Who let the dogs in? Us, hopefully

CIVIL society does a much better job setting standards of behaviour than bureaucrats, writes James Morrow. Let’s start by allowing dogs in pubs.

Iggy, Oscar, Jamieson and Blanche join human Mark Waldron at the Erskineville Hotel bar. A sight we could be seeing more of if the proposal to change laws goes ahead. (Pic: John Appleyard)

THIS is a column about dogs. But before we get to that, let’s have a quick word about the Greens.

Now to be clear, many Greens may have fine individual qualities as human beings. They can be fine civic-minded neighbours, if you can afford to buy into one of the $2 million inner-ring suburbs where they tend to settle.

But put a bunch of them together in a party room and you’d have to go back to Lenin’s Second Party Congress to find a mob more secretive, back-stabby, and economically illiterate.

Nevertheless, like the proverbial stopped clock, every now and then one of them gets it right.

Which brings us to NSW’s Greens MP Jamie Parker, who is reportedly planning a bill to amend the state’s Companion Animals Act to allow pub-goers to bring their dogs into the bar (and not just the beer garden) — with the publican’s permission.

Parker’s legislation was prompted by a parliamentary investigation as well as reports that rangers from the new, amalgamated council which recently took over his home ground of Balmain had been heavying local pooch-friendly pubs where dogs had informally (if technically illegally) remained welcome at the front bar, never causing a hint of trouble foreseen by the 2003 legislation that was supposed to have seen them banned.

Greens MP Jamie Parker has opened up a discussion about changing state laws which prevent dogs from coming into pubs or venues with food. (Pic: John Appleyard)

Parker’s proposed change to the law is, as anyone who has travelled in more dog-friendly lands (or even just visited one of the aforementioned pubs) a great idea.

Several years ago I was travelling in France as part of a large party attending a family wedding. My wife, her father and I broke off from the group one day and took lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant in downtown Vichy.

The food was good but I’ll never forget the party at the next table: A young couple, all effortlessly and glamorously casual in that way only the French can pull off, accompanied by their very polite toddler (she ate everything including the foie gras starter) and a lovely little dachshund who sat Sphinx-like under the table.

At one point my knife slipped and a morsel of lamb flew off my plate, bouncing off the wainscoting before landing on the floor between our two tables.

The dachshund saw this and discreetly raised an eyebrow in my direction.

Catching the hound’s eye, I gave a barely perceptible nod. And, as if doing me the favour, the dog ducked out to quickly tidy up my faux-pas.

Contrast that little scene with Australia, where in public life children, grown-ups and dogs are all sequestered in their own little bubbles: babyccino cafes for the kids and their (mostly) mums, pubs for unaccompanied grown-ups, and dog parks for the dishlickers.

In an increasingly dense city where we all have to go along to get along, this is a recipe for narcissism, not harmony.

If dogs — or kids, or adults for that matter — aren’t well-behaved, it’s because they haven’t been civilised properly both by their parents and the expectations of the rest of us.

And as my experience in France — and countless other places — has shown, there’s a positive feedback loop that comes from different populations being forced to share the same public space, whether fancy restaurant or corner pub.

Civil society, after all, does a much better job setting the standard of good behaviour than council rangers. When you leave manners to the bureaucrats, a minority of adults (and their dogs and kids) will act as badly as they can get away with without copping a fine and ruin it for everyone.

Parker’s bill is long overdue, and it might even set a good precedent whereby venue owners are once again allowed to make the rules allowing their guests as much or as little liberty as they please when it comes to other activities. (Cigar bars anyone?)

And for those who object, well, to paraphrase a line from the same-sex marriage debate, if you don’t want to have a beer at a dog-friendly pub, don’t go to one.

James Morrow is opinion editor of the Daily Telegraph.

@pwafork