Do dogs belong at festivals?

There's a debate in London, Ont., about whether or not dogs belong at summer festivals held in city parks.
The festivals are free and the parks are public. Dogs and their owners have every right to walk through and linger.
But the events are usually packed with people and concert goers like to sit on the grass to listen to the live music. They don't want to meet a dog, no matter how friendly, face-to-face, put their hand where a dog has just peed or pooped - no matter how well meaning the cleanup, one never gets it all. There have also been dog-to-dog conflicts which likely sound, to a non-owner, like something serious. Or not - sometimes bites are exchanged.
There have been a couple of opinion columns in the daily London Free Press and at least one letter to the editor asking people to keep their dogs at home.
Here's the link to the latest column, with a too-bold headline, published July 16, 2011.
This weekend is the second consecutive one with a major festival at Victoria Park - the excellent Sunfest was last weekend and this weekend it's the Home County Festival. We were at Sunset - without Nellie our wheaten terrier.

Dogs who ate owners adopted

A sad story from Saskatchewan, but the outcome is what the dog owners would have wanted. Good that the dogs were expertly assessed before being adopted. Here's the link to the Toronto Star story.

Pet buyers need to sober up first

Pet buyers need to be completely sober, shop says.
Only in New York.

Allergic to dogs? Pass on labradoodles

Hmm, about the notion some dogs are better than others for allergy sufferers ... the Globe & Mail has some input.

Dog gone seven years

Now this is an incredible tale - almost a lifetime for a dog. Here's the story of a pooch missing for seven years and finally reunited with the original family.

What a road trip

This is one travelling pooch, found in B.C. after going missing from Quebec. Here's the story published in Metro.

Basset hound running

I once knew a reporter in Newmarket, Ont., who almost got fired for misspelling the name of the owner, Doug Bassett, as Doug Basset, as in hounds. It was incompetence, not malice, and I'm sure all parties can laugh about it now.
Just like we can share a laugh over this cute photo of a basset hound running shared by a Twitter connection. Enjoy!

World's ugliest dog home from tour

Yoda, a Chinese chihuahua (?) isn't that ugly, right? Here's Yoda's hometown story.

Dancing Chihuahua

Many thanks to "Harshlesson" for posting this on Youtube. My boyhood dog was a chihuahua, but I don't recall Tippy dancing. Thanks also to a Twitter friend for pointing me to the video.

Safe in cars

Is it irresponsible for pet owners to drive with their pets unrestrained. Yep.
Here's the safe way to transport Fido, courtesy of the Toronto Star.

Nellie's recovery

Our vet says Nellie got off easy. Animal control related stories about children cut for hundreds of stitches after being bitten by off-leash dogs.
Turns out the German shepherd being "walked" off leash along our street bit our Wheaten terrier three times. The vet bill was $200 and I hold out little hope the other dog owner will pay it. We don't know the young man and he does not live on our street.
We're lucky my son was not bitten - in addition to the obvious, it would've meant finding the German shepherd to verify he had up-to-date rabies shots.
Lucky for us, Nellie is not trying to take off her bandage, which needs to stay in place for five days.
Animal control says dog owners should treat encounters like traffic accidents, exchanging contact information for followup.
This particular biting dog is not identified, but the location of the incident, circumstances and description of the dog (a classic coloured-German shepherd or mix) are on record. Hopefully nothing will happen again involving this dog, but if it does it should be Strike 2.

Our Wheaten bitten by off-leash German shepherd

What's the price of dog owners who overestimate the control they have over their dogs? In my case, maybe hundreds of dollars.

Yesterday, a 20-something man who doesn't live on our street "walked" his off-leash German shepherd through the neighbourhood.
Unfortunately for us, my teen son was coming home from a walk with our Wheaten terrier when the free-running German shepherd was coming down the street, far away from its owner.
Usually dog-to-dog confrontations are just a lot of barking, but in this case the shepherd managed to bite our Wheaten on her underbelly near her groin.
Eventually, the owner caught up with his dog and controlled it. He was confronted by a neighbour working in her yard. The response from the shepherd owner was laced with profanity.
If I ever see this dog in the neighbourhood, further discussion awaits.
Meanwhile, I hope he now knows enough to keep it on a leash.