I'm showing my age now but Kerioak mentioned the dog taking her to school in another thread and it reminded me of when I was a child,Our Mongy Mickey went to school wth me everyday and then returned home and came back to take me home,I suppose he was a latch key dog though my Mum did work from home as a hairdresser,I wonder what people would make of that now,and also How young were you when you went to and from school alone (or with dog) I was six when I went alone its not like that now is it you darent let your dogs out free and your children are not safe, Sad isnt It :( also I remeber Mickey living till I was seventeen which would have made him about eighteen even then he got run over so would probably lived a lot longer,never had special food either lived of scraps if I remember rightly.

Oh for the good old days! and I'm only 31 so it's not like my old days were that long ago! I wasn't allowed a dog when I was younger so I used to take my neighbours dog for a walk and I was only about 7 0r 8 at the time, just me and Daisy used to go for ages, wandering round the fields behind the houses, course they're not fields any more, lots of pokey houses! I know my neighbour who has an 8 yr old daughter was worrying about letting her walk to school with a friend after xmas as she'd always taken her. i dread to think what it'll be like by the time my kids are at school, I can't see myself accompanying them until their 16 but you never know it might be the norm by then. perhaps we'll be getting our kids microchipped and we'll only be able to walk our dogs at night so they don't interfere with the rest of society!

Don't know about getting the kids microchipped as I needn't bother. My 15 yr son has been tattooed so no mistaking him. That 666 in the middle of his forehead really does stand out, and the pet crow flying behind him confirms it all really :D Nope don't think I am in danger of losing or having him stolen. Ah well back to trying to palm the kitchen eating lab or grotty Afghan off on someone :)

LOL @ Lisa

Its a sad sign of the times,do you know when I was a kid we went on train journeys only a few stops but got off had a picnic then got back on you couldnt let children do that now,across from us is a senior school and children are collected at fifteen ! very sad

Try telling that to the 10 year old who has to walk his dog a mile and a half to training classes on a Saturday morning because his single parent Dad has to work on Sats....... :-( I don't think the trainer sees herself as a child minding service :-(

One of the things that has influenced the type of dog we get is it's exercise requirements, I would like my daughter and son (when he is older) to be able to take the dog out occasionally so we couldn't choose a breed that would be reliant on bounding across fields (fine for me) unfortunately not something I would want my daughter doing. Even now I have started to take my mobile with me......sad isn't it. Another thing I worry about when out with my dog is being one of those people you hear about on the news 'whilst walking the dog man finds body........'

Someone I knew was out with his dogs and they found something very nteresting in some bushes came back carrying a human leg?? sparked off a massive police search for the rest of the body!.
I always take my phone with me now when walking,Ive heard of numerous times people have fallen or been taken ill and been stuck in the middle of nowhere needing help,I was once out with a dog when I saw a young man clutching his chest half in and half out of his car at first I was very wary and nearly carried on walking but anyway I didnt and he was having a heart attack,luckily for him a mild one,I called an ambulance and we took his car to the kennels lucky for him as too he was also carrying a lot of valuables in the car.So always take your phone out with you never know when it comes in handy.

came back carrying a human leg - eeew, that's horrible. What a shock for the dog owner.

I agree that you should always carry a mobile phone with you if you're walking your dogs. A friend of my parents was walking her daughters dog in the Lake District she slipped and fell. She smashed her ankle and had to wait 3 hrs for someone else to walk past. It was another 4hrs before she got to hospital as neither her nor her rescuer had a mobile phone with them. She was in agony and 3yrs on still has problems with her ankle that is probably down to the delay in getting her into surgery.

I always take my mobile out with me and have had to call the police/ambulance/fire crews on numerous occasions for different people because no-one else had a phone. I'm always on my phone and I walked into a bank once during a robbery. My sister, who I was talking to, could hear what was going on and called the police. Luckily they arrived quickly and the bank robbers were arrested.

Good for you for stopping, not many people would have done especially as it was a young male that needed help.

Fiona

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks about this Reefer. I walk dogs for a living and often hesitate before looking in hedgerows and the like just in case I spot something. I'm sure I'll never see anything but I do wonder!!:)

Hi, Rtlaster
Hope you don't think I'm just being nosey but I would love to walk dogs for a living, but can you earn a living from it? How many dogs do you walk in a day, how many at a time and how far away do your dogs live apart?
What insurance if any do you need.
Sorry for all the questions but I am really interested.

Children are collected from school at 15 cos they're too lazy to walk! kids don't do the same kind of things we used to for the pure fact that they'd rather sit in front the TV. We used to ride our bikes for miles, suggest that to most kids now and they'd die of shock!

Talking about picking children up have you noticed how many big 4 by 4 vehicles are used for the School runs these days,wonder if any actually do off roading :) and they are a bit tough on the old dogs arent they We've been looking at them but my old fogies would never jump in them

The funny thing is though in my experience it's always some puney little lad that steps out of these really big cars! My children are 6 and 4 and my daughter (6) is taken and picked up everyday and I can't see that changing yet either! The problem too is that she's far too outgoing and would probably end up talking to some older kids and wandering off with them regardless- so maybe we can shelter them too much. My children are not 'couch potatoes' though- over the last few years they've had numerous computers bought for them- they NEVER get used- my children would rather be out on their bikes going up the woods on them (they have mountain bikes) whether it be snow, rain, hail or shine, you name it! The little one at 4 really does have stamina and talk about endurance- WOW. All their friends have computers and they will have a go it's just their own preference not to!

Mine are no couch potatoes, when they were younger there was a lot of who-har about todlers etc not getting stimulation/exercise because people were plonking them down in front of videos, I used to pray for a video they would sit still for:D I tell you with this bad weather and they really can't get out bedtime is a nightmare, it's such a shame I can't let them adventure further, very sad indeed. Oooo just charging the mobile......hopefully I won't find anything like Mattie's friend!