A professional dog walker says he is concerned by a “lack of attention” from some who have just started dog walking professionally, and understanding the behaviour of dogs takes “time and experience”.
In Christchurch, there is currently no restriction on the amount of dogs able to be walked at one time by dog walkers, but the council is set to review its canine bylaws to determine whether to cap the number of pups one person can have under their control at any one time.
In May, a beloved family dog had to be put down after it suffered “horrific” injuries in a violent mauling by four larger dogs participating in a “pack walk” in East Auckland, prompting concerns about inexperienced dog walking businesses popping up across the city.
Dennis Nuberg from dog walking company Happy Dog Owner told Breakfast he too was concerned by a “lack of attention” he had noticed from dog walkers in the area.
“I'm seeing too often folks walking with a cell phone in their hand and the dogs are running free, now that disturbs me. You're not to be distracted as we all are in every job that we're in. This is the work we do and this work we do requires you to be hands on and eyes on the entire time you are busy.
“I think there is a good time to put in some different rules, maybe not too regulated, for the future [to] create an environment which enables a responsibility for those who want to embark upon this as a business venture.”
Nuberg said, in 23 years of running his professional dog walking business, one of the things he was also concerned about was safe transport of the pets.
“You're taking on responsibility of private animals for people that cherish their animals and that has to be not undervalued. The transport of an animal has to be a safe one.
“Settling of the dogs' behaviours to start with is an important one, that we don't open a back door and a bunch of dogs just flood out and create havoc in an environment.”
He said this was something he had seen before that he was “quite disappointed by” and urged people wanting to walk dogs in packs to understand these behaviours.
“The second would be the numbers involved. How competent are you at understanding the unpredictability of dogs? Things may change in an instant… if it goes wrong, it can happen very fast.”
Nuberg said understanding and learning to read the behaviour of dogs “takes time and experience”, including understanding how different dogs may react to certain anomalies.
“Not all dogs will go and be disobedient at the same time, so if a dog is a little bit sensitive to the presence of a horse for instance, you see that horse coming a distance away and put that dog on a lead … there will be several of your dogs that you know have no interest in horses, they don't need to be on lead.
“Circumstance or environment dictate the necessity to have your dogs under control at any given time and be ready for it.”
