To the Editor,
Re: Patrols target unleashed dogs, March 22.
What is so hard about being a considerate dog owner?
Leash your dog. When someone approaches you on a trail, reel your dog’s leash in if it is one of those 20-footers, and keep your dog in tight with yourself between your dog and whomever or whatever is passing you on the trail.
This is simple, common courtesy and consideration to others, while still allowing your dog to roam about and have fun.
If people simply do this, then this whole conversation would become moot.
If they don’t, they are well on the road to having their and all other dogs banned from many or most parks, such as may become the case in Linley Valley.
Other than the solutions mentioned, the obvious one to this issue is just leash your dog, period.
Take a training course with your dog to teach it obedience and proper behaviour, to be under verbal command as if it was on a tight leash.
These courses are short, only a few weeks for $150 and your dog becomes well-behaved, under control and instantly recallable, instead of being an out-of-control idiot mutt without a clue as to how to properly behave around people, as is more often the case than not.
Go to the library – there are hundreds of dog training DVDs available on loan that can teach you to train your dog to the same level at no cost to you.
The reality is that the crackdown on dogs off-leash and the conduct of dog owners will only become more severe until dogs are banned from all people parks.
As of May 1, there will be 12 off-leash areas in Nanaimo, so there is no excuse for them to even be in any people parks.
Tom McCartney
Nanaimo
