Students seek mandatory dog training
Four Kapiti College students want training for dogs and their owners made compulsory, as they aim to limit dog attacks in the district.
Jack Loader, Caitlin Voyle, Samuel Cathro and Isaiah Peake want the Kapiti Coast District Council to create bylaws for the 1996 Dog Control Act.
The bylaws would make dogowner training compulsory, alongside background checks for all dog owners, and education for children on good safety practices around dogs.
Loader said the stigma around breeds such as pit bulls covered the actual cause of the problem.
‘‘Every dog in the wrong hands is just as lethal as a gun. People use dogs as statements. Some people as fashion statements, and others to intimidate, or hold power over others.
‘‘The environment has a lot to do with it. Where they live, who they live with and what happens to them.’’
Training for dogs and owners would involve a three-week course, held locally two or three times a week, to teach dogs and owners basic commands like ‘‘come’’ and ‘‘sit’’.
Background checks would be held once a month for the first three months a dog spends at a new residence.
Children would be educated once a term, every school year from pre-school to year two. The education would involve children being exposed to a dog.
Cathro said council’s registration process needed to be made more stringent.
‘‘It’s paying for a registration fee and getting the injections, and when that’s done you’re all good to go. There’s no regular checkups on the dog or the owner.’’
He wanted the measures to eventually be enforced nationwide.
‘‘A good place to start is the Kapiti Coast.’’
The quartet’s social action began as part of a year 13 assignment, and all four have dogs as family pets.
Council environmental standards manager Jacquie Muir said 98.8 per cent of all dogs were registered in Kapiti, one of the highest rates in the country.
‘‘Registration helps us to enforce owner responsibilities, keep track of problem dogs and enable an owner and their lost or stolen dog to be reunited.’’
The council had been encouraged by the response to their new dog education policy.
‘‘We’ve run sessions with four schools, have another scheduled for September and we’ve had interest expressed from nearly 10 of the 17 primary schools in the wider district.’’
Private training for dogs is available in Kapiti, but is not mandatory.
The council has a Dog Control Bylaw, and a Dog Policy, which will be reviewed before December 2018. Muir said consultation would begin later this year.