The dog poo tree!

Hello everyone.

Today, the weather is not so good. It has been raining for most of the night, its snowing now and the wind has been making the boat move about a bit. Dad tends not to sail the boat along the river or canal in strong wind. This is because it is easy to run into the bank if the wind catches us sideways on or comes from an odd direction. But as we are boating for pleasure and relaxation, then time does not matter. Dad sometimes says we travel by the calendar and never by the clock.



Bonnie and Me.



Whenever we spend some time moored up, this is usually good for meeting other dogs. The canal towpath is a favourite place for dogs to exercise their owners. Now dad is always interested in meeting other "dog people" he often stops to chat to them for a while. He chats on about their dog and they often want to know about our boat. Sometimes he even invites people on-board to have a look around. Sometimes we even have dads friends who have dogs on board. One of my friends is Bonnie the German Shepard. Here she is at the top of the steps.



Me in the Galley.



In the main I find that meeting other dogs is good fun. Most of them like to have a chase around and we get some time to have a play around together. Some dogs however, are not interested in play and tend to sit down with their human and wait for the conversation to finish. I find the older the dog the more they like to sit around. I hope I never get old! 

There are however times that we come across grumpy old cur's who would sooner curl a lip and growl, than have the traditional dog greeting of a sniff at each others rear end. Each to their own, but any that are grumpy never get to come on to the boat.

Now, dad can sometimes get quite grumpy about poo. As you know its the duty of the dogs companion to scoop the poop. If dad sees anyone not collecting and disposing of the poo, he always challenges them. What is getting up dads nose (so to speak) are those people that own a dog. They are willing to take on the responsibility of making provision for what goes in at the pointed end. Yet seem to be unwilling to do the full trip and take care of what comes out of the blunt end.



Dog Poo Tree.



Most dog owners, of course, are thoughtful and considerate people who care about the environment. Some, unfortunately, are not caring poop scoopers. I must admit, dad has been known to thrust a bag into an errant owners hand, give a smile and say "I know what it's like to run out of bags, here you are, have one of mine." Do you know, no one ever declines and no one ever fails to clean up. More than anything else, dad has a dislike of those that do clean up, but then throw the bags into the hedgerow.

The upper Calder Valley renaissance project did a terrific publicity stunt - when they created the Dog Poo Tree. They wanted to highlight the problem of thoughtless dog owners bagging up the poop and then flinging it into the nearest bush, there to fester for years to come.  So they festooned a tree at Todmorden Lock on the Rochdale Canal with purple plastic poo bags, each one looking like it held a special little doggie gift.

Now I am sure that everyone who reads this is a well trained pooper-scooper who takes the poop bags home for disposal.  But just in case - raise your right paw hand and repeat after me - "I swear to always take home the scooped-poop for proper disposal."

Dad has been comparing my dry food again. He does not like to feed me what he calls "designer vomit with corn" I must admit that I am not to keen on it myself and it all ways reminds me of his breakfast Müsli which he swears is good for him.  Some days he just seems to worry too much about me.

I have a busy day ahead, so I must run. Love to all my four legged buddies and their slaves.

Yip Yap.

XX Poppy