HI Y’all!
On Saturday I visited the web site of some Labrador friends and their Human. If you’ve never visited and love retrievers and wildlife make it a regular stop…HERE.
We traveled all day...long day and once more my hackles were up over the Humans not cleaning up behind us! KB mentioned in her Thursday post about the dogs bein' banned from open space trails...just as we try to make inroads to be able to travel and do more with our people.
It is so unfair to allow a very vocal few to ban ALL OF US from trails and parks because of a few irresponsible owners! Horses are banned from the Appalachian trail. Many states ban dogs, even leashed, in their parks, especially if there are Nature trails. Most National Parks have been dog friendly, so far…but some are preventing us from staying in cabins with our Humans and making certain areas off limits.
Just as we start to be accepted at some better hotels, although as a large retriever I find the weight limits discriminatory, we are losing our ability to go places and have fun with our people.
I’m finding this all too overwhelming. A simple dog cannot change this trend.
Humans need us!
What do we do about a few Humans who aren’t responsible to have us as their best buddy?
How do we keep the beaches and trails from being closed to all of us, the pawed ones, instead of just the irresponsible ones?
It is too bad that there always seems to be a few who ruin it for the rest of us. :( So far they haven't limited use of the forest around here, but they are trying, (and for more than just dog walking).
ReplyDeleteInstead of banning dogs, they should put a ban on the things they don't want... like, if your dog poops on the ground and you don't pick it up, you are BANNED! Or if your dog bites someone, you are BANNED! Then all the well-behaved doggies and their well-behaved humans can be free to do as they want.
ReplyDeleteI agree one bad experience spoils it for most. We live in a world where people are afraid of being sued so more dramatic changes are made prematurely. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteI always hate when people don't pick up after their dogs. In LA I see it all the time, they chat away on their cell phones while their little dog poops and then when you point it out they ignore you
ReplyDeleteKari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/
We feel the same way! One thing that really raises my hackles is when we go out hiking in state parks and run into people with off leash dogs. We don't want them ruining it for everybody! Dogs are allowed in all but a few of our state parks here, although most national parks are extremely restrictive (although they seem to allow human puppies to run wild there), and we are lucky in Illinois that our state parks are still free. Getting out on the trails is something we try to do every weekend, and we'll speak out if we have to!
ReplyDeleteBunny
Thanks for the mention!
ReplyDeleteI think that we dog people need to band together in the same way as the "anti-dog" people are doing (they call themselves "preservers of nature" here). Not only could we be a loud voice for dog access (something like 50% of households have dogs in them) but we could also work on educating all dog owners about what they need to do to keep open spaces available to dogs. I've come to think that some people honestly don't know that they're not being good dog owners... E.g., that allowing your dog to jump all over other trail users isn't acceptable.
Sadly, in the west, dogs are almost completely banned from National Parks. They can ride in a car and stand on the pavement but their paws are not allowed to leave the pavement. For that reason, we almost never go to national parks anymore.
I hope that the battle isn't lost and starts to swing back the other way sometime soon.
I'm with you. Some lady yelled at my little brother when I first was adopted. She accused him of not picking up my poo. My mama was so mad. She kept telling the lady that we had bags and that she needed to stop yelling at my hu-brother. I think my mama wanted to bite her.
ReplyDeleteAll this was caused because some bad people had not been picking up after their dogs on this ladies lawn. Mama said this made the lady act in an unladylike and mean way to innocent people and dawgins. Now we avoid that lady's lawn completely.
Some rotten people made this lady think that ALL of us are bad...even when we are carrying electric blue poop bags.
I don't know how to help. The only thing I can think of is that we just keep talking about it on the internet and maybe people who don't know will finally learn.
Opie
Most of our hikes are in the Pisgah National Forest or the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park, and NOT the Great Smoky Mountain National Park despite the fact that we live right on the edge of the GSMNP. The GSMNP bans dogs from all trails (but allows horses - go figure).
ReplyDeleteTo make it more confusing, Pisgah allows off-leash, but under control, dogs and the BRP requires all dogs to be on leash. So, you hike on Frying Pan Mountain and you start on BRP property and end on Pisgah land - the rules changes DURING the hike. Fun, huh?
All in all, our job is to be responsible with our canine friends, pick up after them, and try to be ambassadors to well behaved canine enjoyment of our natural areas.