Page 4063 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 24 October 1990
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reference to an organisation that I have had some involvement with, both as a member and as a qualified trainer - that is, a dog obedience club. I have been involved with dog training in three States of Australia, participating as a club member and instructor as well as a person who has gone through the sorts of exercises and arrangements that Mr Duby talks about in relation to companion dog training. I guess the requirement that Mr Duby is talking about is something that we used to call companion dog, which is the first stage of training.
Those of us who move around our Canberra suburbs at various stages have seen a number of dogs moving uncontrolled, particularly around our schools. Dogs seem to gravitate towards school areas because there are a large number of children there. I think this often creates some sort of tension amongst the children. They seem to think that a dog which clearly is just seeking to play with them in fact may be attacking them.
There are cases, of course, where dogs do get involved in incidents, both against other pets and against people and children. In a lot of cases there are two causes. One is the failure of the owner to correctly look after and maintain the dog and provide an appropriate area for it. The other, of course, is a degree of provocation. That sometimes happens with some of our younger children who do not seem to understand the true nature of a dog and its attitude. A dog, in fact, is really only, in those situations, protecting its territory. It is carrying out its hereditary instincts.
In fact, anyone who has had anything to do with a blue heeler, for example, will know full well that that particular dog is probably one of the best dogs to use for protection of your property. Certainly that has been my experience. They are very good at that, and really all they are doing is protecting the property and acting out the role of a true companion dog. I think it is important that we take due note of that, and maybe it is necessary that that be part of the education program that Mr Duby is talking about. Part of the education program within our schools is to ensure that children are made fully aware of their responsibilities to dogs, be they their own pets or others' pets, to ensure that the sorts of mistreatment problems that sometimes occur do not take place.
In my closing comments on this matter it is appropriate to make some reference to the issue of another companion animal that I see as part of the process involved in the companion dog review as part of the animal welfare review report that Mr Duby brought down earlier this week. I refer, of course, Mr Connolly, to the moggie, or the cat. Those of us who have anything to do with the nature conservation area know full well the sort of damage that that particular animal can do within the environment. That is a more difficult problem, of course, because cats are
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