In Defense of Dogs (and Kids) at the Crags

My friend James Lucas recently wrote a provocatively entitled article about why no one should ever take dogs to the crags in his recent Climbing Magazine column. I didn’t read it, of course, since I vowed five years ago never to ever again read anything created by any of the climbing magazines, even though I’m sure it’s all high quality. But I did see, with some familiar amusement, the flak that “Peaches” was receiving online. Nothing like being a climbing magazine humor columnist to really channel the ire of the gumbified masses.

“You’ve finally arrived,” I texted James. “Proud of you.”

The idea that dogs—or kids, which are often susceptible to being targeted by the exact same argument—don’t “belong” somewhere in the outdoors is a familiar motif in such declarative op-eds.

And yet, if dogs and kids don’t belong outside … where do they belong?

We have rampant rates of obesity in this country. Simply owning a dog is correlated with lower BMIs and improved happiness and health. People are killing themselves at ever higher rates. And schools are getting shot up across America by disgruntled, mentally ill youth who probably haven’t spent enough time outdoors learning self reliance and overcoming challenges.

Dogs and kids belong outside—be it at the crags or anywhere else. The problem, of course, is not dogs and kids … the problem is bad dog owners and bad parents. Most people seem to be horribly confused about what kind of dog they have, however. Most people’s pets are badly behaved. Why? Because training a dog to be a well-behaved, obedient animal is essentially a part-time job and responsibility for the first year of the dog’s life. It’s a LOT of work. Most people would rather just get a dog, teach him to sit, call it good, and hit the road with Fido in the back of the Tacoma.

People don’t spend nearly enough time socializing their animals with other animals—or kids and strangers. People routinely confuse the happy-go-lucky puppy energy of meeting and greeting everyone with an acceptable—or, at least, tolerable—behavior. The excited dog jumps on your leg, and you hear the owner say, “Oh, down, boy, down!” and because it’s over in a split second, that bad behavior is never actually corrected.

The other day, I was trying to belay my friend while someone’s soaking wet collie was lurking one foot away from foot, beside which the dog had cleverly placed its ball. As I belayed the dog would nudge the ball closer and closer. As I was focused on belaying, I found myself stepping on the ball, losing balance. The dog’s wet fur was getting my leg wet, and my rope wet. I wanted to kick this fucking dog in the teeth. … But really, it’s the dog’s owner’s teeth that I should be wanting to kick.

The easiest thing to do is to put a muzzle and a short leash on your dog. The more important thing to do is to spend the time actually learning how to train your dog to be a good dog. This almost certainly requires a professional’s help. If your dog can’t come on command; can’t stay on command; is “weird” with other dogs/kids/strangers/people with hats/beards; bothers the fuck out of other people; etc.; then the answer isn’t to leave your dog at home, necessarily. It’s to spend the time and money training your dog to be a good dog.

Similarly, bad parents are also giving “kids at crags” a bad name. Now that my daughter is 3, I’m seeing firsthand just how important and beneficial it is for her to spend all day outdoors while mama and papa try to sneak in a few pitches. It’s amazing how just a bunch of sticks, rocks, water, and mud can entertain and build a child’s imagination for hours. You can’t re-create this kind of happiness, curiosity, development, and stimulation being indoors in a room full of the best toys in the world.

And yet, bad parents, like bad dog parents, ruin the reputations of kids at crags by avoiding basic responsibilities, like keeping your kid safe, out of the path of rock fall, away from cars, even away from other people. If the climbing becomes more important than giving your kid what the kid needs, than there’s a potential problem. There’s a guy who drops his ~10 year old son off at Rifle while he disappears to climb. This kid spends a lot of time by me and my daughter because he doesn’t know where else to go or what to do. Am I supposed to be the one in charge of him now? Feed him food? Make sure he doesn’t drown? It’s never been made clear to me. Free-range kids are generally a good thing … but there is a difference between “free-range” and abandoned. This kid often has no clue where his dad is for hours at a time. And his nonstop questions fucking annoy me.

But again, it’s not his fault. It’s the bad parent.

So, there’s my two cents. Take your kids and dogs to crags. Spend as much time outdoors as possible. But take some responsibility, even if that means you get less climbing done.

About The Author

Andrew Bisharat

Andrew Bisharat is a writer and climber based in western Colorado. He is the publisher of Evening Sends and the co-host of The RunOut podcast.

Free Climb. Free Thought.

Join the climbing discourse.

Comments

4 Comments

  1. Avatar

    Yes! Thank you!!!

    Reply
  2. Avatar

    I think kids belong and (nearly all) dogs don’t.

    It comes down to the fact that kids have the same human rights and the rights of citizenship to experience public lands as adults do.. They are current or future taxpayers supporting the management of these public lands. They are also future adults, so will benefit from early outdoor exposure as they mature. Sure they can cry and whine, which is annoying in the smae way that a dog’s barking is annoying, but parents should put a consequential stop to that behavior as soon as possible or try and take the noisy/whining kid for a walk away from other adults.

    Bringing nearly all dogs to the crag (or a public beach, or the quiet woods, etc) is the moral equivalent of hiking around with a dangerous 80s boombox blaring Rush Limbaugh or (insert least favorite music or talk show here). You may enjoy the noises emanating from your personal possession/hobby but nobody else probably does. Now design a boombox which can bite people, growl at people, chase animals, shake water, sand and mud on strangers, and eat random lunches while pooping all over. No sane individual would ever bring that kind of boombox into a shared public space, let alone a quiet natural one, or one where personal drama and life-critical verbal communication and concentration is the norm (a crag).

    Since a dog is a possession of the land owner/user, and isn’t going to inherit, pay for, and vote on the management of the land, it’s not a contradiction to be anti-dog and accepting of kids.

    Reply
  3. Avatar

    Yes! Thank you!!!

    Reply
  4. Avatar

    I think kids belong and (nearly all) dogs don’t.

    It comes down to the fact that kids have the same human rights and the rights of citizenship to experience public lands as adults do.. They are current or future taxpayers supporting the management of these public lands. They are also future adults, so will benefit from early outdoor exposure as they mature. Sure they can cry and whine, which is annoying in the smae way that a dog’s barking is annoying, but parents should put a consequential stop to that behavior as soon as possible or try and take the noisy/whining kid for a walk away from other adults.

    Bringing nearly all dogs to the crag (or a public beach, or the quiet woods, etc) is the moral equivalent of hiking around with a dangerous 80s boombox blaring Rush Limbaugh or (insert least favorite music or talk show here). You may enjoy the noises emanating from your personal possession/hobby but nobody else probably does. Now design a boombox which can bite people, growl at people, chase animals, shake water, sand and mud on strangers, and eat random lunches while pooping all over. No sane individual would ever bring that kind of boombox into a shared public space, let alone a quiet natural one, or one where personal drama and life-critical verbal communication and concentration is the norm (a crag).

    Since a dog is a possession of the land owner/user, and isn’t going to inherit, pay for, and vote on the management of the land, it’s not a contradiction to be anti-dog and accepting of kids.

    Reply

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