Ms Nanci Creedon:

It is unrealistic and dangerous. It is dangerous for us to have such an unfortunately large population of dog owners who do not truly understand their dogs and dog behaviour and how to safely care for their dog to ensure their dog does not cause harm to others. Unfortunately, the dog wardens do not have any formal training. There is no decent training programme or rigorous testing that they go through before they are appointed to be the ringleader of keeping dogs safe in, for example, Limerick. It is too much pressure to put on one and a half people. If they are not getting the correct training, you are better off without a dog warden.

When it comes to things such as worrying sheep, dogs being out of control in public and all of that kind of stuff, the go-to answer is that it should be reported. Someone then investigates, someone clamps down, somebody gets a fine and that money is put back in to training the dog wardens again. However, that is not happening. It is expensive training and dog wardens are expensive. The only way for it to be effective is to increase the fines, and as more people get fined, that money can be channelled back in again. Educating the owners is all well and good when it comes to putting information out there. However, if you just put information out there, it is only the responsible owners who are going to watch or read that information anyway. It is people like those with their fresh, new designer breed dog who never had a dog in their life that go up the mountain and say “Oh Fluffy can go off. He is just playing with the sheep.” It often happens that people will say their dog was just playing and it is fine, without understanding what that does to the sheep. I was reading a study recently that showed that sheep will recognise the difference between a dog on a short lead, on a long lead or off lead. Just the concept of a dog being there off-lead is enough to worry the sheep as well, never mind how badly it can go.

It is all well and good to suggest more dog wardens and more education for them. There could be a dog bite prevention association or some sort of organisation headed by dog behaviour experts that then filters down through the channels, whether that is educating the dog wardens or having different representations and representatives of that organisation in the different counties and so on and so forth. If we are looking at using dog behaviour experts for this, these people have their own employment, so they can be part time and available if and when needed, but they would be educated to a level that would be able to make a difference. It is dangerous and there are massive welfare issues for the sheep, as well as financial issues for farmers. It should not be taken lightly and something needs to be done. However, resources are needed to do anything about that. More dog wardens with a decent education behind them would help. Are we going to do that?