Dangerous Dogs on Hampstead Heath

Seems like BouncingNRG is about right.
Technology has enabled us to put micro chips into dogs and thereby identify owners on the off chance that the dog that responsible for an attack can be captured. I never fancied confronting a dog in attack mode.
Public arrest of the owner is a possibility but you need some confidence, and unlimited skills in people handling.
My children were both attacked several times on Hampstead Heath by unleashed dogs. I intervened and confronted owners.
Their response was always the same.
' It wont hurt you / them, its just being playful.'

Difficult concept for a child being jumped upon and barked at, and increasingly difficult when the children in question are sitting in the doctors waiting room to have wounds caused by unleashed dogs treated.

I always understood that the concept of 'exercising the dog,' was a euphmism for allowing ones 'pooch' to vacate its bowels wherever it chose,especially after the Council made it a fineable offence to allow ones dog to **** on the sidewalk.
The obvious and available answer was always going to be Hampstead Heath as a dogs toilet.( This includes those who choose employment as dog walkers.)
My dog abused children are now in their twenties and have dogs themselves and have them chipped and have control over them at all times. They clean up after their pets for whom they are responsible.

It has not always been thus, and I suspect it is still not perfect .
Dog owners have to take responsibility for their dogs whatever they do wherever they do it.
Simon is right in suggesting a connection between aggressive dogs and very negative owners....even in Golders Hill Park where all dogs are supposed to be on a lead.
If all dogs were leashed it would certainly make responsibility of ownership far clearer in the first instance,added to chipping, and probably prevent many of the instances of abuse, including fouling and attack in the second.

Guy Tunnicliffe

In New Zealand where i from by law we have to register every dog you own, so when i arrived in the UK and heard all about the dangerous dog problem i was extremely surprised to hear that no dog has to be registered and you don't need a licence to own one.

I spend allot of time walking on the heath with my family and i do have to say most of the problem's i have encountered with the dogs are due to the owners! Yes, there are certain breads/cross-breads that are more prone to be destructive, pitballs, rotties, but i firmly believe that with the right owners that can be good dogs as well. To get back to my point of people not knowing how to be good dog owners/pack leaders, i was by the dog pond on Sunday and there were loads of dogs bouncing around in and out of the water just doing what dogs do, there was one super excited jack russell cross that was going nuts around my pram with my 7month old in it, the owner was saying it usually will jump up into prams. She saw me there with my baby and the pram and decided to ignore her dog speeding around the place, then it made a b-line for my pram, i saw this happening and in the dogs mid flight i put my knee firmly into its side, crises averted, baby uninjured, needless to say the owner was not impressed but i was like you should have paid more attention to your dog.

I do believe that all dog's should be licensed and part of getting this licence is to have it micro chipped, then if it was policed and enforced that might keep the dodgy dangerous fighting dog indoors.

So my point being its all about being a responsible dog owner.

**

I generally find when people have more than one dog, they're likely to have more control over them. All of the vicious dogs I've encountered always seem to have one thing in common. Aggressive idiotic owners. Never have a seen a dog go for another dog and then the owner admit their fault and put the dog back on a lead... They're always defensive of the animal and often aggressive themselves towards the other owner... I'm sensing a pattern...

Latest news is that the powers that be are, yet again, talking of limiting the number of dogs any one person can walk on the Heath because some people
(it is summer and these are, no doubt, occasional visitors) have claimed to be intimidated by "groups" of dogs. Actually they usually say "packs", which only goes to show how little they know about dogs. No doubt these are the same people I sometimes have the misfortune to run into who look as if they have never seen a dog in their life before. Early yesterday morning I was walking four dogs on the Heath and I asked a woman who was alone if she felt disturbed by my dogs. Apparently, although she had lived in the area for three years, she had only just discovered the delights of the Heath and said that not only was she not disturbed by the dogs but that in her experience it was the dog-walking community which was the most helpful, the most friendly, and the most knowledgeable. We walked together for nearly an hour and pretty much everyone we saw was walking at least one dog - and all of us eager to avoid the dog-sensitive summer visitors who would soon be arriving. This lady said that the only thing she didn't like about the Heath was the rubbish. There are not enough wildlife-proof bins and there are far too many thoughtless visitors who think nothing of leaving their picnic remnants behind - particularly at weekends. I wonder if they're the same people who complain about the dogs?

I agree with theid, micro-chipping is probably the way to go. Owning a dog is expensive in the first place and if you can't afford £30 you probably shouldn't be keeping a dog anyway as you won't be treating it right if you can't afford to fork out that small amount on money...

What frustrates me is owners who know that their dogs are likely to attack another dog and still let them roam off of the lead. If it's done it once, it's likely to do it again. I heard about a neighbour's dog actually being killed by a couple of Stafs. I garentee it wasn't the first time those two dogs had attacked another dog and now a family has to go through the pain of losing what was I'm sure a valued memeber of their family. Personally I hope the two dogs got put down. You never know it could be a child next...