Four Dogs, One Dog Walker

Under the Inner West council by-laws, there are to be only four dogs under one person's supervision.

Maybe that was an arbitrary number plucked out of the air at a council meeting, or perhaps several dog trainers and dog handling experts were commissioned for an answer.

Whatever! That's the rule, and Your Critter Sitter abides by that rule. We take groups of four to the dog park three times a day, 9 am, around 11.30 am, and between 2 pm and 3 pm.

We know our dog walkers are more than competent and trained to handle any four of our client's dogs. But it’s not just abiding by the 'only four dogs per person'. It's also the number of dogs in the dog park when you turn up with your four!

It only needs three other dog walkers, and you add your four which makes 16 excited dogs running around the park, pooing, sniffing, chasing balls, rumbling, barking, needing to let off steam.

Now these 16 dogs know their own group of four, they might have been walking together every Friday for one, two or five years. They related to their dog walker in much the same way they do their owner, and know the dog walker is in charge and are prepared to obey her commands.

The dog walkers know each other, and they know their own dogs. They know which dogs might cause problems for another dog walker, a dog that doesn't feel comfortable around big dogs, or barking dogs, or who is going to be reactive to another dog grabbing their tennis ball.

But then two locals turn up, they met at the cafe, got a takeaway coffee and decided to have a catch up while their dogs played in the park. These two dogs are the wild cards, and so are their owners.

The dog walker with the four small dogs heads for the back of the park and keeps her group to one corner. Another walker takes up the middle space and produces a ball thrower and gets a game started. The coffee drinkers miss their dogs pooing and are also unaware of them separating, one stands in line for the ball throwing and the other heads for the small group walking around the park footpath.

It is now left up to the dog walkers to deal with their group, how the other groups of dogs plus the two local dogs interact.

Some days it all goes well, there are no problems, all the dogs run, chase, bark, rumble and have 60 mins of high energy fun. And then some days a dog takes a dislike to another dog, the tension runs around the park, like electricity and every dog becomes reactive. Ears are prickled, tails go up, hackles raised, legs stiffen, and dog walkers grab collars and snap-on leads.

As leaders in the dog walking service, Your Critter Sitter pays attention and takes action!

Hannah