Canine chicanery
Now there are lots of things that are exercising my mind at the moment, but three days into a streaming cold my head is beginning to clear, and instead of venting my rage at the political tomfoolery that seems to be everywhere I am putting out a heartfelt plea in another direction.
Calling all dog owners: and that’s one heck of a lot of people, as apparently there are well over 10 million dogs in the UK, so roughly one mutt for every 6-7 people including babies. Of my random group of seven, I am definitely not the dog owner in the group. Please don’t get me wrong – I like dogs as long as they are well trained and, preferably, live away from the city. However, if they are urban pooches, I have a bone to pick with their owners. It’s quite simple: thank you for collecting your dog’s business in one of those green plastic bags that dog owners tie to the straps of their bags and rucksacks, resembling nothing so much as a line of flags down a mast fluttering in the breeze.
Yes I am grateful for this, but sadly an increasingly significant number of you seem to think that having scooped the poop, it is acceptable to leave the bag lying around on the pavement, where unsuspecting feet have a habit of treading on them. There is something extremely unpleasant in the sensation of something soft and yielding under your tread, when you were only anticipating concrete pavement.
At this point I wish to extend apologies to those dog-owning damesnet readers who would not dream of behaving in such a manner, but there are plenty of your compatriots out there who do, I regret to inform you.
I am afraid my complaints don’t stop at street level, and these are directed at dog owners out of town. When I go for a walk in the countryside, there will inevitably be other people out with their dogs, who are usually free to run around. And so it should be, except I don’t want Fido to run at me, jump up at me, lick my leg and generally cause me to pause, dodge and swerve to avoid him/her. At this point I inevitably look up, see the owner a little way off and hear them calling to Fido who doesn’t take a blind bit of notice. As the owner and I draw closer to each to each other the typical comment is ‘S/he’s just being friendly’.
I’m afraid this is not how I make or keep friends, so I rein in the comments I would like to make and walk on briskly. All of this is avoidable if only people trained their dogs; one of our close friends has recently retrained as a dog behaviourist. The course was extremely thorough and extensive and took quite a while. Our friend commented that it felt as much of a physiology course as a behavioural one. But she maintains that training a dog not to jump up at strangers/run through their picnics/race up to toddlers and lick their faces uninvited is in fact a pretty straightforward process as long as THE OWNER CAN BE BOTHERED TO DO SO.
So there you have it – whether your dog is on the streets or in a field, we non-doggy people do have both rights and reasonable expectations. Over to you.
Comment *I completely agree with Barbara, but feel her suggestions don’t go far enough. Sadly we have learned by now that a lot of dog owners simply don’t care about the safety or wellbeing of others, including children, livestock and wildlife. Appeals for good manners and basic consideration of others often fall on deaf ears, and I have found that many dog owners get defensive or ( much) worse when confronted with their dog’s bad behaviour. Out of control dogs are a real menace in many ways, not only in the well publicised cases of dangerous attacks , but also in the less extreme but much more common daily aggravation which Barbara describes. Many people don’t like dogs or are even frightened of them ( often with good reason). Children are frequently terrified by some out of control pooch, often larger than them, bounding up to them . Livestock and wildlife are worried, sometimes to death or may have to be put down following an attack. As Barbara points out- faeces are everywhere, and not always in bags. Continual barking causes a great deal of disturbance to neighbours.
Much of this falls into the legal category of ‘ nuisance’ in a civil context but some of this ( worrying and mauling) is criminal .At the moment very little action is taken, so dog owners think they can go on getting away with this bad behaviour.’ My suggestion is that the dog licence should be reintroduced, which would fund trained dog wardens and other enforcement , and a DNA bank so that faeces can be traced to the registered owners. ( this already exists in other countries) . The problem is to get our legislature to take this issue seriously- out of control dogs have a very damaging effect on many people’s quality of life and even livelihoods, but there is a lack of political will to deal with this because of the popularity of dogs. A campaign is needed to take this further. Barbara?
Thanks Naomi.
I think a dog license would be a very good starting point. Owning a dog is a huge responsiblity that is not always appreciated by the new owner. Regularising this ownershp would help reinforce a sense of societal obligations, which too often are ignored.
Dame B
You have struck a real chord here Barbara. Naomi’s comments reflect what a lot of people think.
Here in leafy Cheshire our beauty spots are sullied by little plastic bags that thoughtful owners hang on bushes! Notices have appeared at our local mere pointing out the demise of the poo fairy and urge dog owners to use bins provided! ( who has the job of emptying these receptacles?) A dog license is an excellent start to our new campaign , Barbara!
Then here we go..’Dames for dog licenses’ has a snappy ring, don’t you think!
Dame B