when that happened. Otherwise, if a dog bites you, then you have the obligation to call the 911. We will intervene. We will go and see the dog owner. We will ask them maybe to put a muzzle on his dog when it goes on the street or on the sidewalk, of course,” said Philippe Sabourin, spokesperson for the City of Montreal.
These free canine workshops are offered amid calls for breed restrictions. But the City of Montreal is choosing a different approach –aiming to instead empower dog owners with information from canine behaviour experts.
“What I really like is that people stay with us and listen to the question of other people. And sometimes we can respond to many questions with just the question of one person,” added Nantais.
“It’s general tips for dog’s owner. But doing that, we’re able to fix, let’s say 95% of the problem. 95% of the problem, it’s on the other side of the leash,” added Sabourin.
Montrealer Paloma enjoyed her first free training session at Beaubien Park on Wednesday afternoon and is considering attending other workshops around the city to continue learning.
“Very interesting. I learned a lot of things. This is my first dog. So I didn’t know anything about dogs before. And yeah, I enjoyed them. I learned a lot of things,” she said.
Dog owners and future dog owners can find the schedule for upcoming canine workshops on the Montreal city’s website.