I grew up with an Old English Sheepdog who, when he was not dragging me round the garden, spent most of his time chasing the Royal Marines as they jogged past our house on their beach training runs just outside Deal when they had their barracks there. Passersby used to often knock on the front door to alert my mother to the child being attacked by a large dog in the garden, little did they know we were like brothers. I loved that dog and, as I do most but I guess some dogs behave like their owners - badly.
Yesterday, not for the first time, I was walking back from an interview when a dog shot out of a front door along one of Palma’s narrow streets and, obviously caught short, shot straight across to the other side to go about his or her business. The trouble was the dog was attached to an extendable lead which now stretched right across the street and very nearly sent me flying.
I stepped over the lead and gave the owner, who was busy on his phone, a disturbed look of which he took no notice at all. No apology, nothing. It all happened so fast, anyone not watching where they were walking, or even an electric scooter rider, would have been tripped up and it’s not the first time it’s happened to me or colleagues at the office. I know new animal protection laws are about to be introduced but I also think greater emphasis should be placed on how owners control, or not, their dogs in a busy city centre.