Did 70s/80s dogs walk themselves?

[RamblingRam]

I don't know if I just grew up in a rough area, I don't think I did, but when I was a kid it was common to see dogs wandering the streets either alone or in small groups, and very rarely on a lead. Does anyone else remember this it being like that? DH reckons I'm mixing up reality and old films but I'm sure it happened.

Yes I remember crying at lunchtime on my first day at infant school because of dogs in the playground running around. I was told not to be so silly by the dinner ladies and that they wouldn’t hurt me. 30 years later my children’s primary school was put into lunchtime lockdown when a black Labrador was spotted alone on the playing field!

Very common here too in the 70s and 80s.

Oddly enough, apart from the odd bit of white dog shit, there really wasn't much around on the pavements.

I think we must've had more regular street cleaning back then.

no we used to walk our dog

Very common in the 70's where I grew up. Dog bites/nips were pretty common and I think more people grew up afraid of dogs if you didn't have one at home. It was a frequent occurrence to see dogs loose and then have to change direction to avoid them leading to some quite long, roundabout walks. My brother had a paper round and was bitten a couple of times. He used to have quite a severe dog phobia.

@Jeremyironsnothing

I bought a dog licence for my toy dog out of my pocket money. It was 37 1/2p if i remember rightly. Probably around mid 70's. So not worth the paper it was written on even then.

I recall we got a visit from the police one time, early eighties, as our dog barked at and scared an old guy (from behind our gate, locked in our garden, so with hindsight a police visit now sounds odd too) Dog was a harmless little thing but would bark if anyone came near the gate or up the path. We had a dog licence -like you, I bought it myself out of pocket money, I felt very grown up buying it- just a slip of paper that cost 37.5 pence (look up the .5 youngsters!) from the Post Office. The police were impressed we had a licence and so few people did apparently and off they went, no more was said.

Our Heinz 57 used to roam and that was in the 00's.

She'd even go and visit my nan and grandad on her own, they'd feed her and send her back on her way.

I was thinking about this the other day. I remember dogs roaming the streets with no owner in sight.

My niece paid over £300 for a jackawawa. Last one in a pet shop window and she felt sorry for it. I told her in my day we'd have called it a mongrel and it would have come free. We all love him though.

We always saw a lot of people out walking dogs when we were kids (70s) but yes, there was always a 'wee brown dug' wandering around somewhere terrorising everyone. He was a stray and no one could get near him but we all used to leave food out the front for him anyway. I seem to remember that Mince Morsels were his favourite and everyone knew him as Ben. My dad used to leave our garage door open in the winter with a bed in it and he used to sleep in there sometimes and my sister and I were desperate for him to stay with us but he never did.

60s/70s. Our dog was walked, as he was dim and a bit of a liability.

Yes, it was perfectly normal to see dogs wandering about and socialising amongst themselves.

I think the white poo was due to the bonemeal in the food calcifying.

It was also quite common for dogs to be shot for worrying sheep.

Yes I remember this, there was a sheepdog that lived up the road that would wander around and a shaggy type do that lived near my school that would roam and all us kids would make a fuss of it.

We had a lab, he came into work with us. He would visit butcher two doors down sitting outside waiting patiently. One day he crossed the road to visit our vet.

Yes, I remember this too. Also remember white dog poop!

Ours got walked regularly from the mid 70s onwards, and wasn't technically allowed out by himself. However he was aware of all the canine fun that was going on in the streets, and every now and again he'd bide his time and escape over a fence or through a hedge or the legs of a brief caller. Nothing would induce him to come to us if we ran out after him. He'd come home after his roaming and debauchery and slink straight into his bed with his tail between his legs.

I remember my nana opening the door to let the dog out. Unneutered too

Do you remember the white chalky dog poo on pavements because they were fed bones from the butcher ?

I remember walking into town with my mum once and her muttering ' it's a good job I don't have to pay child support' 😂😂😂

Dogs seem to live longer lives then. Our dogs bowl was an old margarine tub. He was fed on chappie with a raw egg cracked and the odd dose of cod liver oil for his joints. He lived until he was 18 and didn't see a vet until the day his bag legs went on him and we took him to be put to sleep.

There seemed to be a lot less dogs about then funnily enough. And I don't remember the streets being as filthy with dog muck as they are now either.

I remember our dogs in the seventies going off on a wander every day..we lived rurally so they would take themselves off down the fields and come back for dinner.

Very common where I grew up. I was terrified of walking down the street in case I met any.

In the 80s my dad would walk the dog before and after work. He'd escape though, and loved running around with the latchkey dogs in a pack. He used to go into the officers mess (army childhood) and steal legs of meat.

He also had an arch nemesis, a tiny miniature bull terrier. All the dogs were scared of it.

Dogs are still given bones where I live and I can confirm that what comes out is pure, white ground-down bone.

My dog from childhood used to get out on his own and meet up with a pal.

Common here too, in late 70s there were a couple of dogs that came to our primary school at lunchtime each day by themselves, one was a Great Dane and bigger than most of the kids. School never did anything about it as they appeared friendly.

I can also remember a big Chow Chow near our house that walked itself and we were told to keep well away from. It went for our dog once while walking and my older brothers followed it at a distance until it went home so my dad could go and shout at speak to the owner about vet bills.

We never let our own family rough collie out, but he used to escape/run off on a walk once a year or so, disappear for a few days then reappear at the front door looking very pleased with himself.

Just realised I described the 1980’s dog as a Labrador cross, obviously at the time he was simply a Mongrel. Also remembered a bit before that, in the 70s, I grew up in a cul de sac where most people had young children roughly the same ages (about 2/3 up to about 10), we all played out together, is was brilliant. Only two houses didn’t have children, one old couple who would come and sit out in their front garden watching us all playing and another older lady who had a huge old English sheepdog called Sophie. We used to go knocking to ask if Sophie could come out to play, and she used to let her! Big old dog would just wander round with us, letting everyone stroke her and climb all over her. Sophie was quite often the one who had to go in first for tea ! Seems nuts now.

We had a large mongrel who was walked several times a day, but some of the local children would also knock for him to play out. They’d bring him back when they went in for their tea.

Yes, it was normal to see dogs out on their own. Often they'd visit school and cause tons of excitement.

Crikey, Lassie was based on a dog wandering about on its own finding people down wells etc .

Now if you see a loose dog, you think it must be lost and in need of rescue.