When I was on my morning dog walk I saw something, that sadly I see more frequently than I would like.

A car pulled up next to the playing field, and one of it’s doors opened and out jumped a dog – I was a little distance away but it looked like a boxer, although I couldn’t be sure – which promptly dashed across the service road on to the playing field and towards a group of seagulls that were resting / feeding. The gulls immediately took off the moment they saw the dog coming and circled around looking for a place to land. The dog was still trying to chase them or pursue the stragglers that had called it’s bluff and were still on the ground.

The dogs “owner” was still in the car while this was happening.

Eventually she got out of the car, and walked onto the field. The field is pretty muddy at the moment, and I’m wearing wellingtons, and still get splashes of mud above the top of my boots on my jeans. She was wearing white trainers.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and stood on the edge of the field while her dog continued to chase seagulls, and then decided to take a dump.

I could almost see what was going to happen next. When she saw that her dog was doing his business she started to look around. Now I might be being judgemental, but I’ve seen this behaviour a number of times. It’s the:

“can anyone see what my dog is doing because I really don’t want to have to pick it up look”

Unfortunately I was there, and she could see me, so reluctantly, it seemed, she went and picked up behind her dog and put it in the dog bin (not 10 metres away).

After about 2 minutes of standing checking her Facebook or whatever she was doing on her phone she obviously decided that it was time to go, and she called her dog and started back to her car.

Her dog however had other ideas, and wouldn’t come to her, he ran straight past, and across the service road, away from her. Every time she tried to go near him, he jinked and went in another direction. I didn’t see how this played out but it looked as if it was going to go on for a while.

This is obviously not the way to walk a dog.

Firstly you need to be present, don’t just put your dog out of your car and either stay in the car or stand around looking at your phone. You need to know what’s going on. What your dog is doing, who else is around and what they (and they’re dogs) are doing. This was also right by a service road, which although quiet early in the morning, does get busy quickly and there is quite a bit of traffic even at that time of the day.

Secondly if you can’t pick up your own dogs faeces with a bag, then you probably shouldn’t even have a dog.

Thirdly; letting you dog chase birds isn’t great. It teaches bad behaviour, and although the dog obviously found it fun, when the “game” was over, the dog didn’t think so and wouldn’t come. Often birds like this are resting or feeding, and it takes an awful lot of energy to get airborne and fly away. It’s better to give them as wide a berth as you can. Persistent behaviour by dog owners like this is one way to get dogs banned from some public spaces. Don’t be selfish.

Fourthly; if your dog has this much energy it probably needs more exercise than you’ve just given it. Now maybe you’ll take him out for another walk later on today. That’s great if so, but it didn’t feel like this person would be doing that. Dogs need exercise. Every day. Depending on the dog, some need a lot. Think hard about this before committing to owning a dog.

Now of course I could be completely wrong about all of the above, and I might be stereotyping a lady who is just looking after someones dog for them while they’re away, sick or unable to do it themselves for a while, and doing the best she can, but unfortunately I see this sort of behaviour frequently and it makes me disappointed that it happens at all.