Friday, April 22, 2016

Being a Polite Country Dog – Etiquette Tips for Country Walks


Today we are teaming up with the dog-walking serviceRover.com to share our country walk etiquette tips. (Pop over to their site to learn more about them!)

We live in rural Quebec. About half the properties in our area are cottages, meaning May through October there are twice as many people around as through the rest of the year. Given our isolation and how early we get up, we rarely see people or dogs on our early morning walks. However, we know there are a lot of dogs around and want to share our tips.

Things to do to be a polite country dog:

My handless poop bag system
  •  Stay on leash – there is nothing more stressful than walking by a house with a dog, to find a stranger's dog is now following you down the road because it isn’t on leash. Also, being on leash prevents your dog from sneaking onto other’s yards to do his or her business. Further, it will also prevent your dog from chasing or possibly harming the wildlife. We have lots of wildlife around!
  • Pick up your poop - The spring thaw has shown how much poop our neighbourhood dogs have left this winter. It is gross and unhealthy. It takes less than 10 seconds at most to pick it up. You can purchase a poop bag holder that clips to your leash (so you always have bags) and has a place to clip the filled bags (so you don’t even have to carry the poop). We can’t train the deer and other wildlife to pick up their poop, but we can clean up the dog poop!
  • Pick up your litter – If you are going to take snacks, cigarettes, take out coffee etc. on your walk be prepared to carry the garbage home. There are no garbage cans on the country roads, so if you take it out, you must take it home.

  • Walk on the side of the road, or move to the side of the road when cars are coming – We need to share the road, so be sure to be mindful of cars and move.

  • Wear appropriate reflective clothing – half the year, there is a good chance you are walking in the dark. Be respectful of drivers who may not see you out all in black. The reflective vest is not stylish, but it may keep you alive!


  •   If we do meet and your dog isn’t friendly (or you don’t like dogs) say something – On the rare occasion we do meet another dog or person, my two go crazy! Last year we only encountered other people about 10 times (we walk nearly every day – only missing days we aren’t home or days below -20C). The dogs are going to be excited and as soon as they sniff you, they are going to completely lose interest. But if you don’t want this interaction, just let me know!


Those are our country dog etiquette tips. Follow them and you can be a polite country dog! Do you have any other tips to share?




24 comments:

  1. those are good tips for no matter where you live :)

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  2. Hari OM
    The only thing that occurs to me is that the city-dwelling weekender types to whom this is directed may not read your bloggy - send this off to the newspapers!!! Local news-hounds would certainly like this ... YAM xx

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  3. thanks for the tips and i believe in every one of them. i would like to say to others please keep your dogs on a leash in public places unless it is an off leash park.

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  4. Great tips for country and city walking!

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  5. yes, we agree good tips no matter where you live, momma is starting to work more with gussie on good manners so he will be ready for the bar...stella rose (ps.mom is ready for any bar........lol)

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  6. Those are grreat tips for anyone, country or city! We must always be polite and good ambassadogs for our breed. It's sad how someone can meet ONE bad boxer or Lab and think ALL boxers or Labs are bad dogs!

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  7. Golly Gee it sounds like you might need to post those rules for the neighbor dogs...messy irresponsible dog owners make us mad. Mom walks our neighbor's dog most every day when the neighbor is working. Mom always has a poop bag...she remains amazed at the number of folks WHO DO NOT HAVE THEM AND NEED THEM
    Hugs madi your bfff

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  8. That's some good advice. Ghostwriter used to walk us after dark when there is less chance of running into lots of kids and other pets in our suburban neighborhood.

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  9. Excellent tips. Let's hope everyone takes note.

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  10. Busy season is just around the corner. Thank you for sharing great tips!

    Momo & Pinot xo

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  11. Those are fabulous tips. Is all of your snow gone now?

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  12. Great tips, and could also be retitled for City Walks. Anywhere, really. I can't count (well, yes I can count and probably almost to 10, but I mean there's been a lot) the times Mom has had to run back into the house to grab a bag before we walk the neighborhood. Thanks for commenting on my blog so that I could find you!

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  13. Great tips! Me and Stanley do really well until someone talks to us and then we turn into crazy jumping beans!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  14. Those sound like great tips, regardless of where you live!
    Cammie!

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  15. We agree, totally pawesome advice for anywhere you might live!!
    Smileys!
    Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo

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  16. Totally great advice!
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

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  17. They are great tips and it's good to remind the peeps from time to time. I'm a polite dog ...... MOSTLY!!

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  18. Great tips, mom is always on me about minding my manners.

    Aroo to you,
    Sully

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  19. We live in the city (Vancouver) but those tips would also be useful here! Especially the on leash advice. Some people here let their dogs off leash but don't pay attention to what the dogs are doing and it can be nerve wracking if a dog isn't friendly! :O

    the critters in the cottage xo

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  20. These are all great tips for being a good dog neighbor ♥

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  21. Great tips! I've noticed people in our new neighborhood walking by with off leash dogs. That means I have to be very careful when walking Cricket or Luke on the roads - they do not want to be approached by loose dogs. That's also why we hope to make some trails in our woods for walking there. So far I've found it's pretty quiet in early afternoon though, and I hope it will be in the morning as well. At least I can walk Sheba at any time - she's the only one that doesn't have a problem with anyone!

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  22. In our neighborhood the pup owners are very good about etiquette - walking on the right side of the road - always having their pups walk on leash AND most importantly, picking up the poop!

    Hugs, Sammy

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