New dog trucks for when Fido breaks free

Watson said :

vet111 said :

IrishPete said :

Watson said :

Some dogs are just stupid or not trained or both and will get into trouble when out on their own. Most will go back home when they’ve had enough of sniffing around, in time for dinner.

…or when they get bored with killing sheep, cats, wildlife, children. Keep your dogs in folks, or risk having them shot and getting an expensive bill for lost livestock or vet bills.

IP

A massive +1 for that. I live in a rural area, and I’m sick of being scared to go out of my own front yard for fear of getting bailed up yet again by the neighbour’s dog. I’m sure he’s friendly to you, but I’m now forced into a position of having to get someone to shoot him because he sure ain’t friendly to me, and you refuse to secure him.

Did I say anything about dogs that bail you up or kill sheep or children? The rangers will come out for aggressive or threatening dogs. That is a totally different scenario to a dog that accidentally got out of his yard and is minding his own business. I also didn’t say it was ok to let your dogs knowingly roam the streets. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, your dog can find himself on the wrong side of your gate without you.

No, you didn’t say anything about dogs that cause mayhem then sneak home and no-one ever knows, which is why someone else had to say something. It’s not just a rural issue – it’s a problem on the urban fringe, and for wildlife it’s a problem throughout Canberra. You did imply there’s no big deal about Fido getting out and coming home bored. There is a big deal. Few dogs are complete angels when left to their own devices, even less so when they meet up with a mate or two.

It’s great you use your best efforts to keep your dog in, not everyone does.

TinyTank said :

IrishPete said :

Oh dear, here goes again.

I’d love to know the sample size from the WA study – how many dog bites can there have been in 14 months in Perth? And surely only the very serious or the very local ones would have gone to the specialist children’s hospital? Small sample size means unreliable results.

I note the original publication (which I cannot find) appears not to have been published in a peer-reviewed publication (like a journal). Generally a bad sign.

The study makes not attempt to compare the frequency of bites with how common the breed of dog is. So if 14.3% of bites were by Blue Heelers, but Blue Heelers make up 20% of all dogs, then Blue Heelers are safer than dogs on average. On the other hand if Rotties are only 1% of dogs but are responsible for 4.9% of bites, then they are much more dangerous than dogs on average. (A rate per 1000 dogs or something like that would have to be calculated to do this properly.)

So put simply, the Kidsafe statistics are meaningless. What they say to me is that Kelpies and Blue Heelers are the most common dogs.

I also gets my hackles up (haha) when someone reports percentages to two decimal places – unless your sample is in the thousands that is totally unnecessary, and presents a spurious level of accuracy. When I see overuse of decimal places, alarm bells ring.

Finally, the research says nothing about the seriousness of the injuries. Your average Jack Russell might inflict a near-fatal nip. Your average Rotty might leave nothing for the relatives to bury.

Although Staffies are gorgeous with their owners and families, they are also very protective, so they may not be so good with people they do not know. Also many people get hurt trying to separate dogs that are fighting, and I’ve experienced how hard it can be to separate a Staffie, though admittedly it was my Staffie-Kelpie Cross that had done a lockjaw on her Staffie best friend (because he hadn’t treated her with sufficient respect, or something – who knows what had slighted her)! A few days later the Staffie bit one of “its” children – why? Because the child was hugging it and it was sore from the incident with my dog; he had already given the child a warning growl but she had not understood. My Cross I trusted absolutely – I used to leave her in my convertible, top down, unrestrained outside shops, and she’d stay there until I returned. Didn’t matter how long. I bought a dishwasher once, and the dishwasher box got put over the dog and a 4yo boy and they played happily inside for ages – all you could hear was thump thump thump of Staffy tail (cos that’s what she had) on inside of cardboard box. But I probably wouldn’t do that these days unless the dog and child had grown up together (these two hadn’t).

IP

Apologies for causing exasperation IP. My point (and personal opinion) was that Blue Heelers are the bitey ones over other breeds, but as I said, it was probably my fault anyway.

Sorry, i wasn’t expressing frustration at you, more at myself for going into another rant about crappy research. Yes, clearly heelers are a bit bitey, but this research doesn’t tell us if they are more bitey than other breeds. But on the other hand, they clearly aren’t totally safe either. When you see a heeler or kelpie in action, doing what they are bred to do, it is no surprise. My kelpie bites me! Play bites, but I’m bigger than her. I don’t bite back – she moults too much, and sometimes has rolled in stuff.

Watson said :

vet111 said :

IrishPete said :

Watson said :

Some dogs are just stupid or not trained or both and will get into trouble when out on their own. Most will go back home when they’ve had enough of sniffing around, in time for dinner.

…or when they get bored with killing sheep, cats, wildlife, children. Keep your dogs in folks, or risk having them shot and getting an expensive bill for lost livestock or vet bills.

IP

A massive +1 for that. I live in a rural area, and I’m sick of being scared to go out of my own front yard for fear of getting bailed up yet again by the neighbour’s dog. I’m sure he’s friendly to you, but I’m now forced into a position of having to get someone to shoot him because he sure ain’t friendly to me, and you refuse to secure him.

Did I say anything about dogs that bail you up or kill sheep or children? The rangers will come out for aggressive or threatening dogs. That is a totally different scenario to a dog that accidentally got out of his yard and is minding his own business. I also didn’t say it was ok to let your dogs knowingly roam the streets. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, your dog can find himself on the wrong side of your gate without you.

Way to take a comment out of context.

In an urban setting, the occasional escapee is generally no harm, no foul. In rural settings, most reasonable people (like myself) allow the owner a chance to rectify the problem. However when it’s an ongoing issue and no attempt has been made to fix the problem, it’s the dog that loses. Which is really sad.

Madam Cholet said :

Not my first woeful experience of DAS.

Perhaps your owner should microchip you then, would save you having to spend the night in the compound.

Madam Cholet said :

I’m wondering why DAS were not running on some kind of skeleton staff?

Not my first woeful experience of DAS.

Because much like you, DAS staff are entitlted to time off, believe it or not.

How about you volunteer to man the compound on PH’s, answer phone calls and catch stray dogs… Or better yet, locate the pets owners and lecture them on how to be responsible pet owners, instead of blaming the DAS staff for pet owners incompitence.

vet111 said :

IrishPete said :

Watson said :

Some dogs are just stupid or not trained or both and will get into trouble when out on their own. Most will go back home when they’ve had enough of sniffing around, in time for dinner.

…or when they get bored with killing sheep, cats, wildlife, children. Keep your dogs in folks, or risk having them shot and getting an expensive bill for lost livestock or vet bills.

IP

A massive +1 for that. I live in a rural area, and I’m sick of being scared to go out of my own front yard for fear of getting bailed up yet again by the neighbour’s dog. I’m sure he’s friendly to you, but I’m now forced into a position of having to get someone to shoot him because he sure ain’t friendly to me, and you refuse to secure him.

Did I say anything about dogs that bail you up or kill sheep or children? The rangers will come out for aggressive or threatening dogs. That is a totally different scenario to a dog that accidentally got out of his yard and is minding his own business. I also didn’t say it was ok to let your dogs knowingly roam the streets. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, your dog can find himself on the wrong side of your gate without you.

IrishPete said :

Oh dear, here goes again.

I’d love to know the sample size from the WA study – how many dog bites can there have been in 14 months in Perth? And surely only the very serious or the very local ones would have gone to the specialist children’s hospital? Small sample size means unreliable results.

I note the original publication (which I cannot find) appears not to have been published in a peer-reviewed publication (like a journal). Generally a bad sign.

The study makes not attempt to compare the frequency of bites with how common the breed of dog is. So if 14.3% of bites were by Blue Heelers, but Blue Heelers make up 20% of all dogs, then Blue Heelers are safer than dogs on average. On the other hand if Rotties are only 1% of dogs but are responsible for 4.9% of bites, then they are much more dangerous than dogs on average. (A rate per 1000 dogs or something like that would have to be calculated to do this properly.)

So put simply, the Kidsafe statistics are meaningless. What they say to me is that Kelpies and Blue Heelers are the most common dogs.

I also gets my hackles up (haha) when someone reports percentages to two decimal places – unless your sample is in the thousands that is totally unnecessary, and presents a spurious level of accuracy. When I see overuse of decimal places, alarm bells ring.

Finally, the research says nothing about the seriousness of the injuries. Your average Jack Russell might inflict a near-fatal nip. Your average Rotty might leave nothing for the relatives to bury.

Although Staffies are gorgeous with their owners and families, they are also very protective, so they may not be so good with people they do not know. Also many people get hurt trying to separate dogs that are fighting, and I’ve experienced how hard it can be to separate a Staffie, though admittedly it was my Staffie-Kelpie Cross that had done a lockjaw on her Staffie best friend (because he hadn’t treated her with sufficient respect, or something – who knows what had slighted her)! A few days later the Staffie bit one of “its” children – why? Because the child was hugging it and it was sore from the incident with my dog; he had already given the child a warning growl but she had not understood. My Cross I trusted absolutely – I used to leave her in my convertible, top down, unrestrained outside shops, and she’d stay there until I returned. Didn’t matter how long. I bought a dishwasher once, and the dishwasher box got put over the dog and a 4yo boy and they played happily inside for ages – all you could hear was thump thump thump of Staffy tail (cos that’s what she had) on inside of cardboard box. But I probably wouldn’t do that these days unless the dog and child had grown up together (these two hadn’t).

IP

Apologies for causing exasperation IP. My point (and personal opinion) was that Blue Heelers are the bitey ones over other breeds, but as I said, it was probably my fault anyway.

IrishPete said :

Watson said :

Some dogs are just stupid or not trained or both and will get into trouble when out on their own. Most will go back home when they’ve had enough of sniffing around, in time for dinner.

…or when they get bored with killing sheep, cats, wildlife, children. Keep your dogs in folks, or risk having them shot and getting an expensive bill for lost livestock or vet bills.

IP

A massive +1 for that. I live in a rural area, and I’m sick of being scared to go out of my own front yard for fear of getting bailed up yet again by the neighbour’s dog. I’m sure he’s friendly to you, but I’m now forced into a position of having to get someone to shoot him because he sure ain’t friendly to me, and you refuse to secure him.

Watson said :

Some dogs are just stupid or not trained or both and will get into trouble when out on their own. Most will go back home when they’ve had enough of sniffing around, in time for dinner.

…or when they get bored with killing sheep, cats, wildlife, children. Keep your dogs in folks, or risk having them shot and getting an expensive bill for lost livestock or vet bills.

IP

Oh dear, here goes again.

I’d love to know the sample size from the WA study – how many dog bites can there have been in 14 months in Perth? And surely only the very serious or the very local ones would have gone to the specialist children’s hospital? Small sample size means unreliable results.

I note the original publication (which I cannot find) appears not to have been published in a peer-reviewed publication (like a journal). Generally a bad sign.

The study makes not attempt to compare the frequency of bites with how common the breed of dog is. So if 14.3% of bites were by Blue Heelers, but Blue Heelers make up 20% of all dogs, then Blue Heelers are safer than dogs on average. On the other hand if Rotties are only 1% of dogs but are responsible for 4.9% of bites, then they are much more dangerous than dogs on average. (A rate per 1000 dogs or something like that would have to be calculated to do this properly.)

So put simply, the Kidsafe statistics are meaningless. What they say to me is that Kelpies and Blue Heelers are the most common dogs.

I also gets my hackles up (haha) when someone reports percentages to two decimal places – unless your sample is in the thousands that is totally unnecessary, and presents a spurious level of accuracy. When I see overuse of decimal places, alarm bells ring.

Finally, the research says nothing about the seriousness of the injuries. Your average Jack Russell might inflict a near-fatal nip. Your average Rotty might leave nothing for the relatives to bury.

Although Staffies are gorgeous with their owners and families, they are also very protective, so they may not be so good with people they do not know. Also many people get hurt trying to separate dogs that are fighting, and I’ve experienced how hard it can be to separate a Staffie, though admittedly it was my Staffie-Kelpie Cross that had done a lockjaw on her Staffie best friend (because he hadn’t treated her with sufficient respect, or something – who knows what had slighted her)! A few days later the Staffie bit one of “its” children – why? Because the child was hugging it and it was sore from the incident with my dog; he had already given the child a warning growl but she had not understood. My Cross I trusted absolutely – I used to leave her in my convertible, top down, unrestrained outside shops, and she’d stay there until I returned. Didn’t matter how long. I bought a dishwasher once, and the dishwasher box got put over the dog and a 4yo boy and they played happily inside for ages – all you could hear was thump thump thump of Staffy tail (cos that’s what she had) on inside of cardboard box. But I probably wouldn’t do that these days unless the dog and child had grown up together (these two hadn’t).

IP

Grrrr said :

Watson said :

And if the rangers had nothing better to do than to sit around waiting till someone called them about a dog that took himself for a walk, that would definitely mean we were paying too many of them.

So when you call up a company you’re a customer of, do you get annoyed if their phone queue is less than 2 hours long because that means that they’re paying for too many people to answer the phones? After all, if they paid for less people they could give you a cheaper rate, right?

Heaven forbid that the rangers might be provisioned with some expected idle time, during which they could catch up on paperwork, or clean the truck, or any number of other responsibilities other than catching dogs.

I hope you’re not a manager of anything important.

Who was complaining about the phone queue? The OP did say he talked to an operator, didn’t they? If we’re going to draw analogies with private companies, have you ever had anyone from TransACT or Telstra come out in under 2 days to fix a problem with your phone or internet? You’ll be lucky if they come in under 2 weeks and you pay through the nose for their services.

If you really think that increasing the number of rangers so they can just jump in the car at any time of the day or night as soon as a call comes in about a harmless dog that found a loose fence paling is a good use of revenue, then maybe you should write a budget proposal and present it to the government. I’ll be very interested to see which other services you would cull to fund this premium (and rather unnecessary) service. Of course they’d occasionally have idle time. But I don’t expect them spend it driving around looking for people’s lost pets. I’d rather they do their paperwork instead.

Some dogs are just stupid or not trained or both and will get into trouble when out on their own. Most will go back home when they’ve had enough of sniffing around, in time for dinner.

Antagonist said :

poetix said :

Staffies are wonderful, fun-loving gentle dogs, just boofy. I have one sleeping at my feet now, and she is about as vicious as a keg of lemonade.

Given how many dogs there are, the number of serious incidents with them is very low. It’s much safer in a dog park than outside many pubs, I would suggest.

I like Staffies – they are a dog that always looks like it is smiling at you. While I cannot be bothered finding a source ATM, I am pretty sure most dog attacks (particularly involving children) can actually be attributed to Jack Russel Fox Terriers.

Kudos to TaMS for the new setup on their trucks. I have always been uncomfortable with the idea of a big dog being lifted into the old cages by the neck.

Even though it is an old study, this- http://www.gtp.com.au/kidsafeqld/inewsfiles/inews.2773.1.pdf shows that the Blue Heeler and Kelpie are the breeds more likely to be responsible for dog attacks (behind ‘unknown’). This fits with my experience when I was bitten by a family friends Blue Heeler in 2000. Mostly a nice family dog, but snappy. I’ve met lots of dogs, both pets and working dogs, but I was one of those kids that wouldn’t respect any animals personal space- despite my parents insistence. I guess it was inevitable, but I was only bitten by the one Blue Heeler.

Oh and +1 on the Staffy comment. They’re just the happiest looking dog!

Nice, shiney new vehicles, however can anyone tell me if there is any air-conditioning/cooling for the doggies that end up in the back of said vehicles? Can’t see that in temp’s of 30+ in the warmer months could be safe for the dogs if there is no form of cooling

poetix said :

Staffies are wonderful, fun-loving gentle dogs, just boofy. I have one sleeping at my feet now, and she is about as vicious as a keg of lemonade.

Given how many dogs there are, the number of serious incidents with them is very low. It’s much safer in a dog park than outside many pubs, I would suggest.

I like Staffies – they are a dog that always looks like it is smiling at you. While I cannot be bothered finding a source ATM, I am pretty sure most dog attacks (particularly involving children) can actually be attributed to Jack Russel Fox Terriers.

Kudos to TaMS for the new setup on their trucks. I have always been uncomfortable with the idea of a big dog being lifted into the old cages by the neck.

poetix said :

Staffies are wonderful, fun-loving gentle dogs, just boofy. I have one sleeping at my feet now, and she is about as vicious as a keg of lemonade.

Given how many dogs there are, the number of serious incidents with them is very low. It’s much safer in a dog park than outside many pubs, I would suggest.

+1

poetix said :

Staffies are wonderful, fun-loving gentle dogs, just boofy. I have one sleeping at my feet now, and she is about as vicious as a keg of lemonade.

Given how many dogs there are, the number of serious incidents with them is very low. It’s much safer in a dog park than outside many pubs, I would suggest.

Not bagging staffies. It’s the owners who let them breed with whatever and the only recognisable element is staffy who create the problem.

Russ said :

maxblues said :

Thanks for that. I have since seen there is an outfit in Queanbeyan called Canberra Hydraulic Engineering….has anyone used them?

I was going to suggest trying them – going to a franchise (Pirtek, Enzed etc.) is just an exercise in emptying your wallet. That said, make sure you get an idea of the scope of works and a quote – hydraulic stuff always seems to be breathtakingly expensive.

Cheers.

maxblues said :

Thanks for that. I have since seen there is an outfit in Queanbeyan called Canberra Hydraulic Engineering….has anyone used them?

I was going to suggest trying them – going to a franchise (Pirtek, Enzed etc.) is just an exercise in emptying your wallet. That said, make sure you get an idea of the scope of works and a quote – hydraulic stuff always seems to be breathtakingly expensive.

Staffies are wonderful, fun-loving gentle dogs, just boofy. I have one sleeping at my feet now, and she is about as vicious as a keg of lemonade.

Given how many dogs there are, the number of serious incidents with them is very low. It’s much safer in a dog park than outside many pubs, I would suggest.

aceofspades said :

As a child during the 70’s and 80’s there did not seem to be the urgency of having an unrestrained dog immediately taken into custody and incarcerated. The family dog would attend leadless at most outings and be treated as part of the family. Dogs would swim with us at Pine Island and attend BBQ’s in public places. The sighting of an unrestrained dog was such a common occurance that nobody even noticed. Stragely enough, through all these years I do not remember a single incident that involved a dog causing any harm to anybody or anything apart from the odd tiff with each other. What has caused mans only best friend to suddenly become so much more vicious and dangerous that we must invest in state of the art defensive hardware, run for the hills and immediately restrain these ferocious animals on sight? Is it something we are putting in their water bowls perhaps?

Probably more likely that we live in higher density housing now, most households are double-income and so dogs are now spending increasingly longer hours on their own, bored out of their brains in smaller back yards and getting less exercise and less discipline.

Having said that, I remember seeing a girl from my primary school getting bitten on the nose by a small yappy dog when she bent down to pat it while walking home from school in about 1978.

So maybe it also has something to do with the breed of dogs we used to have in the 70s and 80s. I remember lots of labradors, golden retrievers and Afghan hounds(!), and not so many staffie-crossed-with-whatevers and muscle dogs.

Mike Bessenger said :

Watson said :

As a dog lover, you would do anything in your power to prevent a dog being sent to the prison camp for dogs they call the pound.

That’s a negative. As a dog lover I’d rather the dog be in a safe environment then roaming the streets where it could be injured or injure someone.

Watson said :

You can list them (or call and get them listed) on the found dog database, you can check if they are on the lost database (again, can do this online or over the phone),

They are my first steps, calling a ranger is always a last resort.

Watson said :

You can take them to your nearest vet to get their microchip checked or you can take them to the RSPCA. That is of course, if they are not wearing an ID or rego tag.

That’s another negative. During the day I’m at work, and at night the local vets are closed.

Watson said :

And if the rangers had nothing better to do than to sit around waiting till someone called them about a dog that took himself for a walk, that would definitely mean we were paying too many of them.

True, god forbid someone in the public service doing their job correctly.

Watson said :

It’s not as if Canberrans don’t whinge enough about their rates as it is… But they do expect 24/7 prompt service for every trivial issue that might cause them some minor inconvenience.

Probably because for the amount of rates/taxes we are paying, we are getting very little in return.

Agree with most of this. Depends on the dog, the time of day, and the circumstances of the person finding the dog.

Eg I found a docile, happy, collarless cocker spaniel wandering in my apartment complex carpark about 10pm. I was happy to take her into my unit and would have kept her overnight if necessary. Luckily the owner’s son was on the phone to Canberra Connect at the same time I rang in, the operators realised we were talking about the same dog, and much-loved little Phoebe was reunited with her family by 10.30pm.

But if Phoebe had been a big bouncy dog, or a snarly mean dog, or a growling terrified injured dog, I would have been much more reluctant to take her into the limited living space of my unit.

Having said that, in my limited dealings with them, I have always found Canberra Connect to be a great service, and I’m pretty happy with the level of service I get for my rates/taxes.

Pork Hunt said :

maxblues said :

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

If you are vaguely referring to a tail gate loader, I think all the major manufacturers have service reps in town.
The system in the DAS truck looks like its on tracks with an electric winch judging by the blue strap visible.

I somehow cocked up the quote last time, so I shall have another go. You are probably right about the electric winch. My vehicle has a Razorback conversion using hydraulics to lower the floor of vehicle to the ground (no rear axle).

Pork Hunt said :

maxblues said :

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

If you are vaguely referring to a tail gate loader, I think all the major manufacturers have service reps in town.
The system in the DAS truck looks like its on tracks with an electric winch judging by the blue strap visible.

maxblues said :

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

No the vehicle has a Razorback conversion (no rear axle and the floor lowers to the ground). They were produced in Balaklava, South Australia and exported to Europe for VW Transporters and Fiat trucks.

If you are vaguely referring to a tail gate loader, I think all the major manufacturers have service reps in town.
The system in the DAS truck looks like its on tracks with an electric winch judging by the blue strap visible.

Mike Bessenger said :

maxblues said :

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

Give Enzed in Fyshwick a call, if they can’t help they’ll be able to tell you who can.

Thanks for that. I have since seen there is an outfit in Queanbeyan called Canberra Hydraulic Engineering….has anyone used them?

maxblues said :

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

If you are vaguely referring to a tail gate loader, I think all the major manufacturers have service reps in town.
The system in the DAS truck looks like its on tracks with an electric winch judging by the blue strap visible.

maxblues said :

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

Give Enzed in Fyshwick a call, if they can’t help they’ll be able to tell you who can.

I have found DAS really good when I have called them for assistance, particularly when I had a neighbour who thought that every one else’s front garden was their dogs litter box, and was a very aggressive dog! I am glad that DAS is getting equipment to help make their jobs a little easier.

These new DAS vehicles look like they use a hydraulic system for the lowering/raising the cage system. I have a vehicle with vaguely similar hydraulics at the rear. Can any kind Rioter recommend any repairer in the Canberra region with expertise in hydraulic systems?

As a child during the 70’s and 80’s there did not seem to be the urgency of having an unrestrained dog immediately taken into custody and incarcerated. The family dog would attend leadless at most outings and be treated as part of the family. Dogs would swim with us at Pine Island and attend BBQ’s in public places. The sighting of an unrestrained dog was such a common occurance that nobody even noticed. Stragely enough, through all these years I do not remember a single incident that involved a dog causing any harm to anybody or anything apart from the odd tiff with each other. What has caused mans only best friend to suddenly become so much more vicious and dangerous that we must invest in state of the art defensive hardware, run for the hills and immediately restrain these ferocious animals on sight? Is it something we are putting in their water bowls perhaps?

I called Canberra Connect to report my neighbour’s sh*t of a dog was running round the street probably just over a week ago. They were away on holiday and had someone coming round to feed them once a day. I tried to catch it but it was not of a mind to come too close and to be honest it escaped because it was bored and would probably do so again. Neighbours, even though they know it gets out have failed to stop it.

Anyhow, Canberra Connect informed me on that day that there was no one at DAS who could come out at all to see if they could get it. It may have been a public holiday, but seeing as dogs don’t tend to observe them I’m wondering why DAS were not running on some kind of skeleton staff?

Not my first woeful experience of DAS.

Watson said :

And if the rangers had nothing better to do than to sit around waiting till someone called them about a dog that took himself for a walk, that would definitely mean we were paying too many of them.

So when you call up a company you’re a customer of, do you get annoyed if their phone queue is less than 2 hours long because that means that they’re paying for too many people to answer the phones? After all, if they paid for less people they could give you a cheaper rate, right?

Heaven forbid that the rangers might be provisioned with some expected idle time, during which they could catch up on paperwork, or clean the truck, or any number of other responsibilities other than catching dogs.

I hope you’re not a manager of anything important.

Watson said :

As a dog lover, you would do anything in your power to prevent a dog being sent to the prison camp for dogs they call the pound.

That’s a negative. As a dog lover I’d rather the dog be in a safe environment then roaming the streets where it could be injured or injure someone.

Watson said :

You can list them (or call and get them listed) on the found dog database, you can check if they are on the lost database (again, can do this online or over the phone),

They are my first steps, calling a ranger is always a last resort.

Watson said :

You can take them to your nearest vet to get their microchip checked or you can take them to the RSPCA. That is of course, if they are not wearing an ID or rego tag.

That’s another negative. During the day I’m at work, and at night the local vets are closed.

Watson said :

And if the rangers had nothing better to do than to sit around waiting till someone called them about a dog that took himself for a walk, that would definitely mean we were paying too many of them.

True, god forbid someone in the public service doing their job correctly.

Watson said :

It’s not as if Canberrans don’t whinge enough about their rates as it is… But they do expect 24/7 prompt service for every trivial issue that might cause them some minor inconvenience.

Probably because for the amount of rates/taxes we are paying, we are getting very little in return.

Mike Bessenger said :

Improving the response time would make conditions safer and more comfortable for dogs, while also limiting the risk to the general public.
As a dog lover I always try secure run a ways and call the ranger (through Canberra Connect).
The last couple of incidents, one the ranger took nearly two hours to respond, the other on a weekend Canberra Connect said they ‘would’ try get a hold of a ranger. No-one ever called me back and no-one turned up.

The ACT government need to piss off that waste of time department they call Canberra Connect.

As a dog lover, you would do anything in your power to prevent a dog being sent to the prison camp for dogs they call the pound. You can list them (or call and get them listed) on the found dog database, you can check if they are on the lost database (again, can do this online or over the phone), you can take them to your nearest vet to get their microchip checked or you can take them to the RSPCA. That is of course, if they are not wearing an ID or rego tag.

And if the rangers had nothing better to do than to sit around waiting till someone called them about a dog that took himself for a walk, that would definitely mean we were paying too many of them. It’s not as if Canberrans don’t whinge enough about their rates as it is… But they do expect 24/7 prompt service for every trivial issue that might cause them some minor inconvenience.

Very nice, but do they come with matching stainless steel Roombas?

I think more what they need is more ‘after hour’ holding pens at DAS. Last time I took a friendly stray there late in the evening both where already in use, lucky for the little dog his owner finally picked up the phone after trying to get onto them for over an hr

Improving the response time would make conditions safer and more comfortable for dogs, while also limiting the risk to the general public.
As a dog lover I always try secure run a ways and call the ranger (through Canberra Connect).
The last couple of incidents, one the ranger took nearly two hours to respond, the other on a weekend Canberra Connect said they ‘would’ try get a hold of a ranger. No-one ever called me back and no-one turned up.

The ACT government need to piss off that waste of time department they call Canberra Connect.