Precious lawn owners

valdavi

You have just suggested I train the dog to use the garden. He often does, & guess what - it's lawn.
The prevalence of T.canis in foxes in Europe was found to be 34.6% in a recent study so even if no dogs used the park, it would not be T canis free.

That is fine, Valdavi - it is your garden, so you are aware of what goes on in it and can clean up, and you can children off aanywhere that needs a clean, but allowing a dog to foul lawns belonging to other people is not fine. That is what this thread is about.

100 - 34.6 is 65.4 Nearly two thirds of the soiling in Europe is not by foxes, and that doesn't refer to Britain.

I have to say I don't like this habit by developers of forbidding owners from enclosing their front gardens. I looks very neat in the plans, but real people don't live on a plan. They have children who need to be kept safe from wandering and keep pets that could run under a car if a door is open, New-build back gardens are usually a size for fairies to sit daintily in.

A medium-height fence and gate defining the property edge mean that no-one can assume that the tempting lawn seen on the other side is not private property. That applies equally to lazy dog-owners and to youths on mountain bikes, leaflet distributors taking a shortcut and potential burglars taking a closer look through the windows.

My daughter’s street is all open front lawns. No fences permitted. When I take my grandchildren out for a walk I’ve always discouraged them from stepping on someone’s lawn. Likewise if I’m walking their dog, I wouldn’t dream of letting him walk on a neighbour’s lawn.

However, it’s a common sight to see folk strolling aimlessly with their dog at full length on and extending lead. The owner usually giving their full attention to their phone while the dog strolls across every lawn in the street. Rude and entitled dog owners who often give responsible ones a bad name.

The prevalence of T.canis in foxes in Europe was found to be 34.6% in a recent study so even if no dogs used the park, it would not be T canis free.

A perfect example of Irrelevant Whataboutery! 🏆

I agree, Elegran.
Here is my heart warming true story:

My previous house was on an open plan estate. Before I was aware of the restriction I had a low fence put up around the front . An anonymous neighbour complained tabout my fence to the builders ,who owned the right to make such a rule. The builder, a well known and reputable firm sent me a standard letter concerning removing my fence. I telephoned the CEO in person of the firm to explain I could not afford to have the fence removed and his advice was to ignore the whole business and the resentful neighbour too, and carry on as I had been doing.

Another annoying feature of “open plan” on new estates in my area is that new owners have to pay for compulsory expensive annual upkeep to maintain such areas. A real rip-off imo.

"Around 25% of people were seropositive for specific anti-Toxocara antibodies in the UK and Ireland in historical studies of hospital and paediatric populations, while average seroprevalence is 10.5% in Europe and 19.0% globally."

Does this mean that dog-owners on the continent of Europe as a whole are two and a half times as aware as those in the UK of toxocara and are more likely to make sure that their pets are wormed monthly to prevent infection and egg-shedding? Or is it that UK dogs are more likely to be in cities and exercised where people also work and take their leisure (which doesn't absolve dog-owners from their responsibilities with regard to worming)?

"Toxocara eggs contaminating public parks come from infected definitive hosts, including dogs, cats and foxes. In typical UK urban settings, the majority of Toxocara spp. eggs are predicted to come from pet dogs, and the vast majority being T. canis. This is because fox population density is much lower (less than 10 per square km) than that of pet dogs (more than 100 per square km) in UK towns and cities, such that higher prevalence of egg shedding in foxes does not translate into higher overall egg numbers, while cats have lower faecal mass and are also predicted to shed fewer eggs overall than dogs."

Cats also tend to dig holes and cover their excrement, unlike dogs, which are far more likely to just walk off and leave it to their owner.

Source for that - bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.2341

I was on the school run yesterday afternoon and whilst waiting for the GC, a young woman walked up to the school gates with 2 dogs on leads. Dogs are not allowed on school premises and so she stood waiting by the fence, probably to pick her own child/children up. As she stood there, one of her dogs squatted and dumped a pile of shit. She seemed oblivious until one of the other mums pointed it out to her. She frantically scrabbled about in her pockets looking for a poo bag but, finding that she had none, simply kicked the shit through the metal post fence into the school grounds.

That is terrible Grunty what responsible dog owner goes out without poo bags.
I hope someone made her aware of their feelings on this.

I have a grass verge outside my house, which I have to cross to reach my house. I often reach my gate cursing because I’ve inadvertently “stepped in something” revolting, and have to hop about in my front porch trying to remove the deposit from my shoes, then the shoes themselves, before entering the house in a foul mood. Council owned or private, it’s not acceptable.

I’m a dog lover and lifelong dog owner myself, btw.

I live in a council house, not allowed to put up anything between the front garden and pavement. DH aged 74 was threatened by a 25+ chav who thought it was OK to let his dog poo in our garden, well it's council property he said. Picking dog poo out of grass leaves LOTS OF POO still left on the blades of grass it is absolutely disgusting

Some people have no shame. Others can be shamed. I was behind someone walking through a short cut in town who let their dog poop and carried on walking. “Excuse me” I said “your dog has just done a poo. I have a spare poo bag here which you can use” and produced one from my pocket. They apologised, they hadn’t noticed, but they picked up.