Coming soon to an area near you! Imagine never letting your dog off lead and being banned from many places where you usually walk your dog.

This isn't a rumour, there are many boroughs who are having consultations which make horrifying reading. Please visit the Kennel Club website for more information: http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/295  and click on "Latest News from KC Dog" at the top of the page.

It might not be happening near you (yet) but dog owners need to support each other. Please read the consultations, complete the surveys and write to the addresses.

I would be interested to know where so far these restrictions have been placed :)

This is precisely why I hate people who don't pick up after their dogs and let them bother pedestrians and cyclists on walkways. We're in such a vulnerable position all it would take is one person who was tired of being chased or stepping in dog mess to start a campaign and we'd lose our privelages. :-( I think a lot of dog owners don't realise laws regarding access can be changed without public consultation.

I have been on at our Parish Council for ages to get CC TV installed aorund the village. Not only top help reduce crime but also to catch the blighters who regularily let their dogs poo on grass areas like the Village Green and also on the pavements :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Oh no they think it would be a stupid idea :rolleyes: It would pay for itself within a month with the amount of people they would catch and fine So what is wrong with that

I live in the suburbs of  a city I cannot stand it when people let thier dogs foul the streets especially having 3 dogs myself I dont want people pointing the finger at me as I always pick up.
I contacted the local authority as someone was letting thier dog foul in our avenue (couldnt catch the bu**ers ) .
The local authorities were out the following day cleaned all of the local roads then put up £1000 fine signs on all of the lamposts and painted a dog sign in yellow every 20 ft or so on the pavement as a reminder !...all within a week I was made up of course had to explain to neighbours it was me as some didnt like the yellow paint ...but would they prefer the p**....anyway ..it worked no more p** I think they feel they are being watched so pick up{of course they are ...by me!)

My thoughts exactly Lori!!

Sarah.

The trouble is that responsible owners (like most of us on here) obey all the rules and restrictions. The irresponsible will continue to let their dogs foul, run wild, stray and exercise them in banned areas.

The only thing that will change is that good examples of dog ownership won't be seen.

Whilst being just as horrified as anyone at unnecessary restrictions placed on dog owners, taking Crewe as an example as it's the only one I can see in detail, the proposals are based on:

a) failure to remove faeces
b) dog exclusion from areas such as children's play areas, sporting fields etc.
c) dogs on leads in certain public places/on roads
d) maximum of 6 dogs controlled by one person
e) penalties for anyone contravening the above.

Am I missing something in thinking that these would be complied with by any reasonable dog owner anyway? I certainly don't have any issue with any of the above as I am reading them.

M.

If the Crewe restrictions applied to where I live there would be a significant impact on my life:

b) I regularly walk my dogs on "marked playing pitches", although not during football games! We walk around a couple of country parks through their ornamental gardens and beside the lakes. Under Crewe's restrictions I wouldn't even be allowed to take my dogs onlead in these places. I'm not sure what impact this would have on dog shows that are regularly held on marked playing pitches.

c) I've been to a public park this morning with my dogs where they had a good run off lead. There are lots of "footways", public footpaths near my home which we walk along. Some of the marked pitches are on playing fields land owned by colleges. Very rarely do I walk along canal paths but when I do my dogs are off lead.

If this happens near my home I'll struggle to find anywhere safe (for a woman on her own) to walk and give my dogs any real (running) exercise.

These kind of actions drive me crazy - instead of having people trying to enforce these rules, why oh why don't they use the time and money dealing with the people who are behaving antisocially?   Why punish all dog owners because of the irresponsible ones?

Yes, I guess perhaps I'm being harsh and just because it doesn't affect me, other people's circumstances will be different ...

I would be extremely pleased to see them enforcing some of the laws that are already in place. I find dog mess left everywhere revolting, can't imagine how non-doggie people must feel - particularly mothers with small children.

M.

This is the scenario my father would support, so don't think that i is far fetched.  His attitude is that if you want to own dogs then you should keep them on you own land so they don't impinge on others.:rolleyes:

I noticed this particular point:

>Points to consider relating to Orders on keeping dogs on leads

>That it may be unacceptable to keep dogs on leads in parks where the dog would have been used to running around.

Very miportant - I for one would argue that it borders on mental torture to totally restrict a dog in an area previously allowing off-lead running, where the dog is accustomed to it.  Where I used to live there was a beautiful bit of parkland, used by many dog walkers - I rarely saw one on the lead.  Recently it became on-lead only to 'protect the wildlife' (the only wildlife I can assume was the green woodpeckers there, but they only nest once a year I believe - certainly not year-round), and I stopped going.  I only saw one woman who argued the case - with a 14-yr-old, deaf, arthritic yankee with dodgy cruciates.  Compare him to my 2yr-old energetic beasties, used to running free and chasing the dozens of rabbits - I couldn't keep them on lead there.  The most annoying thing is, that was the only properly fenced place to walk the dogs.

I think any council trying to implement such control would have a very hard fight on their hands - and if it looked to happen in my new town I'd certainly fight it.

I can understand why councils are wanting to impose restrictions - but once again it is the good owners who will suffer and comply and the bad owners who will flout any laws.

After a neighbour of mine laughed when her terrier ran up to a girls and ripped her jeans (and bruised her leg - but her mother only wanted compensating for the jeans!) I now try to avoid her when dog walking as I couldn't beleive her attitude. If one of my dogs had bitten her child, she would have been baying for blood though. It's no wonder with owners like this that dog owners have such a bad reputation.

If and when regulations are tightened, I hope parental controls are brought in too - backed up by hefty fines -  not more than 6 children to one adult, picking up litter (or worse)after your child drops it, excluding children from certain areas, etc. I can't see that happening though - having a kid these days appears to put you above the law, while owning a dog makes you a 3rd class citizen with few rights

Living in a country location with plenty of woodland and fields the rules should not affect me too much, but that is not the point it is going to affect an awful lot of people,  it would be torture for my dog to ever have to have her walk on lead and I am very aware that many dog owners live in areas where quite frankly there aren't places to let a dog run and sprint off lead and they have to make do with playing fields where children, joggers, cyclists and football games are also played.

Yes, a lot of dog owners are a pain even us with dogs complain, but the word tolerance needs to be used for all of us, I think these changes will have a huge impact on some dog owners. :-(

For dogs to be removed from off lead walks in public places and banned completely in others, then there will need to be somewhere else for them to go have these people pushing for changes thought that the new rules may well find another increase of dogs ending up in rescues, when people are left with no-where to go and are left with hyperactive, restless dogs so need to re-home or see a mass increase in healthy dogs being PTS. These are very real implications of what could happen.

Dogs have always been here, there are more people now, more homes and more dogs, it is not a dogs or owners fault that the land is being gobbled up for housing and there are only public places left to walk our dogs which some people now wish to take away too. Living in the country is not an option for most people with dogs.

If these people wish to ban our dogs they should have to find some other land, they should have to have dog only parks and dog only fields to give our dogs a good quality of life, but of course this will not happen:rolleyes: I truly fear for the urban and suburb dogs will they even be around 50 years from now? It may seem like a few little rules, but looking at the wider picture................. :-(

The Councils can't even police the laws before this happened so how can they cope with more work :rolleyes:

I also will not really be affected by this as I am living in a rural place but I rarely walk my girls on the Village Green but most of the lazy and elderly people do and they are the main offenders :rolleyes:

These restrictions have been in place where I live for a few years now :(   It's backfired really, as the only people who used to pick up broken glass, discarded tins, bits of rusting metal, and reporting syringes and needles etc. were the dog owners, but now it's just left and most grassy areas where I used to run my dog/s just wouldn't be safe to use any more, and they're not safe for children either :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

One particular area seems to have been reclaimed by the dog owners LOL   It was restricted at the same time as the others but then the off road bikers took it over (none of them legal, underage, no ins, no helmets etc ) and now the signs have been changed to "no motorbikes"   :D :D    Unfortunately it's too close to a busy mainroad to allow the dogs real freedom to run :(

It's made it very difficult to find areas safe to allow two very energetic dogs to let off steam as they need to do :( :(

I know our local Country park (Highwoods Colchester) is banning letting dogs off lead on certain areas, this is due to the high number of dog on dog attacks though.
I think its needed there as its a lovely place to walk but I can't with my dogs, my last dog was attacked 11 times there by off lead dogs with irresponsible owners who didn't give a damn.