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.

Things were definitely much more casual back then as well. People often used to take their dogs to work. I worked in a hospital late 80s / early 90s and I remember a couple of staff used to bring their dogs into work every day, one of the security guys and one of the switchboard operators

We used to get one in our playground. Everybody said it had rabies so we would all scream and run away so it would bark and get all excited which confirmed in out 7 Yr old minds that it must have rabies.

Yep, I remember them walking themselves.

This happened when I was a girl, too. It was strangely formal in that all the dogs were called 'Dog's name' then surname of family who owned it. So it wasn't unusual to hear 'Fuck off out of it Jack Jones!' or ' Lucky Giovanni and Bella Delaney are at it round the back of the shop' 😂
I always wonder what the tourists thought of it all.

Yeah my DM would let the dog out for a walk, she’d never actually walk it, it’s crazy really they were like cats

I love this thread particularly the title

I also think it might have been an area by area thing. It was common where i lived as a young child but not where i moved to only a couple of miles away.
But then had a friend in my late teens who i actually think were neglectful of their dog, the dog walked itself, was only allowed in the kitchen and then got in the way when the family were in there so told to go to its bed!

This is like a parallel universe !
No loose dogs in my rural SE village, apart from the farm collies who stayed on their own land, in the early 80's.

I don't think its particularly area dependent (as in mainly poorer places). I remember seeing free roaming dogs in Cardiff in the 60's to early 70's when visiting relatives. This was in The Heath area, which was and remains pretty posh!

@Crunched

This is like a parallel universe ! No loose dogs in my rural SE village, apart from the farm collies who stayed on their own land, in the early 80's.

Parallel universe? Maybe the fact that you lived in a rural village surrounded by farmland goes some way to explaining things?

No I grew up (70s) with a leash law - your dog had to be on a lead unless in a designated dog park. They were registered and tagged too. We didn't scoop the poop then though.

My dog turned up in my primary school playground once, back in the 80s. My mother was mortified, we lived in a terribly naice area.

We had a dog called Rolo who used to live near high school and we always saw him out wandering around on his own. Sometimes he had another doggy friend with him. They seemed happy enough and everyone knew which house he belonged to.

Absolutely not my recollection. We had several dogs, and they were walked by my mum in the morning (for miles) and then had a shorter walk in the evenings (my dad normally did this after dinner). I would always go with my mum in the school holidays, and mostly went on the after-dinner walks, too. We knew all the dogs in the neighbourhood, and they were all walked properly.

But that was the 70s and 80s and I lived in a leafy place where all the women were SAHMs who had dog-walking as part of their daily routines.

Yes - we never let ours out but there were loads of dogs drifting around on their own or in small packs. I was utterly dog mad as a child and didn't get my own until I was 12, but I would often come home from playing/after school with a random dog or two that I'd made friends with.

Yes our black lab used to go off on his own for hours. Until he got hit by a car. We kept him in after that 😬.

hmm, I grew up in London in the 1970s.
We had a dog.
It was never 'let out to wak itself'
I used to take it for walks on Ealing Common, mind you I was only 9 and it used to run off and not come when it was called, so it walked itself round the common with me chasing it.

I remember other people walking their dogs on leads (or letting them loose) I don't remember packs of roaming dogs.

But then having a dog was just a pet back then, not "part of the family" and being anthropomorphised to the silly extent it is now.

Couldn't agree more with this! And I have 2 dogs, neither of which walk themselves. One can't be trusted to not go into other folks houses and eat their food, the other looks like a feckin bear and is nervous of other people so he won't go anywhere without us.

That being said, I live in the Caribbean and dogs here are very much the "walk themselves" lot. Plenty of street dogs, and/or dogs let out to roam. I'm not against dogs roaming or just doing what they do, but the dog shit is the downside. We also have far more traffic now than 10 years ago so would be more concerned that they get hit.

Yes, mid 80s, a Yorkshire terrier used to regularly attack me when I was making my way to the bus stop for college.

I'd often see dogs out and about on their own.

I don't remember this (I was born in 1975). I remember taking my grandparents dog for a walk. However, DM says the dog she had when she was a child (50's) used to take itself for a walk.

I definitely remember this in the 1980s. My parents house had no gate, and the family dog would often (unsurprisingly) escape and take herself for a walk

Definitely happened round us in the north, 1970s. Leafy middle class area too so nothing to do with class. My friend had a dalmatian called george iirc. She lived 5 mins round the corner from us but we often saw him in a little gang of dogs trotting along the other side of the road on a mission.

The more the read about it, the more bizarre it seems... Dogs hanging around in groups up to no good 😂

Imagine the Mumsnet fury if it was like this now, everyone goes wild & calls for dogs who have done nothing dangerous to be put down if they're off the lead in a perfectly sensible places with perfectly sensible owners, & have no intention of helping their little darlings with their phobias...

Not my recollection either. We had a dog in the 70's and 80's and she was walked up the hills or down the beach. She was a sheepdog though and had a habit of herding children, bikes, cars, anything that moved really so she probably wouldn't have lasted long out wandering. It was fine for us kids though!

Dad got his dog at the end of WW2 - I have a photo of his cousin with the dog on a lead. My best friend used to walk her dog on a lead - 1970s. Walked my boyfriend's family dog on a lead in 1980s.
I don't remember dogs roaming the streets ever, except when I've been abroad.