So, Do I Ignore The Next Loose Dog I See?

[Guest RosieFT]

ugh. Stray dogs, injured birds, why do i always find them, and why can i not look the other way!! I have only really ever had two thankful owners, the rest kinda just go 'meh, he gets out all the time'.

This morning we went on a family walk to an off leash dogs area about 10mins walk from our home. It is a lovely place to walk, along a creek and it really feels like you are out of surburbia.

Anyway, we were half way along our walk when a big ( overweight) entire male dalmation comes bounding along with his tail wagging and grinning. He was having a lovely time, but i expected his owner to be right behind him. hmmm nobody in sight. I said to my OH that we should grab him. 'just leave him, you know what always happens, what will we do with him?"

I saw he had a tag so we grabbed him and leashed him. I rang the number but nobody was home (not a mobile) so i left a message in case they were out looking for him. An older lady walking a BC wanders up and tells us that she saw him over on the other side earlier but no owner in sight. So I ring a friend who lives in the suburb his tag address says he is from and get directions to his house and we start walking. Then we hear a male voice calling his name. OH says to just let him go, so i do and he hoons off in the wrong direction. GREAT. So we track him down and take him to the guy calling him.

SO, long story short, the owner says he always drives here and just lets him out on the reserve as he loves to go runninng and swimming by himself. I was thinking, great, wasted my time AGAIN. Where the guy parked was miles from wehre we found the dog, and way out of sight and hearing - across flat ground, into trees and then down a few paths to the creek/river. He said thanks, but that he 'trusts' his dog and always does it. hmmm.

So the older woman we met earlier comes across and i say something about people being responsible for their dogs, and all their dog poo, around other people walking about, the cycle path that is there, the roads it may cross if it smelt a bitch in heat etc etc.

She nodded her head, and then said, ahh but he doesn't look like he could walk far (the man was obese) and the dog probably loves his wandering and running about. She said being a seniour citizen herself, she sometimes lets her dog Charlie to go off by himself too as she 'trusts him' and he has road sense.

ummm, am i the only crazy one here? How silly of me to assume one should be somewhere near to ones dog in order to control it, pick up its poop.

I always say i am not going to bother next time, but i always do. I always think if it was MY dog who had escaped, run off , and someone grabbed her and rang me i would be SO grateful.

ugh. My OH just shrugged and said he knew it would end like that.

People are amazingly crappy sometimes.

[Golden Rules]

That shows the difference between an educated dog owner and an uneduacated dog owner. There's heaps of the latter out there, far more so than the former.

It also shows how other people value their pets, ie to what degree. Some would be most attentive and careful, others would just think 'bugger' or 'oh well' sort of thing if their pet was hit by a car or bitten by a snake.

So where is this lovely area you speak of? I am always looking for nice places to walk .... you can PM me if you don't want the whole world to know about it

[mokhahouse]

Your story makes me want to say yes, why bother when owners are so irresponsible. Today however I was out the front talking to my neighbor who is moving away and I saw an offlead golden retriever walking through the roundabout with two teenagers walking in the same direction. Thought to myself "put your dog on lead" but was too far for them to hear anyway. A couple of minutes later a frantic woman pulls up and asks have I seen a golden retriever, all I could do was point her in the right direction that the dog went. If I had thought for a minute the dog was not with the teenagers I would have grabbed it for sure. I felt so bad, so yes I will not make that mistake again and assume someone is the owner who is walking nearby and if the owner is not grateful well at least I can know I tried.

ETA I did get in my car and drive around the streets looking for the dog but never came across it, I hope it got home safely.

Edited October 9, 2010 by mokhahouse

[betsy]

Last weekend I found a wandering puppy. Took her home as owners nowhere to be seen.

Collar but no name/number. (Sunday as well so pound/vets not open!)

After a couple of hours I went to put some posters up in the area I found her. The owners already had some 'missing' posters up.

I was able to reunite her within about 15minutes to her very grateful owners.

AND they left flowers and a thankyou note on my doorstep a couple of days later

(plus I got some puppy cuddles, and my dog thought it was great!)

So YES, it can sometimes be worth it and I would always hope someone would pick up my dog if he got out.

[The Teacup Warrior]

I can relate - sometimes you do feel like giving up. That said, you have to remind yourself that you don't do it for the people - you do it to help the animals. I'd much rather be abused by somebody than feel like I was partly responsible for an animal getting hit by a car because I didn't have the guts to tell them that they were doing something wrong.

[shelby-001]

I so know how you feel RosieFT. I have a takeaway shop on the main st of our little town and we see stray dogs EVERY DAY. The ones that actually turn up at the back door (obviously they like the smell of the food) or the ones that are clearly pups with no sense at all and come our side of the road, I grab and lead (I know have a 'lost dog lead' at the back door of the shop) and check for tags, failing tags we walk the four doors up to the vet to check for a microchip, failing a chip it's a call to the council (I hate it when that has to be done). I would dearly love to help every one of them (well close, not the ones we see everyday, I mean the same one everyday) but I can't always just pop out of the shop to rescue a dog and all too often I am greeter with the same, 'oh he's out again'.... well yes lady so do something about it. I keep reminding myself though, if it were my dog I would want someone to stop him/her and take care of them til I could be located. So I do unto them as I would want done unto mine. But yes it's sad not everyone takes the care they should to keep their animals safe.

[rastus_froggy]

Some people just think it is ok to let their dogs roam, once I found a dog and on it's tag it said "Don't worry I always find my way home" no number or address. That REALLY annoyed me, the dog was not left on the street, I took it to the RSPCA.

As for dogs with road sense, I did a couple of weeks work with Pets at peace recently and it really made me sad the amount of dogs I collected whose owners said "but they usually had such good road sense". Sorry no dog has good road sense.

I will always pick up any loose dog I see, no matter how ungrateful their owners are, as I think that is what I would want someone to do for me if my dogs ever escaped, as the one you ignore may just be the one who needs you most.

[Aussienot]

Several years ago, I was training my dog in the yard. I saw two JRT's running loose in the National Park which is behind my house. They were headed straight towards a lot where two large, dog agro dogs live. So, I put my plans on hold. Put my own dog in the house, lured the jacks into my fenced yard, and called the mobile number on the tag.

Several hours later I get a call from the owner, who was visiting in the area, and thought, this would be a good place to let my dogs run loose and unattended while I go to the pub with friends. Sigh. I didn't really want to give them back, but of course I did.

The first thing he did after retrieving them was let them loose again. A few hours later the female dog got run over and killed.

I tried to do the right thing, but being a good example is no match for someone determined to be a jackass.