Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
Not a dog owner myself, but plenty here in Glasgow.
For some inexplicable reason, the dog owners have decided to use the grassy children’s play area as THE place in town to let their pooches poop.
One bloke did point out that he takes his dog there to avoid the smaller dogs in the park.
The owners collect the poop. But if it was that harmless, surely they could let the dogs poop in their living room?
It wouldn’t be impossible for the owners to form a dog club and petition the council for proper caged-off dog facilities. Chain-link fence, bucket and spade. Simples.
maybe take things further and requisition some common ground for their dogs to play.
In the meantime, can’t we have a national campaign to teach dogs to poop over the storm drain?
save the dog owners having to pick up any mess.
some kind of ad:
”please teach pup to use the storm drain…it’s grrrrrate!”
In the meantime, can’t we have a national campaign to teach dogs to poop over the storm drain?
I remember a thing from many years ago which was 'kerb your dog' asking owners to get their dog to crap in the road gutter. With the lack of gulley maintenance and rain to wash the chucks into the grids roads would just be awash with shite and even the responsible owners, (the vast majority, only a few non-pickupers get everyone a bad name) would get out of the habit of bagging it from other areas.
Plus your dog would probably get run over by a truck.
Saying all this as a dog owner.
Trouble is, there's a HUGE variety of personalities lumped under "dog owner" - I'd say the majority are responsible, pick up shite, take their dogs to sensible walking areas, put them on leads when necessary. But there are others that are utter scum. Leave their dogs' shite where children play.. etc.. You can't legislate for the scumbags, unfortunately. They are just scumbags.
There should be no need for this question as dogs should not be in kids play areas, full stop. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to be on board with this
Yeah, I think dog owning is a bit like cycling or wild camping, in that it takes only a relatively small number of idiots to create a very visible issue. We have a small local railway tunnel nicknamed - and on Strava too - 'Dog shit tunnel' for very obvious reasons. It's at the edge of what I call 'the village of death', a small estate of retirement bungalows owned by people mostly waiting for the arrival of the Grim Reaper.
Some of them have dogs. It only takes two of them, say, to walk their dog down the tunnel twice a day and let it crap there each time to create a huge problem. That'd be 14 each per week, so 28 piles of dog poop arriving there each week. Then one day, it more or less stopped. I figure either the dog or its owner simply carked it solving the problem pretty much instantly.
But yes, some dog owners are massive idiots. I blame people.
I would honestly never take my dog to a childrens play area. It would be a bleedin nightmare. I'd rather be as far away from any one as possible so I can let her off the lead and let her run around and do a bit of piss sniffing with freedom.
My dog seems to like to poo in the middle of the road though!!....
I took her out for a walk the other day and didn't have any poo bags on me(!), so I had to call my son to bring me one while Sandy and I waited next to it, fortunatley it was quite where she'd poo'd on that occasion.
Dog owner and animal lover here. Can’t understand several things about other dog owners.
- Don't pick up free them.
- Do pick up after them and hang it on a tree branch or on a fence.
- Let/encourage their dogs to jump up people - if I hear “they are just being friendly” again - I will scream.
- Extendable dog leads all across a wide space that is used by all sorts of users.
- Uncontrolled dogs running free off lead - including on dedicated bike trails.
Boils my piss.
There's a nice ice cream place in the country near here (Morwick Dairy, for the locals). They have a small grassy area out front with benches, and a children's play area. Last time I was there, there was a big dog turd in the middle of the grass. I absolutely can't get my head around the level of stupidity on the part of the dog owner who thought that was OK.
Unfortunately the range of people owning dogs also includes completely ignorant of what it is doing, due to; looking at phone, chatting to somebody, taking photographs, being pissed/stoned, dementia, all of the above. A fair number of these turds are dropped without the owner even noticing.
I have springer spaniels, every minute of every walk is fully engaged with keeping them entertained/under control, there isn't a single second for day dreaming.
When you say ‘grassy children’s play area’, is it a formally designated children’s play area, or just a suitable grassy spot that the kids tend to congregate at ?
If the former then dogs should not be there, and there should be appropriate signage advising owners that dogs not allowed. If not then it’s public open space and can be used, responsibly, by all. Responsible means dogs under control and poo bagged and properly disposed of.
Responsible dog owner, in Glasgow.
There should be no need for this question as dogs should not be in kids play areas, full stop. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to be on board with this
Demarcation is an issue.
There's a park near me. There's a (now fenced-off) area with swings and slides and the like, and a big field behind it where as kids we used to play football.
Who has rights to use the public field? Five kids kicking a ball about; a procession of dog walkers; a couple of cyclists; a family out for a walk? This was long before things like 'poo bags' even existed. Was it a kids' play area, a doggie latrine, both, neither, or heaven forbid a "shared space"?
The only time I recall conflict was on the rare occasions when a ball accidentally went over the fence into the crown-green bowling area behind, the gimmers in cricket whites really didn't like that, they were the sorts of people who would shove a knife through the ball rather than allow you to retrieve it. Maybe we should be taking the same approach with irresponsible dog owners.
When you say ‘grassy children’s play area’, is it a formally designated children’s play area, or just a suitable grassy spot that the kids tend to congregate at ?
Is the question I was going to ask.
It wouldn’t be impossible for the owners to form a dog club and petition the council for proper caged-off dog facilities. Chain-link fence, bucket and spade. Simples.
I am not sure if you are being tongue-in-cheek here – people don't want to walk their dogs in the same space every day. Likewise, dogs need variety – a relatively short period of sniffing during a walk can be as tiring as a longer period of physical exercise for a dog. Mental stimulation from new smells and environments engages a dog's brain, leading to fatigue.
When you say ‘grassy children’s play area’, is it a formally designated children’s play area, or just a suitable grassy spot that the kids tend to congregate at ?
If lots of kids play there it's not a suitable to place for your dog to crap, official or not. That would seem fairly straightforward to any non-dog owner or really anyone with half a brain.
All dogs must be registered on the National Dog Database. All public areas will be patrolled by enforcement officers (turd wardens?) with a DNA testing gadget that they poke into every dog egg they find, gadget then shows the registered address. Said dog egg then gets delivered back through the owner's letterbox for proper disposal.
Vote for me!
If lots of kids play there it's not a suitable to place for your dog to crap, official or not. That would seem fairly straightforward to any non-dog owner or really anyone with half a brain.
I disagree – if the owner clears up any mess, they have as much right to be there as anyone else. FWIW, on one of my walks, there is a playground that is fully fenced off and obviously nobody goes in with dogs. However, there is a sign saying 'No Ball Games Allowed', so the kids play games in the grassy area outside the playground. So should I not walk my dogs there, or should the kids stay in the playground? Or should we all just be sensible? FWIW, if I see anyone not picking up after their dog, I always offer them a poo bag 😂
FWIW, if I see anyone not picking up after their dog, I always offer them a poo bag
I see that so often on the pavements round here that I've considered carrying some myself (not a dog owner) to do just that, but don't have the guts to try 😝
What kind of response do you get?
As a responsible dog owner, I fully agree with everything you say.
What we have here is a classic case of 'It's not the dog(s), it's the owner(s)'.
Many people who should not be allowed them, have dogs. Licensing and compulsory training certification, etc, would help, but would incur cost, and the country is broke I suppose.
As a responsible dog owner, I fully agree with everything you say.
What we have here is a classic case of 'It's not the dog(s), it's the owner(s)'.
Many people who should not be allowed them, have dogs. Licensing and compulsory training certification, etc, would help, but would incur cost, and the country is broke I suppose.
And the only ones who would partake would be responsible dog owners. Many owners still wouldn't bother doing it because they know there will never be any enforcement of it. Look at other examples, e.g. the increase in cars being driven without insurance or licence, illegal trade in 'dangerous dog breeds', baby robin grooming . There are many illegal acts taking place every day that aren't policed so adding more won't make much difference, as much as I hope it would.
I disagree – if the owner clears up any mess, they have as much right to be there as anyone else
You can guarantee that all of your crap is picked up? No smears left on the grass? Your dog is not going to have a runny one that's going to end up on some child's skin? As someone above mentioned, it doesn't take many dogs to cover an area with crap, cleaned up or not. Residue smeared in the grass or turds just left there - it's still toxic.
So should I not walk my dogs there
The problem isn't the walking it's the crapping.
What kind of response do you get?
Generally confused, sometimes a bit angry/put-out, but I've never had someone not pick up.
You can guarantee that all of your crap is picked up? No smears left on the grass? Your dog is not going to have a runny one that's going to end up on some child's skin? As someone above mentioned, it doesn't take many dogs to cover an area with crap, cleaned up or not. Residue smeared in the grass or turds just left there - it's still toxic.
So I shouldn't walk my dog somewhere because it is near somewhere designated for children? That's fine, that's that cleared up then (unless it was too runny).
I am sure there will be vets in this forum but us it not the case that the primary risk from dog shit is toxocara. Does regular worming by responsible owners not eliminate this.
Aside from fenced off okay areas dogs and children have always shared open spaces. I am not aware of an epidemic of disease from it.
80/20 raw diet, they're like little bullets...easy to pick up and put through folks' letterboxes/roll in front cyclists etc.
Does regular worming by responsible owners not eliminate this.
That word again, so often missing in the real world.
So I shouldn't walk my dog somewhere because it is near somewhere designated for children? That's fine, that's that cleared up then (unless it was too runny).
Perhaps, if your dogshit can get on to kids who use the area a lot maybe it's a good idea to find somewhere else to walk your pooch? Is that difficult? I grew up with dogs but haven't owned one for about 15 years - I don't remember it being imperative that I let the dogs crap near kids.
In the meantime, can’t we have a national campaign to teach dogs to poop over the storm drain?
Noooooo. We already have enough houses misconnected onto our storm drains. We don’t want dog crap washed into our rivers and sea. The bacti load in runoff from hard surfaces can be significant so it is important that everyone cleans up after their dog wherever they crap and that they take to bags home or dispose of them in appropriate bins.
Perhaps, if your dogshit can get on to kids who use the area a lot maybe it's a good idea to find somewhere else to walk your pooch? Is that difficult? I grew up with dogs but haven't owned one for about 15 years - I don't remember it being imperative that I let the dogs crap near kids.
Kids can be anywhere. Do I not walk my dogs anywhere where children might play? Like parks, in the woods, on the beach?
Apart from most of what has been said already the thing that I can never understand is..... why, why bag the poo and then leave it on the ground or hang it from a tree.... why bother bagging it in the first place??? What is the mentality?
Also, the thing that never seems to get mentioned is that dogs pee everywhere as well...... this obviously never gets treated or retrieved but I can't think it's healthy either.
dogs pee everywhere
In other news, so does every other wild animal...and you should see the amount of bird shit on my car after I parked under a power line 😉
Thank you for the replies.
it is a designated children’s play area.
its not been cordoned off, but there are several kinds of things that children and adults alike, can play on.
(I’ll nip outside and post some pics).
when I suggested that dog owners encourage their pets to poop through the storm drain, I was thinking of the actual storm grate with the bars.
then again, that probably only works for very small dogs.
but, assuming that the poop splashes down, is that still within the letter of the law?
I guess that the regular storm effulgenct is going to tbe sewage works anyway,
in terms of dog owners collectively sequestering dog-only play areas. By doing so it may facilitate the identification of all those urban nooks and crannies for the land registry.
said nooks and crannies could be repurposed into dog areas or small basketball courts.
Back soon!
I guess that the regular storm effulgenct is going to tbe sewage works anyway
Only if the drain is served by a combined system. In many cases it is not and the drains discharge into surface waters/sea.
Kids can be anywhere. Do I not walk my dogs anywhere where children might play? Like parks, in the woods, on the beach
You should not be letting them crap where kids play no. Dog crap is disease ridden and foul.
TJ - you need to read (and understand) what I have said.
Oh I have read it and understood it. I just think letting your dog crap where children play is unacceptable even if you pick up what you can.
It should be stated that the huge minority of dog owners around here pick up afterwards.
here it is: Mansfield park, at the foot of Hyndland St.
the play area (at least implicitly designated so by the placement of rides).
it’s also a popular spot for people to sit down under the trees, enjoying the shade on warm days.
I think the hygiene issue here is that kids are continually touching things and sticking their fingers in their mouths.
That probably bolsters immunity, unless it’s e-coli.
the ‘park’ is one of the few spaces in which people can go, to enjoy a take away coffee.
if you stroll out of the nearest greggs, your coffee would be cold before you reached kelvingrove park.
so, it’s a popular spot. Rammed in the summer.
It’s a park in name only. It’s really too small for shared dog/ human occupancy.
personally, i think it would be simpler to designate it and other common grounds as dog-free.
A lot of the dog owners treat it like it’s their back garden. Only they don’t really use it recreationally, it’s just somewhere to let the dog out.
if the dog owners were banned from using these areas, they’d actually have to make an effort to ‘walk’ their dogs further than 50 yards a day.
You can tell a lot about the dog owners health from their own dog.
gout? Diabetes? High cholesterol?
id much rather see these dogs and their owners actually try to get some exercise.
theres an entire city at their doorstep.
in the words of Hellraisers ‘Pinhead’, “go ahead, explore”.
encouraging dog owners to explore their environs would rekindle an awareness of the local networks of paths.
the council erected this fence over an area of subsidence.
how much extra would it cost to add a bucket and spade?
Oh I have read it and understood it. I just think letting your dog crap where children play is unacceptable even if you pick up what you can.
But you really have not - I don't allow my dogs into children's areas and I always clear up after them wherever we go (and tell others to when they have not done so with their dogs). But I don't agree that I should not walk my dogs near where children play as that could be anywhere and everywhere I could go. Do you understand yet?
You can tell a lot about the dog owners health from their own dog.
gout? Diabetes? High cholesterol?
id much rather see these dogs and their owners actually try to get some exercise.
theres an entire city at their doorstep.
Cue vitreol...
You can tell a lot about the dog owners health from their own dog.
gout? Diabetes? High cholesterol?
id much rather see these dogs and their owners actually try to get some exercise.
theres an entire city at their doorstep.
Cue vitreol...
But I don't agree that I should not walk my dogs near where children play as that could be anywhere and everywhere I could go. Do you understand yet?
Yes I understood your point from the beginning and disagree strongly.
Yes I understood your point from the beginning and disagree strongly
You strongly disagree that I should be allowed to walk my dogs in public areas if they are near to children’s facilities? Or is there something else I am missing here? Can you suggest where I can walk my dogs where it won’t be near where children may be?
I strongly disagree its acceptable to let your dog crap near where children play. Its not "walking the dog" - its letting the dog shit
Your garden is the place to let it crap or a specific dog crapping area where folk know there will be crap
or a specific dog crapping area where folk know there will be crap
You know, as an intelligent adult as I know you are, such places do not widely exist. And, taking this to your logical conclusion, do you expect all public areas to be either dog-friendly or child-friendly with segregation (either formal or informal) in place?
Your garden then. IMO its unnacceptable to allow a dog to crap where other folk might contact it.
So yes - dog crap areas should be completely segregated.
Why do you think its acceptable to allow a dog to crap in public areas?
Why do you think its acceptable to allow a dog to crap in public areas?
John remember who you are talking to TJ has a black and white view on everything.
You are wasting your fingers responding.
You do know that pretty much every single other animal shits in public places don't you?
John,you're really reaching here...
So, to understand your point here, please can you confirm which other carnivorous animals, of similar size and numbers to dogs, can be found shitting in public in built up densely populated parts of the UK?
Kids can be anywhere. Do I not walk my dogs anywhere where children might play? Like parks, in the woods, on the beach?
And that's why there are bans on taking dogs on the beach during summer months around here. Widely flouted, and with petitions in some cafes to overturn the ban.
And I genuinely rode home from a ride in our local woods last night and found dog poo on my gloves. Plenty of responsible dog owners don't pick up crap when they don't see the dog taking a dump.
Size is irrelevant.
Rats. leptospirosis.
Birds. Histothingumy.
Shared use is shared use. The logic that dogs shouldn't be anywhere that children MIGHT be would also imply that cyclists should never cycle more than average walking pace on a shared use path and cars should have a chappy out front waving a red flag.
Doggo isn't allowed in no dog areas. She isn't allowed to shit on playing fields but she is allowed to run about on them. She is allowed to say hello to people if they ask or make it quite clear they want to say hi. Including (often) supervised kids (ie i can see the parents can see their kid and know what they are doing.
Obviously there a big dose of variance based on the actual situation. A park crammed with people for eg she isn't going to be off lead because sandwiches will get eaten.
Sharing is sharing, being considerate of situations is a far broader issue than just dog walkers.
I'm not particularly interested in the opinions of people who quite clearly have a chip on their shoulder and think the world should evolve around their opinions. So like John I will continue to give a shit about the real world practicalities of everything I do.
To echo what I said about the variety of personalities of "dog owners", there are also some "non dog owners" who are massive bellends.
Oh yes.
Storm drains.
Its largely been covered already.
But the only places a dog shit should end up is a bin. "Storm drains" could be anything often just a pipe a couple of meters long discharging into a ditch. in theory it could go in a foul or combined sewer without any problem but guaranteeing that short of flushing it down a toilet (which even then isn't guaranteed but there are bigger issues in that situation) is unlikely to be practical so bag and bin.
please can you confirm which other carnivorous animals, of similar size and numbers to dogs, can be found shitting in public in built up densely populated parts of the UK
Cats. Foxes.
I'm not particularly interested in the opinions of people who quite clearly have a chip on their shoulder and think the world should evolve around their opinions.
Plenty of us have owned dogs, and our opinions are based on that.
Yes and your opinion is precisely that. Yours. I also think its bizarrely unreasonable. Maybe you were an inconsiderate dog walker which has formed your opinions.
So like i say, not particularly interested. You're welcome to disagree with me.
And that's why there are bans on taking dogs on the beach during summer months around here.
And if there is a ban on dogs on a particular beach (or part of a beach), then our dogs don't get to go there. It really is that simple.
FWIW I have a lot of sympathy for TJ and DrJ's position. If you want to own a dug you should probably work out where its going to shite before hand. If that needs to be some communal grassy area where people like to sit, small kids like to play etc, then maybe you don't have suitable domestic arrangments for owning a dog. If you own one already, its probably sensible to understand if you are upsetting a sizeable minority of people by doing something you consider reasonable, just as its wise to know if riding cheeky trails is offending people, wild camping is aggravating land owners, your teenager is intimidating people by hanging out in bus stops, or your massive eMTB is viewed by some as not really in the spirit of the access rules. You can choose to be defensive, you can try to twist arguments to "win" but ultimately your dug/tent/teen/bike is still pissing people off.
However I'm also a realist and I wouldn't expect any of the pics the @greatbeardedone posted to be dog free, and if not dog free I wouldn't be surprised if there was dog shit either intentionally left or in trace quantities. There was a lot more dug shit around in Glasgow parks in the 80s, we didn't tend to drink coffee from greggs back then but people did survive the experience: it wasn't necessarily pleasant but of all the problems faced by a Glasgow dweller I'm not sure the remnants of a responsibly collected poo are high up the list.
Should the council spend my tax payers money to make shitting zones for dogs? No thanks - the worst offenders would still not use them.
FWIW I'm even less enthused about people who keep roaming cats as pets.
Cats. Foxes.
Quite clearly neither of them actually fit the specified criteria.
Yes and your opinion is precisely that. Yours. I also think its bizarrely unreasonable. Maybe you were an inconsiderate dog walker which has formed your opinions.
So like i say, not particularly interested. You're welcome to disagree with me.
a large part of this so clearly demonstrated is that what dog owners think is reasonable is a very different thing from what non dog owners think is reasonable.
I think your view that letting your dog shit in public areas is Ok is in fact wholly unreasonable
Whilst the level of responsibility varies amongst dog owners, the level of entitlement seems quite constant.
Dog owner here.
A children's play area is not suitable as a dog toilet. Even with the best will in the world, it is not always possible to pick up the entire poo as our back garden will attest.
A children's play area is not suitable as a dog toilet.
I am sure we are all agreed on that – I haven't seen a post that suggests otherwise.
Dog owner here.
A children's play area is not suitable as a dog toilet. Even with the best will in the world, it is not always possible to pick up the entire poo as our back garden will attest.
Josh will be along in a sec to tell you that you must be an antisocial dog owner then! 😀
Ha.
Not sure where i have suggested that. I totally agree its not possible to guarantee? I don't think anyone has suggested that it is.
Which is why i explained the proportionate approach. Rather than don't take your dog where other people might be.
It's really not that hard to not be a dick. Without needing some bizarre set of rules.
Which is why i explained the proportionate approach. Rather than don't take your dog where other people might be.
But what you think of as proportionate some of us do not. Just a little bit of shit is OK?
And I genuinely rode home from a ride in our local woods last night and found dog poo on my gloves. Plenty of responsible dog owners don't pick up crap when they don't see the dog taking a dump.
Might not be dog, bears are also known to ……. 🙂
I too would like to know what the exact child usage voumes of a space need to be before I need to stop walking my dog there 😂
Ha.
Not sure where i have suggested that.
Me : Plenty of us have owned dogs, and our opinions are based on that.
You: Yes and your opinion is precisely that. Yours. I also think its bizarrely unreasonable. Maybe you were an inconsiderate dog walker which has formed your opinions.
Sorry, inconsiderate not antisocial! 😀
As a dog owner, it doesn't piss me off any less than anyone else, believe me!
My dog poops in my garden 99% of the time as he's quite regular, I can tell if he's got a 'bun in the oven' so to speak..
But there are occasions when you gotta go you gotta go.
Some of the states of the turds I see laying around and sometimes stand in... Makes me wonder what the owners are feeding them...
I mean no poo is nice, especially if you step in it but I think the kind of person who doesn't clean up after thier dog is probably the same kind of person who buys the cheapest dog food, too.
Just like humans, if you have a weekend bender on curry and real ale you poop is going to be eleveted to new heights of grossness...
Where as if I eat properly my poop is of a much better quality in terms of stench and constitution.
Which is why i explained the proportionate approach. Rather than don't take your dog where other people might be.
But what you think of as proportionate some of us do not. Just a little bit of shit is OK?
I'm not going to engage with you TJ. i respect you, i think you are generally on the absolute correct side on most subjects, i just do not agree with your black and white response to situations and i do not think that getting into a bickering contest will do us any favour. I understand what you are trying to say and I disagree with a tiny bit on just how simplistic it is.
Same for you IdleJohn. That wasn't supposed to be an accusation that you were an antisocial dog walker, it was supposed to be a tongue in cheek reference to how your experience as a dog owner has made you take such a blanket view. Appreciate it maybe didn't come across as that without a well placed emoji.
I am comfortable that there will be no negative impact of my dog ownership on small or large humans in a space that they would consider suitable for playing on. I take it seriously. Some people don't i know that.
Same for you IdleJohn. That wasn't supposed to be an accusation that you were an antisocial dog walker, it was supposed to be a tongue in cheek reference to how your experience as a dog owner has made you take such a blanket view. Appreciate it maybe didn't come across as that without a well placed emoji.
No problems. You didn't wound me that deeply, just enough to drive me to a bottle of wine and sad music this evening.
😀
If lots of kids play there it's not a suitable to place for your dog to crap, official or not. That would seem fairly straightforward to any non-dog owner or really anyone with half a brain.
If lots of dogs crap there it's not a suitable to place for your child to play, official or not. 😁
There's been lots of threads like this and they always go the same way. At one end you've got people who think their "fur babies" can do no wrong, at the other we have people who simply hate dogs. In between we have most people: responsible owners; the ones who love dogs but wouldn't have one because they don't want the responsibility; the ones who love dogs, don't want the responsibility but have one anyway; the thugs who see it as a status symbol (or worse); people who are dog-ambivalent; those who see one ill-behaved animal and tar them all with the same brush; folk who like other people's dogs; people who are scared of dogs; etc etc.
(It occurs to me that you could cross out "dog" and write "bicycle" in most of that sentence.)
I'm of the mind that people trump animals. I love dogs and will happily interact with them if they want to, but if they're covered in slutch and I'm walking to a job interview then "he's only being friendly!" doesn't cut it I'm afraid.
But the fact of the matter is that both dogs and children exist, and sometimes may have to coexist. So perhaps a bit of level-headedness and compromise is required from both sides? The OP's photos look to be mostly just some shared greenery. Why not have "dogs this end, kids that end"? (Or course, if you have both... 🤷♂️)
why bag the poo and then leave it on the ground or hang it from a tree.... why bother bagging it in the first place??? What is the mentality?
IME one of:
- I'll collect it on my way back,
- I'll tell someone I'll collect it on my way back, if I get caught,
- A genuine belief that the council employs someone to collect them.
Also,
+1 everything JoshVegas said on Page 1 about shared spaces.
FWIW I'm even less enthused about people who keep roaming cats as pets.
We have three cats.
The old girl is allowed out in our enclosed back yard under supervision, and is taken straight back inside if she shows any signs of being about to attempt a Paul Newman.
The other two will be 4.5 years old now (both from the same litter) and up until this summer have never been outside. When we left the door open (despite my protestations) the bolder of the two made it to where we were sitting and flopped into the floor at our feet; her sister never crossed the threshold at all. So for any practical purposes they're all indoor cats.
Dogs have been domesticated for considerably longer than cats (look it up, I was astonished). As a result dogs are (generally) easier to train/control than cats, but also are more dependent on us. Whereas domesticated cats are still a bit wild. A mate of mine has a black lab which will toilet on command; good luck teaching a cat to do that.
I know of two cats trained to use the toilet to crap
That's the thing, cats aren't really one type of personality, and neither are dogs, they come in all different breeds and some behave very differently to others.
You can bet a pit bull isn't safe to leave around young children, as opposed to a golden retriver, for example.
Same with cats, some are just nasty ****ers, some are super affectionate...
In the meantime, can’t we have a national campaign to teach dogs to poop over the storm drain
Terrible idea. They'd then use that as an excuse to let their dogs shit everywhere, oh he missed the drain, there's nothing I can do about that. If common sense had prevailed there wouldn't have been a need for all the laws concerning dog ownership and anti social owners. A lot of the busier outdoor spots near me reek of dogshit on damp days, it's disgusting. Not to mention dog walkers letting their dogs shit in the street, even in peoples gardens if the gates aren't closed.
Whilst the level of responsibility varies amongst dog owners, the level of entitlement seems quite constant
Absolutely. I'd add angry and delusional verging on mental illness. Love the comparisons with wild animals. Like domesticated pets (often bought, sold and bred as part of a commercial enterprise) are part of a necessary ecosystem!
I find these type of complaints are like those mask wearing zealots during covid. Those people who scowled or lectured people in public not wearing their paper mask correctly (or not at all) yet when circumstances didnt suit them doing so broke their own morals and rules without a second thought.
Everyone sees themselves as whiter than white .. never dragging the rear wheel down a trail, always follow the highway code to the letter, never allow their dog or cat to poop, p1ss or even f@rt to the nuisance of anyone.
I put my hands up. I shall be taking our pooch up the local forestry in a bit. He can p1ss or poop as much and wherever he likes, I shall not be picking it up either .. when in bear country eh; I shall not consider putting him on the lead if I see a mtber or a horse rider .. my pooch won`t get in their way or be bothered by them, but if they are bothered by him, then thats their problem too.
I put my hands up. I shall be taking our pooch up the local forestry in a bit. He can p1ss or poop as much and wherever he likes, I shall not be picking it up either .. when in bear country eh; I shall not consider putting him on the lead if I see a mtber or a horse rider .. my pooch won`t get in their way or be bothered by them, but if they are bothered by him, then thats their problem too.
Speaking as a fellow dog owner, and MTB'er and pedestrian, that makes you sound like a bit of an A-hole, and part of the problem.
A bit more consideration on your part is required, maybe?
Obvious troll is obvious.
I know of two cats trained to use the toilet to crap
How many do you know of who aren't?
I find these type of complaints are like those mask wearing zealots during covid. Those people who scowled or lectured people in public not wearing their paper mask correctly (or not at all) yet when circumstances didnt suit them doing so broke their own morals and rules without a second thought.
I'll take "things that didn't happen" for $100 please, Alex.
the only folk I know that attempted to train a cat to use a toilet succeeded. I don't know anyone who failed. Most folk do not even attempt it
I believe like any training of cats it needs to be done when they are young