Why aren’t dogs allowed in beaches and cafes, when kids are?

IF I want to sit on the sand at Bondi with my dog why can’t I? He’s trained well, unlike some kids.

OPINION

AUSTRALIA has gone to the dogs!

That was the consensus of opinion this week on James Valentine’s afternoon show on ABC Sydney. What began innocently as a simple comment about picking up and disposing of dog poo quickly became a robust discussion on dog etiquette in general, and whether we’re giving our pooches too many privileges in public places. The phones lit up.

As someone who is unashamedly in love with my hound, it’s a topic close to my heart.

I’m a single person in my early 30s who, in lieu of having yet found someone I like enough to procreate with, have decided to shack up with 28kg of furry joy. Jed isn’t just my dog, he’s my mate, my family and he goes everywhere with me.

He’s almost two, I’ve had him since he was a pup and I’ve put the time and effort into making him a worthwhile addition to society.

So I was overjoyed last year to hear that Bunnings was allowing dogs — on leash — into their stores.

But no sooner had the rule come in than it was swiftly repealed. Apparently a little girl in Victoria had approached a Jack Russell in store and been nipped. That was it. No more dogs.

Now, I admit, I don’t know the circumstances of this whole thing. I don’t know if the kid got in the dogs’ face and I don’t know if the dog was naturally ago and I don’t know where the parent and the owner were at the time.

But here’s what I have to say: dogs occasionally bite and kids are occasionally unruly. We don’t need more rules keeping them apart, we need people taking more responsibility for the small and/or furry things that belong to them.

There is nothing I love more than a kid who wants to pat Jed. But what’s even better is when they ask permission first.

Jed enjoying the Sydney view. Picture: Jenna Martin.

I was at my local dog park last week. It’s huge, with an off-leash dog area to one side and a fenced-off kids playground a good distance away (To keep kids safe).

There was a family there that morning- parents and two young girls playing at the edge of the dog oval. The elder girl started shrieking at the sight of Jed- “Puppy! There’s a puppy!” Jed (who until now had been minding his own business) sensed he might get a belly rub so went right up and started licking her, which only made her squeal louder.

Now I dunno about your dog, but mine can take pretty much anything from kids except high pitched squealing when it’s right in his face. He didn’t get violent but he tried to get away. Head down, tail between his legs, he bolted across the grass. She chased after him, in full voice. The parents did nothing, they just let their kid scare the hell out of my dog and then chastised me for not stopping him from licking her.

While they had a choice to play elsewhere, I did not. So I had to put Jed on the lead and walk him away.

Another time a parent — sans dog — literally walked his toddler through the oval while 10 dogs raced around. But when this father got hit by a ball being thrown for an excitable kelpie, it was the dog-owners’ fault. “That could have hit my son!” He bellowed, self-righteously.

Kids are not instantly a free pass to go anywhere and do anything you like. A “baby on board” sticker on the back of your car isn’t going to make me avoid ramming into your boot any more than I would naturally. Giant prams don’t give you permission to take over entire sections of cafes and parks and other public spaces.

If only all beaches in Sydney were this free and easy. Picture: Jenna Martin.

“I just don’t want to have to deal with your dog. I don’t want to have to meet a dog when I go shopping,” said one caller into the radio show yesterday.

Look, I get that. But the thing is, I don’t always want to have your kid kick the back of my seat for two hours on an aeroplane.

I don’t always want to get hit on by a random douchebro if I go to the pub in a low-cut top. Life is full of things that you personally might be annoyed by but that doesn’t mean they need regulating. And as a nation, we’re ridiculously over-regulated and dogs are the tip of the iceberg for me.

You’d be hard pressed to find a pub in the UK which didn’t have at least one mutt curled up in front of the fire while its owner sat nearby, nursing a pint.

When I lived in the US I couldn’t walk through Bloomingdales without stopping to pat three or four poodles that were each trotting after their owners as they perused the homewares department.

Fine diners in Parisian bistros along the Champs Elysees think nothing of a well-dressed French woman casually slicing a sliver of canard and slipping it between her stockinged legs to the loyal basset hound slobbering patiently below.

Why can’t we follow suit? I’m not necessarily advocating chucking Jed in a tux and treating him to Neil Perry’s finest wagyu at Rockpool. And I’m not saying I can’t go to DJs and try on a bra without his informed opinion of whether or not it lifts me up in all the right places. But I do believe that those of us who have taken the time to train our dogs and who have decided to make them part of our families should be allowed to treat them as such.

All public spaces should be dog friendly. Leash them — that’s fine. But if I want to sit on the sand at Bondi with my dog and a book (let alone a beer, thanks Mike Baird) why can’t I?

Beer gardens in pubs should let us in too. And just like publicans have the right to throw out drunken hooligans, so can they chuck out people that can’t control their animals. And for that matter, their kids. Fair’s fair.

Being a grown-up means taking responsibility, and not blaming someone else when the situation doesn’t suit you.

And with that, I’m off to the park. C’mon Jed.

Jenna Martin is a freelance writer and dog lover and author of Driving Under The Influence. You can follow her on twitter @msjennamartin