Exercising off lead leaves little room for error
Airedale Terrier - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Just before Christmas, I was walking along the road above the beach at Corbyn Head, when a dog, paddling in the water, caught my eye.
It was an Airedale Terrier, a fantastic breed that really deserves to be far more popular than it currently is.
I continued walking towards town, with an eye fixed upon the dog obviously enjoying being by the sea.
Suddenly, she seemed to decide that ‘enough was enough’ (it was a cold day after all) and began to head towards home... alone.
Off she trotted across the beach towards the steps that lead up to the busy road.
Thankfully her owner, who was on the other side of the beach suddenly caught sight of what she was doing and started to frantically shout her name.
She didn’t look back and continued determinedly on her way.
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From my vantage point I could see what was about to happen and dashed down the steps, headed her off and ushered her back in the direction of her very thankful owner.
Now, I wouldn’t have even mentioned the above incident if I hadn’t been involved in two other similar incidents in the past couple of months.
Cairn terrier - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
One involved a Cairn Terrier who ran up the slipway that leads down to Abbey Sands and was heading towards the road with its owner desperately shouting his name from the beach, and the other was a Whippet at Paignton beach, whose owner was so heavily involved in his conversation, he didn’t even notice his dog had run off the beach and was weaving in and out of the cars on the road!
A Whippet in the park - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
As I have written numerous times before, we are truly blessed to live so close to such beautiful beaches however, unlike the expansive sands of Woolacombe and Bournemouth, most of our beaches are flanked by very busy roads.
Torbay dog owners need to remain aware of exactly where their dogs are (at all times) when they are exercising off the lead as there is such little room for error.
I would just like to thank everyone for their support of this doggy column and would like to wish all of Torbay’s dog owners - and their gorgeous dogs - a very happy New Year!
