As I have mentioned before, our family (both human and dogs) recently moved to the suburbs of lower Antipolo in an executive village. We’ve been here for about three months only, and yet, we’ve gotten quite used to having neighboring houses that aren’t separated from us by tall firewalls. Even our dogs are getting acquainted with the neighborhood pets. Our neighbors are very nice, and probably each and every house on our street has at least one pet (mostly dogs).

This subdivision we transferred to has quite stringent “laws.” They’re pretty strict with security (no one without a village sticker may enter the gates without surrendering an ID no matter how expensive that person’s car is), and cleanliness (you get a fine if you or your household help got caught dumping garbage on places where you shouldn’t). Even owning dogs here have “guidelines”—you can’t let your pet out wandering in the streets. If you bring out your dog, he/she has to have a leash. If not, and unsupervised “wanderer” can be impounded by the village security—you will need to pay a fine to claim your wandering pet.

Our village’s policy on pets is something I totally agree with, and it really annoys me (not to mention our other neighbors) when this particular neighbor of ours just lets their dog wander around our street.

This neighbor of ours moved to the street a couple of months after we did, so our other neighbors let the issue pass, thinking that they probably didn’t read the village handbook. But even after one of our neighbors already asked them properly that they shouldn’t let their dog just wander around the street unsupervised and unleashed, they still continued to do so. I have a feeling they saw nothing wrong with this. Regardless of the rule book, there are reasons why letting dogs just wander about constitutes to irresponsible pet ownership. Let me tell you why I strongly believed this is so…

First, an unleashed dog can attack just about anybody. You can say that your pet is as harmless as a cutie stuffed toy, but you can’t know that for sure if he’s provoked. Anybody walking by can be a victim of a dog bite.

Second, a dog is territorial. We all know this for a fact. Dogs tend to guard “their” property, ie. the boundaries of our homes. Other dogs coming near our homes are a threat to them, and they will do everything they could to protect them. If an unleashed dog wander about, you can just imagine how noisy it is on an entire street with all the barking—every “guard” that this wandering dog passed by will bark at him to back off. As a pet owner, it’s totally irresponsible to let your pet cause bedlam in an otherwise peaceful neighborhood.

Third, a wandering dog can easily cause a dog fight. Just like my first reason, your dog can attack just about anybody—even fellow dogs. People properly walking their pets (ie. on a leash), or dogs accidentally let out of the gates, can pick a fight with your pet especially if they’re not trained or have dominance issues. If a fight ensues, it would be difficult to restrain your unsupervised and unleashed dog… The owner of the other dog can only control his/her pet, not yours. For all we know, your dog can chase that passerby attacking and picking fights without restraint.

Fourth, your unsupervised dog can defecate and urinate just about anywhere. That would be totally inconsiderate of you to let your neighbors clean up your dog’s mess. Another thing I totally dislike about this is that an unleashed male dog has a tendency to “mark” territories—for example, an expensive mag wheel. I honestly cannot help cussing out loud every time our irresponsible neighbor’s dog attempts to do that to our car’s wheel—I call the dog’s attention and show my “dominance” through my voice every time I catch him trying to do that. Our neighbor actually thinks this is funny, and doesn’t even apologize for her dog.

There must be more reasons why dogs shouldn’t be let out on their own in the streets. But bottom line, this irresponsible way of pet ownership becomes not only a danger to others (both human and dogs), but to the dog himself as well—not to mention becoming a total nuisance to everyone else.

I haven’t talked to our other neighbors yet, I think one of them would file a complaint about this to the village association soon. If they don’t, I probably would. Their dog is becoming a neighborhood nuisance already, something must be done about it. We’re just lucky it’s been raining lately, so the dog doesn’t like going out and bothering everyone on the street. Thank God for rainy days!