Responsible Owner? It's Your Responsibility

I was out this morning running my dog in the driving rain. We just got to my car and I'd put Jack in. As I walked to the drivers door I heard the sound of a dog fight and a woman screaming coming from a nearby wooded area. I went towards the sound and came across a woman with a dog on a lead fighting with an unleashed dog and nobody else in sight. Luckily the fight was more noise than teeth and I managed to get the other dog on a lead and under control.


It was at this point that the woman started to verbally attack me about my lack of control and my dangerous dog that had started the trouble. When she paused for breath I was able to tell her that it wasn't my dog and that I had only responded to her screams. She was so embarrassed and apologetic that I felt sorry for her.


We now had a problem because I had an unknown dog on the end of my lead and no owner nearby. I couldn't release him because he'd already shown aggression to other dogs and I couldn't put him in my car for the same reason. We then found a mobile phone number on a tag on his collar. I rang it but no reply, we then heard someone calling their dog and we shouted "over here!" There was no response and it seemed that the caller was moving away from us. I followed the sound of the voice and located the owner wandering aimlessly with his ipod on at full volume. When I tapped him on the shoulder he almost had a seizure.


When we returned to the woman and her dog, it turned out that the trouble maker should have been called 'Snevver' because the owners response when told that his dog had attacked the ladies dog was, "Well 'snevver done that before." When asked what he was doing running through the woods unsupervised, "He just ran off 'snevver done that before." He hadn't heard the fight or the screams because of his ipod, he didn't hear his mobile when I rang, for the same reason. When I suggested that he put his dog on his lead so that I could retrieve mine and get on with the day, you've guessed it, he didn't have one.


His routine was to drive to the common, which includes large wooded areas with restricted vision, let his dog out to do it's own thing while he strolled out of sight of the dog listening to his ipod. He never took a lead of any sort because 'he didn't need one' his dog was 'under control'. When I asked how it could be under control if he couldn't see or hear what it was doing. "Snevver done anything like that before!" I think it was at that point that I lost the will to live.


Do you remember Steve Irwin the 'Crocodile Hunter'? Shortly before his death he was involved in a controversy when he took his baby into a pen with an aggressive croc and held the baby over it, before rushing out and saying 'crikey' to the camera like a cheeky schoolboy. His actions were likened to those of Michael Jackson when he dangled one of 'his'? children off a balcony.

Steve Irwin got very angry when it was suggested that his actions were not those of a responsible parent. He was an 'expert', he knew 'exactly what he was doing' etc. Red face and flared nostrils, not quite the cheeky chappie image he liked to promote. The reporter then asked, what if he'd tripped, or had some other accident? The response was remarkable, he went on a rant which included the bizarre claim that, for Steve Irwin to have an accident a meteor would have to hit the earth causing major changes in the earths behaviour, alongside a whole load of other obscure and unlikely circumstances before it became even a remote possibility. Well we all know what happened, shortly after that he had an accident and died as a result of a stingray barb to the chest.

An accident? Of course, they happen. People have accidents not 'on purposes' none of us are guaranteed our next breath. That's why Hospitals have Accident and Emergency units not 'On Purpose Emergency' units. When I was a serving Police Officer a popular reply from drivers stopped with no insurance was "But I'm a good driver, I won't have an accident." They'd even use that line just after they had beeen involved in one! Although of course it was always the other drivers fault. I've yet to meet anyone who started the day by planning to go out and crash their car, fall off a ladder or get their dog killed by letting it run in the traffic.

The point is that it doesn't matter if you're a washed up pop singer, or TV naturalist or a man exercising his dog in every case it's your responsibility. If you are going to take your dog for a walk then do just that. Don't take them somewhere and inflict them on other people while you stroll around listening to music, with your thumb up your bum and your brain in neutral! Always have a lead. Know where your dog is. Be able to recall him to you at anytime and get him back on the lead if needed. And leave your ipod in the car, if you lose sight of your dog and he goes after something then your hearing is all you've got. If you detach yourself from your dog don't be surprised if he does the same to you. Of course anyone using Amichien Bonding techniques would already know that and indeed would never find themselves in that situation.

We all like to think that we're responsible dog owners. We should be, because it's the right thing to be, for our own self esteem and out of courtesy to other people and dogs. If none of the above work for you then remember that you are Responsible in Law for the actions of your dogs and the penalties can be very severe, even before you take into account compensation in civil claims.