CCC Dog control survey.

Gordon from Halswell

The council have circularised a survey looking for thoughts and ideas to see if there are better ways to control dogs in Christchurch.
You can find the Survey on their site.
"Survey on rules that apply to dogs in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula".

I have years been trying to get the council to remove the requirement for a leash and leave it to the owner to keep their dog under control.
For those who might be interested this is a summary of my thoughts on this topic:
There should be one overall bylaw relating to dogs being 'under effective control'. or similar

It might require a name change as some people are confused with the terminology "effective control". eg. "Dogs must be under full control"
If a dog is breaking any bylaw, the owner has not got their dog 'under full control'. Pretty hard to argue with that logic, unless it is retaliating to another dog.
The individual dog owner decides what is best for controlling their dog, voice command, lead, muzzle or whistle.
These can be dependent on Breed of dog, age, mobility etc but the owner should know what is the best method to keep their dog safe and control it accordingly.
This removes the need for the council to tell owners to use leads, and then are required to specify how long the lead should be, now asking us if we need a smaller lead ......!!!
The council need to post what the potential problems for any area are, Nesting birds etc and 'Dogs under full control is on ALL signs. At this point, the owner can decide if their dog can be controlled and by what means.
Good dog owners want what is best and safe for their dog, bad dog owners will take no notice of any laws anyway, so there are no laws that will fix all the issues.
I am more than happy to answer questions on my thoughts as I do know it takes some getting around, removing laws to potentially let dogs run around more without being harassed by people telling us we need to have our dog on a lead when the dog is not bothering anyone or dog.
This brings me to my whole point, a dog must be doing something wrong before it can be reported. Not for just being off a lead and behaving well.