Earl Warning System

We have spent a lot of time speaking about the breed specific components to the City of Calgary's Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw Review. If you have missed these posts you can join our Justice for Bullies Calgary page to get caught up. While this is a strong focus for us, we also have some concerns about the other aspects of the survey.

On the review, Question 8 asks: “To address the needs of pet owners and non-pet owners, and to respond to concerns raised regarding behaviour in on-leash areas and off-leash parks, we are exploring a voluntary dog early warning system. This is a bandana colour program using the colors of traffic lights. This makes it easier for young children to understand and it is intended to give owners the opportunity to indicate to others how their dog should be approached. Would you support having a voluntary dog early warning system in Calgary?”

We spoke to some people who immediately liked the idea. If you have a nervous, disabled, selective, or working dog, you might think HECK YES!! to the idea of a visual signal that keeps other people and dogs away. How many of us have had the experience of trying to shield our poor pup with our body while a strange dog barrels towards us – with its owner yelling “It’s okay! She’s FRIENDLY!!!”?

We certainly see the potential, and if you find a yellow ribbon or collar helpful in your walks – of if sharing yellow ribbon posts helps raise awareness that dog owners need to be respectful of others – we support that. BUT as a City-driven initiative we aren’t sure this is the way to go. Being that is a voluntary system, compliance would not be a top priority to the majority of dog owners – especially lazy or irresponsible dog owners, who are the ones we are most worried about.

This would not be enforced. Would it be accompanied by a public awareness campaign, or education in schools? We suspect it would have to be in order to get buy-in, and we would argue that those resources would be better allocated to a general dog bite safety program like “Stop the 77” which teaches dog interaction skills that apply to all dogs in all circumstances.

The idea that a colour-coded system will keep children safe is naïve and worrisome. If you’ve walked a dog in your community you know that there are two types of children – the ones who have been taught to stop and ask if they can pet the dog, and the ones who come running headlong towards you and your pet.

Trying to teach them that “good” dogs are green and “bad” dogs are yellow or red is oversimplistic and isn’t teaching them useful skills or respect for animals. A “green” dog may be tolerant of children but still deserves appropriate interaction, and to have that interaction stop when he’s had enough.

What happens when a dog is not wearing a coloured item? Maybe it fell off, the owner forgot to put it on, or the owner just opted out of the system. Do we assess that dog to be “good” because he isn’t wearing a warning colour? Or “bad” because he is not wearing green?

Another concern is the sad fact that many owners do not understand their own dog’s body language. We often hear owners talk about behaviour that “came out of nowhere” or a dog intro gone wrong “but her tail was wagging!”

And of course, even typically “green” dog will (like us) have off days, have aches or pains, feel sick, or be agitated from something that happened earlier.

All this is to say that dogs are living, breathing, individual creatures. We don’t think their temperament can be reduced to friendly/green or not-friendly/yellow or red.

We think a bandanna system provides a false sense of security and while it may have value in community-driven initiatives, it has no place in a formal bylaw. Our bylaw should emphasize shared responsibility for dog safety in our community, and the following principles:

All dogs should be managed and kept on-leash in public spaces.

All children should ask before approaching any new dog.

All dog owners should ask before allowing their dog to run up to a leashed dog .

All community members should understand that dogs aren’t communal property and deserve respect.

Dog bite prevention programs work! See our website for details: https://justice-for-bullies.myshopify.com/pages/dog-bite-prevention