Must love dogs

All you have to do is look around to notice that Chicago is a city crazy for canines

By Jeremy Schnitker

The full-sized Irish wolf hound across the street was going completely apeshit. I was standing on the opposite corner discussing with the publisher of this magazine some story ideas I’d email him the next night.

“Where you crossing?” I asked.

“Not that way,” he said, pointing over to the dog, that by now had ripped the Sun-Times newsstand it was tied to completely out of its place and was thrashing about the sidewalk with the newsstand dragging behind it, surely scaring the bejesus out of everybody within a 20-foot radius.

Eventually the dog’s owner, a tiny middle-aged lady who was barely taller than the animal and could have very well weighed less, gained enough control of the large dog and tugged it across the street next to me. I looked in its eyes and saw a frightened animal, clearly out of its element.

I noticed quickly after I arrived in Chicago that it was a dog town, and had suspected for months that it was strange that so many people would want to own that type of pet in such a cramped city, but I’d never seen how truly absurd it could all be until this instance.

You’d have to be blind not to think Chicago was dog crazy. Approach any intersection, and there’s likely to be at least one dog on a corner. The city has 11 recognized dog parks and one official dog beach. According to Margaret Littman’s “The Dog Lover’s Companion in Chicago,” there were one million dogs in the town in 2003, roughly one per every 2.5 humans. Do a Google search for dog walkers in Chicago, and you’ll get more hits than one can fathom sifting through. There are more than a dozen dog daycares and spas. There are even a handful of dog poop removal services in the city and northwest suburbs.

Initially, not being a dog owner, all this seemed counter-intuitive. Dogs are for people with big backyards or farms, or for those who live in rough neighborhoods, not for those amongst the high-rises and stacked flats of downtown and the north side.

A dog day care? Before getting to Chicago, I didn’t even know they existed. Sure, dog walking companies are reasonable, but dozens of them? People in this city go to dog parks to get dates for crying out loud (while the rest of us are still wasting our time at bars, coffee shops and match.com).

And then there’s the cost. Chicago in and of itself can be an expensive place to live, but throw in an attention-needing pooch and it can get out of hand. A once-a-day walk for one dog can will run you an average of $12-$15 a day. An overnight stay at Citizen Canine on N. Clybourn, for instance, costs from $40-$45 for 24 hours. People will even pay to have a company come pick up their dog crap for them. Have Doggie We’ll Doo, a canine waste management company serving the north side and northwest suburbs, charges $12.50 per weekly dog poop pickup.

“It (Chicago) has really come together for dogs — 10 years ago things were not quite the same way,” says Rendy Schwartz, owner and head trainer at Anything is Pawsible dog training in Chicago. “There weren’t as many of the doggie daycares or dog walkers. These days it’s just insane how much of that kind of stuff there is.”

Schwartz and Littman both assured me that, despite my uncertainty, this is not a bad thing. The city government and local businesses actually do quite a bit to make it as dog friendly as possible, and the relationship between urban dweller and dog is by and large a healthy one.

Since 2003, the city has created three new dog-friendly parks, and you’re beginning to see more and more restaurants open their patios up to dogs. The city’s already-existing abundance of parks and accessible lake front make it a reasonable place for dogs, and the relatively drivable terrain makes it possible for people to get out of the city to seek more space.

For the most part, Littman says, people are very responsible with their dogs, and instances such as the one I witnessed with the Irish wolf hound are few and far between.

“There are certainly people who aren’t responsible, just like there are irresponsible drivers and condo dwellers,” she says. “Everyone can tell you a story of somebody not behaving properly. Sometimes the dog parks do get overcrowded and sometimes you see dog walkers walking more dogs than they should be handling, but you don’t see it that often. It’s more individual inappropriate behavior, not a systematic problem.”

And as to why an urban dweller who commutes, has a busy work and social schedule would want to own a dog — instead of, say, a cat or a rabbit — it’s self-evident: Dogs are simply more affectionate.

“It’s true companionship,” Schwartz says. “If you live a busy lifestyle, you get to come home to company. If you own a dog you don’t have to go on a walk alone.”

Littman admitted that amongst all the dog walkers and day cares that perhaps some of the dogs in the city may not be getting as much attention as they should.

“Some of it is out of control,” she says. “It seems like there’s one (daycare) on every corner, but the city passed something last week that’s look more closely at the licensing of those things.”

And while she said much of that may lead to dogs being more aggressive, she also added that a big dog doesn’t necessarily equal a bad city dog.

“Some of the really big dogs, like a bernice mountain dog, they don’t actually need a ton of exercise and aren’t particularly hyperactive — they’re good city dogs,” she said.

Fair enough. Perhaps Irish wolf hounds losing their minds at busy intersections is an anomaly (thankfully).

But as I walk past the singles at Wiggly Field (an actual dog park) waiting awkwardly to engage in conversation with one another, get that peculiar sight of a massive St. Bernard ambling amongst townhomes and condos, or the 50-year-old Lincoln Park gal in Prada bending over daintily with a plastic bag around her hand to pick up her Schnauzer’s freshly shat poo, fumble with it momentarily and accidentally flip some shrapnel onto her forearm (as I did on one of my first walks after moving here), I’ll still think it’s all a bit laughable.

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