Hiking Responsibly with our dogs

This is a forum to discuss legislation and legal matters pertaining to the rights and welfare of dogs. Please remember to counter ideas and opinions with which you don't agree with friendly and helpful advice and responses.

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Huck

GO!!!

Barked: Mon Mar 26, '12 7:02pm PST


	I have a bit of a gripe. Yesterday a friend and I took the dogs on a great 9 mile hike.It is a trail that is well used but far enough out in the boonies you feel like you are all alone. It was a gorgeous day for a hike up there with temps starting off in the low 50's and only reaching the low 60's. The flowers have started to bloom and it was just a peaceful way to spend a Sunday morning. But what really was making me angry was all the dog poop ON the trail, not off to the side in a bush but ON THE TRAIL that had not been picked up and hikers had actually stepped in! As dog lovers and lovers of the outdoors and also respect the privilege to take our dogs on these trails, we need to be really diligent about picking up our dogs' poops and making sure they are not in the the way of other hikers, for them to see and step in. There are many people who are adamantly against dogs on hiking trails for many reasons but this is a main one. Our ability to take our dogs on these trails is not a right , its a privilege and we need to show responsible dog ownership by picking up after them when they poop on these trails. That right is being constantly challenged and if we as dog owners do not do our part, we will lose that privilege just as many trails have already been closed to dogs. So please people, take poop bags with you and carry a zip lock bag to carry it in and pick up after your dogs. Its the least we can do to show the anti dog hikers that we are responsible and doing our part to keep our hiking trails dog poop free.

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Sanka

The ground is my- newspaper.

Barked: Mon Mar 26, '12 7:19pm PST


	This is one thing that bugs me A LOT! I was getting so angry, I was about to put up a sign at one trail about picking up poop ON the trail. If it's in the grass, fine. But when your dog poops right on the trail, seriously? If you don't have a poop bag, grab a stick and knock it off into the brush at least. Heck, there's someone who rides their horse in the early mornings and even they make sure to pick up the horse's poop, which obviously is a bigger task than moving dog poop. What I fear more is that because I go there a lot with my dogs, other people will start to assume it's me. And what bugs me even more is that for a while now, we've been using the tee-ball field as an "off leash" area for the dogs to romp in. It was going fine as you'd walk your dogs around first, let them do their business and then go on the field. But lately, I've been finding piles of poo on the field! Good lord people...little kids are going to be playing on this field and you leave dog poop on it? Drives me nuts!

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Huck

GO!!!

Barked: Mon Mar 26, '12 7:34pm PST


	Yes, it drives me nuts as well. Imagine if more people did not pick up poop in that field it will be closed to dogs. I get afraid people will think its my dogs too when they come across me and piles of dog poop that obviously came from smaller dogs. I was down at Balboa Park on Sat with the dogs and watched this woman with a large dog let it take a dump and then looked around and walked away! I went over, picked it up, carried the bag of poop over to her sitting on a bench with her dog and said, here you go, I picked up your dog poop for you and handed her the bag. I don't get it, they pick up dog poop in their yard why not in a public place and the poop on a hiking trail sends me up and over the moon! Like you said flick it off the trail, bury it, something, just get it off the trail.

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Toto, CD,- RN, CGC

We don't do- doodles!!!

Barked: Tue Mar 27, '12 4:32am PST


	We have a small flower garden right next to the exit to our grooming salon/boarding kennel. We also have a WELL MARKED exercise area right outside the door. About HALF the people let their dogs into the flower garden to pee and poop!!! I do not get that at all! One year I put a small stick fence around the garden. Would you believe one woman had the nerve to come inside and complain to me that her dog's leash got caught on the sticks and she was berating me for having them around the garden!!! I asked her what made her think that garden was for exercising her dog? I told her I certainly would not walk my dog in her garden. She didn't have any answer but the next time she came, she STILL let the dog walk in the garden!!

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Lucille

I am the Sock- Bandit!!!

Barked: Tue Mar 27, '12 6:22am PST


	That's a huge peeve of mine, too. Lu and I go to a local ball field for a lot of our off leash work. Some days I'm shocked by the amount of poo I see there...I'm wondering if they'd like it if their kid was running for a fly ball and fell in a huge pile of dog mess. I agree it's a privilege to be able to run there; I'm also worried that we'll go one day and there'll be a big 'No Dogs!!!" sign because of irresponsible eejits. I always have a baggie, so if I see someone else's I'm pretty good about picking it up. One of Lu's best traits is that on trails she shows me she's gotta go by one quick urgent tug to the side, she only likes to go way off to the side of a trail wether on or off leash. Even then I usually pick it up or bury it at least. There's really no excuse, it's part of the work of caring for a dog. There's a mailbox in a small mulch bed with an azalea bush at the end of our driveway. I came home to find a guy with a small dog on a leash standing there while he allowed his dog to crouch in the bed. I'm in my car with the blinker on and gesturing like He calmly lets his dog finish and walks away while I'm waiting to turn in. I'm saying "You forgot something pal", and he's totally ignoring me ofcourse. Like I planted that area to be his dog's personal toilet.

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Rigby

Whisper Words of- Wisdom

Barked: Tue Mar 27, '12 10:19am PST


	Drives me insane as well! If you're taking your dog for a hike, you should be well aware that there's a good chance he/she is gonna have to go. Even if you don't want to carry a bag, the very LEAST you could do would be flick it off the trail and bury it.

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Squ'mey

too old to eat- any more KD

Barked: Tue Mar 27, '12 10:23am PST


	I totally agree. I live almost right door to a high school, so I can take the dogs there fo frisbee or chuck-it. I always pick up after them, but I am starting to see some others are not. As for the trails I am ticked off when I see piles on the path. My rule of thumb in the woods is that if a person, especially a kid...could step in it, it gets picked up. If I have to bushwhack to get it, it stays. It really is a privilege to have access to some great trails..but the bad apples will ruin it for us responsible owners. Good reminder as we head into spring weather.

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Sirius- Padfoot- Black

Too clever for- Mom's own good!- :)

Barked: Wed Mar 28, '12 11:24am PST


	Siri likes to go to the drive-in movies with Wynn and me, so he can meet kids. He loves kids, and we don't have any, nor any neighbors with kids, so we go for a walk before the movie, when the kids are playing down in front of the screen. I carry poop bags with me, and if he has to go, we walk out by the fence, not even in the area where the kids play, and I pick it up. I don't want the drive-in to decide it's a bad idea to have dogs there, either.

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Bingley,- Emmett &- Martika

Little Ewoks

Barked: Wed Mar 28, '12 12:03pm PST


	The park we hike in isn't too bad during the warmer months... the winter is another story. The snowy trail gets horribly riddled with brown land mines You feel like you're playing hop-scotch trying to avoid it all. Bingley has always, from the time he was on his first walks in the park, gone way off the trail to do his business, he won't do it on it. Martika has caught on and does the same thing now. Emmett's my little weirdo that won't do his business at all on a walk... not pee, not mark, anything. He waits until he's home. Oh... there was one house in my neighborhood, a couple blocks over, that their front yard was just covered in giant dog piles. It was so gross. I don't know how they could stand that. This was a couple years ago, though, so they may have been made to clean up, or moved. I don't walk the dogs in my neighborhood anymore (too many off-leash dogs.... which is now becoming a problem in the park... sigh).

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MIKA&KAI

Akita Pals- Always.

Barked: Thu Mar 29, '12 10:54am PST


	We live in the city and it is illegal to allow your dog to poop on the side walk and not pick it up. My front yard has become a favorite place for some pet owners too lazy to pick up poop so I have had to resort to doing it for them. My dogs are not permitted to be out front,they have the entire back yard. I wish I could find the culprits because I would be handing them a bag to take their pets mess home in. I have enough to clean up from my own,let alone dogs whose owners don't bother. When we take our pups to other places we always clean up. I think it's just common courtesy and respect for others. Unfortunately I see less and less of that in general,so why should allowing your dog to make a mess and not bothering to pick it up be any different? We who are responsible will just once again have to work harder to make up for those who are not. This is no longer a suprize to me.

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