It takes a lot of education to teach dog owners new tricks
IT’S hard to teach old dogs new tricks and the same applies to dog owners – or so it would seem.
In an effort to keep dog dung off the footpaths, Dingle Tidy Towns volunteers set up sandpit dog toilets earlier this year along the walking route around Dingle. The hope was that dogs would follow their noses and do their business in the appointed spots. When that fails dog owners have the option of using the free doggie bags provided in dispensers along the walking route so that they can pick up and properly dispose of what their dogs leave behind on the town’s footpaths.
It all works pretty well except that between the doggie bags and the doggie toilets there’s a bit of confusion about who’s supposed to do what and where. And the unfortunate result is that Tidy Towns volunteers regularly face the unpleasant task of gathering bags of dog dung from the sandpit dog toilets.
In the hope of easing their burden, the people in Dingle Tidy Towns are currently on a campaign to persuade dog owners that litter bins are the proper place to dump the bags of dung they dutifully pick up after their pets do the business on the street. The sandpits, on the other hand, are for use by dogs only: ‘Leithreas do Mhadraí Amháin’ as the signs say.
Gene Courtney of Dingle Tidy Towns told The Kerryman recently that he was optimistic that dog owners will get the message, even though “it takes a long time to educate people”.
It looks like Gene was right on the education side of things. Every week he gathers up bags of dog dung and leaves the sandpits spotless. Within days the bags are back. Still, he says “it’s early days yet and we’re not going to be discouraged”.
Perhaps Kerry County Council could fall in and help the Tidy Towns effort by providing more litter bins along the walking route. Between Goat Street and The Quay, via Milltown Bridge, there are no litter bins – and that’s a long mile with a steaming bag of dog dung as a companion.