argumentative essay on dog parks

Argumentative Essay On Dog Parks

Three-fourths of the American population that are in their thirties have dogs. There have been controversies running through the air about if dog parks are helpful or harmful. Well, what type of dog park is harmful? They are made for dogs to have fun. As humans want to have fun to right, why should we have to stop dogs from having this same enjoyment?

To start, dogs in big cities are stuck at home all day until their beloved owners come home. According to source one, this is the reason "bark parks" were created. In the big city, most homes do not have much yard space for their furry companion to run around. That is why there are thousands and thousands of dog parks throughout the states. When the end of the day, the dynamic duo can walk through the hectic streets to reach their destination, the dog park. These parks deliver the essential need to run, play, and extract some of the canine species' energy.

As stated in Source two by Professor Jean Twenge, "pets are becoming a replacement for children." People do not need to be married to have a dog, and they are technically cheaper than having a child. In the past couple of years, pet supply store sales have elevated vastly because of the demand for dog adoptions. Since the increase in adoptions, more dog parks are needed and wanted. Hypothetically speaking, if the number of dog parks is lower because of the disagreement if they should be allowed or not, then adoptions will lower, and pet stores can lose a significant amount of money needed to keep the business running. To avoid this problem entirely, we should end the disagreement and start excepting dog parks.

On the other hand, as I read in Source three, a city spent about 273,000 dollars building a dog park called "Burlington's Furry Friends." That money can go to a million other places rather than a dog park even though this money can go so many places; why not splurge on our fury friends of America. We splurge on our self with target runs and shopping. Why not do it to a dog? According to Source four, two people are suing the town over a dog park. They are doing this because they state that the city failed to enforce a leash law, zoning approval, and how the city did not prevent the dog waste on the neighboring lawns. Yes, even though the town did not consult with them, they should try to agree and come up with a solution rather than to file a lawsuit against the city.

To sum up, everything that has been stated, "bark parks" are needed and wanted. They should be excepted throughout America so our furry canine friends can have a wonderful place to go and hang out just like us humans. They are a necessity for their wellbeing and human enjoyment in life.

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Guest Essay

Dog Parks Are Great for People. Too Bad They’re Terrible for Dogs.

By Julie V. Iovine

Ms. Iovine is on the board of the Animals & Society Institute.

For urban dog owners with a live-wire canine bouncing off the apartment walls, an enclosed dog park can feel like an oasis, offering off-the-leash exercise, an outlet for excess energy, a social experience for the dog and, often, for the humans, too. In fact, dog parks are perfect, save for one small thing: They are bad for dogs.

Rather than think of them as oases, we’d be wiser to think of dog parks as undersupervised and vaguely dirty watering holes during thunderstorms when there’s a good chance of lightning: high risk and best avoided.

Debates on this subject run deep among dog people, frequently dividing along shocked-that-you-would and shocked-that-you-wouldn’t lines. Every once in a while, these debates flare into full view on social media.

The dogs can seem divided, too. To be sure, some seem to love dog parks, pulling at the leash to get there sooner and frolicking energetically for as long as they’re allowed to stay. But look closely, and you’ll see all the dogs that get discombobulated. For many, the kerfuffle of the dog park is simply too stimulating: all that sniffing and getting sniffed, the rolling and ruckusing, the prodding and the chasing. Those loopy circles that dogs make in a dog park, called the zoomies? Those could be playful, or they could very well be your dog screaming, “I just can’t take it anymore!”

As for the dogs that aren’t going berserk, they’re often busy coping as best they can, clinging to the edges of the park or sniffing at pebbles. Dogs are social animals, yes, and need exposure to other animals. But much like us, they’re not necessarily well suited to random interactions with a rotating cast of strangers, each with disparate social skills and reactive tendencies.

This mismatch between temperaments among random dogs — their varied abilities at handling conflict, coupled with the often sporadic attention being paid to them by their owners — can make for a highly combustible situation. Even small doses of stress can take up to three days to drain out of a dog’s system, and all that excess stimulation can lead to eruptions of seemingly inexplicable bad behavior long after the dog and its owner have gone home.

My first dog, Ruggles, and I went to a dog park ritually every morning, as much for me to see other dog owners as to let my dog play. For humans, dog parks are like miniature town greens — except muddy and smelly — where people can go to gossip, swap dog care tips and enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded folks who are not embarrassed to share cute animal photos. Some people have even discovered romance at a dog park. I found a real estate lawyer.

It was all wonderful until my dog’s ear was ripped off and the attacking dog’s owner refused to pay the vet bill — or even remove the dog from the park. Such incidents are all too common.

When I was raising my goofily hyper Labrador, Sammy, I remember reading dog-training books with page-long lists of all the things I had to deliberately introduce him to, such as pointed hats, men with beards and open umbrellas. These books also insisted that my dog should meet dozens of new people before he turned 4 months old. This philosophy — that young dogs need to be socialized, and quickly — morphs naturally into a handy rationale for going to the dog park, once the dog is old enough. (Dog parks typically require vaccinations for dogs, but that is rarely enforced.) This kind of exposure and stimulation is important for young dogs, but it’s best administered gently, in small doses. There’s absolutely no reason any of it should lead to hanging out in a thunderdome of rowdy pooches.

Then there’s the promise of happy exhaustion — another dog park myth. Who hasn’t heard the mantra that a tired dog is a good dog? But tired dogs, like tired people, can be time bombs: stressed, worn out and often unable to catch up on the 14 or so hours of rest a day that dogs require to keep an even keel.

The solution to overstressed dogs may also be the solution for overstressed dog owners: Skip the dog park. Stop worrying so much about socializing your dogs in exactly the right way. They may enjoy running around with other breeds sometimes, but studies suggest the truth is that they’d be happiest just playing with you.

A 1996 study by the experimental psychologists David S. Tuber, Michael B. Hennessy, Suzanne Sanders and Julia A. Miller looked at levels of the stress hormone cortisol when dogs were put in a novel environment to see what soothed them more — the presence of a kennel mate or a human caretaker. If you’re surprised by the fact that the human soothed the dogs more, just think about how they often react when you get home at the end of the day. They nearly collapse with joy and relief.

Dogs want to be with us wherever we are. If they didn’t, they’d still be wolves. That goes for parks and city streets, which are great places for dogs to explore. So forgo the dog park: You have nothing to lose but your urban guilt — and maybe a real estate lawyer or two.

Julie V. Iovine is a journalist and dog trainer in training and is on the board of the Animals & Society Institute.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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A dog park is a public fenced area where people and their dogs can play and enjoy nature walks. Dog parks have increased over the last decade because of many people owning pets. The demand of dog parks has thus increased. There is need for non-profit dog parks, funded by the relevant government authorities to provide recreational opportunities for dogs and their owners.

The availability of the park in a few miles from the local community provides a perfect place where people could train their dogs. The optimal size of the dog park should be thirty-five acres, with a minimal of three divisions. That is for the big dogs, small dogs, and medium dogs. The big dogs and the small dogs will take the bigger proportions of the land.

In the site plan, I propose that the park should have concrete and grass land divisions. It is good practice for the dog park to have proper facilities for dog training. A proper water management system, separate bins for dog poops, along with poop bags should be available at the dog park site. These bins should be at least ten in number in a neighborhood park to avoid the reluctance of owner walking a long way to dispose the poop.

The parking spots should be advanced to include the basement parking in order to accommodate more cars and avoid any traffic jams and crowdedness of the area that might create problems for other people.

The terrain should have enough trees and heat shelters all around to cover the dogs during extreme weather conditions and heat waves. Encouraging people to plant trees will make the environment more conducive for the dogs and people using the park.

The park should have a doctor or nurse to check the health of dogs, which will ensure dog owners that they can bring their dogs here and let them mix with others without any risk. The park should also ensure that the fence division is included to avoid the mix of dogs and keep each type of dog safe. It will also help in preventing children from being bitten by dogs from the park.

The dog parks have different benefits for the land users mainly the people residing close to these parks. They provide an environment where the owners can get information about local veterinarians, pet stores, groomers and referrals that are related to employment and housing. The local governments may also ask dog owners to help address issues such as pet overpopulation and park maintenance.

With all the positive impacts that are associated with dog parks, there are also the negative part of it. Dog parks are a major cause of noise pollution resulting from the large number of dogs that are hosted in the park and their continuous baking. Most dog parks have limited car parking space; therefore, forcing drivers to move around in circles as they try to look for a place to park their cars. The constant rotation of cars causes traffic jams and becomes a hinder for accessing the parks. The crowdedness causes loud noise through hooting.

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• How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.

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Table of contents

When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.

You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.

The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.

Argumentative writing at college level

At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.

In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.

Examples of argumentative essay prompts

At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.

Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.

• Don’t just list all the effects you can think of.
• Do develop a focused argument about the overall effect and why it matters, backed up by evidence from sources.
• Don’t just provide a selection of data on the measures’ effectiveness.
• Do build up your own argument about which kinds of measures have been most or least effective, and why.
• Don’t just analyze a random selection of doppelgänger characters.
• Do form an argument about specific texts, comparing and contrasting how they express their thematic concerns through doppelgänger characters.

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An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.

There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.

Toulmin arguments

The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:

• Make a claim
• Provide the grounds (evidence) for the claim
• Explain the warrant (how the grounds support the claim)
• Discuss possible rebuttals to the claim, identifying the limits of the argument and showing that you have considered alternative perspectives

The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.

Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:

• Claim that unconscious bias training does not have the desired results, and resources would be better spent on other approaches
• Cite data to support your claim
• Explain how the data indicates that the method is ineffective
• Anticipate objections to your claim based on other data, indicating whether these objections are valid, and if not, why not.

Rogerian arguments

The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:

• Discuss what the opposing position gets right and why people might hold this position
• Highlight the problems with this position
• Present your own position , showing how it addresses these problems
• Suggest a possible compromise —what elements of your position would proponents of the opposing position benefit from adopting?

This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.

Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:

• Acknowledge that students rely too much on websites like Wikipedia
• Argue that teachers view Wikipedia as more unreliable than it really is
• Suggest that Wikipedia’s system of citations can actually teach students about referencing
• Suggest critical engagement with Wikipedia as a possible assignment for teachers who are skeptical of its usefulness.

You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.

Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .

Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.

In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.

Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.

This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.

Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.

No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.

Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

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