Jennifer Horgan: Dogs deserve to be in shared spaces too — within reason

Dog owners and non-dog owners must learn to get along. Aren't we all children of the universe?

Jennifer Horgan's dog Nero.

I thought a new hoover would help. The last one had a face on it, which I assumed was the problem. Alas, no. Our poor little doggie still reacts like it’s a masked invader whenever I pull it from the hot press.

He dives at the head, leaping heroically, throwing his whole body across it like he’s blocking a bomb. The poor little guy utterly exhausts himself. It’s almost as bad as the time I put a large mirror down by the fireplace. God, he attacked himself for hours. Reflections on any shiny surface cause the same mayhem.

I realise at this stage, three years in, that he’s not very smart, but God is he plucky.

I never realised how much a dog would change my life. It goes way beyond having manky carpets unless someone’s visiting. He’s even affecting our holidays. We stayed in Ireland this year to accommodate our furry little furio. The heat on the continent played a part, but we also knew that Nero, his name, our little emperor, wouldn’t do well in a kennel.

He’s not a fan of other dogs you see. His name is Nero but he could also be Niro after the great actor Robert De Niro. “You looking at me? You looking at me?” That’s him, sizing up my neighbour’s Golden Retriever. He has a real issue with greyhounds too. Size definitely doesn’t matter with this guy.

Although he does like small white dogs. He’s pretty consistent on that. Those he’ll let pass by with the look of a bouncer ushering a VIP down the red carpet.

He’s a lot of work. He craves attention and has this way of looking terribly rejected if you’re preoccupied with, well, anything but him.

There’s history there you see. He used to share a little bed with a small white pooch. It still plays on my conscience, that I separated them, but his owner was on night shifts and couldn’t handle Nero in particular.

I should have taken that as a sign. He’s a lot of work. He craves attention and has this way of looking terribly rejected if you’re preoccupied with, well, anything but him. He whines, throws himself across the kitchen floor and looks the way I used to look after someone dumped me or my friends left me out of a get-together. 

He’s a Morkie, for anyone who knows about dogs, a cross between a Yorkie and a Maltese. He mopes, his big sad eyes twitching under the bleached blond hair of his face. It’s pretty adorable. It’s also adorable when he cocks his little head to the side to listen to something. It usually happens when he hears a dog on the television. 

And I love how he races up the stairs when I close the curtains downstairs, for fear he’s being put to bed too early.

Yes, it is undeniable. Dogs have an incredible impact on their owners. For many of us, they’re our only link to the animal world. They’re reminders that we’re animals too, and that’s incredibly regulating.

Anyway, I’m writing about Nero because I’m convinced the divide between people with and without dogs is growing. I’m trying to cross a divide here, by telling you about my little guy, because the hostility went into overdrive here this summer.

I don’t know if you saw it, but there was a letter to an editor in one of the national papers recently from a woman being driven demented by dogs on beaches. She wants them off beaches.

Who doesn’t have a ‘dog on a beach’ story from this summer? I have three I was told and one I experienced myself.

There was my friend’s dog who mistook a woman for her master, swimming far out at sea. He swam up and nudged her, causing her to lose her reason entirely, and her breath. It was all very dramatic, resulting in my friend being screamed at for not keeping her dog under control.

It was a genuine mistake on the dog’s part, an adorable lab, but the woman wasn’t up for hearing his side.

Nero really struggles with dogs off leads. He is convinced he’s under attack so he loses his mind barking. It’s relentless and I’m always grateful when owners follow the big giant signs in public parks.

Then there was the yoga class that was spoiled when a little poodle kicked sand onto a woman’s mat. The class had to be stopped and the woman consoled.

My own story is pretty tame. We brought Nero along with us when we had lunch at the side of a Kerry beach. It was outdoors, on benches and supposedly dog-friendly. He was happily mooching until a sausage dog arrived on the scene. 

Nero was fastened to the bench and the sausage dog was nonchalant so there was no issue, but there was an obvious sense his barking was ruining the ambience. It felt a bit like when a baby starts to wail in a Michelin-star restaurant. Not that I’ve been to one! 

There was no doubt about it though. There was a quiet message being communicated to me, the dog-owner, to get my dastardly hound home!

The last summer story I’ll share comes from a friend whose small girl is afraid of dogs. She was playing in the shallow waters when a big dog got over-excited and jumped up on her. She got a terrible fright and was pushed into the water. My friend was understandably upset and asked the owner to attach the lead.

Readers will have their own stories to tell of being on a hot beach this summer when some conflict, low-lying or otherwise, broke out between a dog, their owner and another human.

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What is to be done? Are these beloved pets, who take up so much of our time and our hearts, who even determine our holidays, being overly maligned? Do humans need to recognise that beaches are for dogs too?

Or, do dog-owners need to recognise that not everyone loves a dog?

Dogs are children of the universe too, even angry little ones who fight hoovers.

I must fight my bias here. I am definitely on the side of the dog in this debate, but there is an obvious balance to strike.

Just be sound, like. Be a good, responsible owner. If your dog is the sweetest animal alive but might jump up on someone, keep them on a lead.

This will work out well for Nero too, who really struggles with dogs off leads. He is convinced he’s under attack so he loses his mind barking. It’s relentless and I’m always grateful when owners follow the big giant signs in public parks.

But then, the dogs off leads generally mind their own business, so I understand the owner wanting to give them a run around. Other times, like that story of my friend’s small child being plunged into water, other times, they’re just being bad dog owners.

It takes all types I suppose. But a dog barking? Or a dog being asked to leave because a child is nervous, even when the dog has done nothing? No — that I can’t get on board with. A bit of sand on your yoga mat? You’ve lost me.

I’d be sad if we decided to assign specific dog-friendly times on our beaches. It smacks of giving up on being decent and tolerant.

Dogs are children of the universe too, even angry little ones who fight hoovers.