AR-News: (CA - US) Old dogs get their own senior center

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Posted on Thu, Mar. 18, 2004    
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Old Dogs Get Their Own Senior Center

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Associated Press
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SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - There's now a playground for old dogs with a little 
less wiggle in their wag. Mature pooches uninterested in learning new tricks now 
have their own hangout, a gerontologic dog park, to socialize.

The San Clemente Dog Park opened Wednesday, across the street from a frenetic 
canine playground for the young and restless.
The senior side opened six months after the main bark park. The city spent 
$275,000 on the entire complex and the San Clemente Dog Lovers organization 
plans to sell advertising banners that will hang on the perimeter chain-link fence 
to finance the park's maintenance.
For some 3,000 licensed dogs in the city, the park is the only chunk of city 
property that doesn't require a leash. But the older dogs don't seem too 
interested in any untethered running and roughhousing.
Fifteen-year-old Taz - that's 105 in dog years - is a mixed breed whose hip 
was broken in 10 places in a car accident about five years ago. She's been to 
the main dog park, but she stayed to the side, away from the other dogs.
"She can't see very well and she can't hear very well," Taz master Bill 
Thomas said. She probably won't be any more active in the senior park, but at least 
she won't have to worry about being knocked over by a rambunctious 
Rottweiler, Thomas said.
"Dogs are like kids. They like to roughhouse, but ask an 80-year-old if he 
likes to roughhouse. He may want to, but it's not the same anymore," said Gregg 
Lipanovich, who launched the San Clemente Dog Lovers campaign for senior 
canines.
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/">http://www.latimes.com</A>
    
    
 
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