We have a dog locally who "takes himself for a walk"

[WillitFit]

He lives in a house that backs onto a park and is often out wandering.

Quite often there are reports on the local FB of a lost dog and someone will always pop up to say "don't worry, that's "Rover" he'll find his way home".

But the safety of the dog isn't the only thing to worry about? Surely any unsupervised dog can be a risk e.g to small children and if nothing else, no one's picking up his mess.

I didn't think dogs were allowed to roam, but no one (on FB) seems to think this is an issue. He's just a cute local celebrity.

Shouldn't this be reported somewhere or am I being too up tight?

My dog only poops once a day and it's pretty much at the same time. Some dogs will only poop at home in their own gardens.

Where I walk my dog in a forest there is a dog who lives in a house and is all over the forest all of the time. He has a collar that says 'I am not to lost' on it.

I saw a pub dog take itself off out the other day (forested area and few cars). It was quite delightful (not if it crapped somewhere, I will concede that). He came to say hi and was very sweet.

Not really acceptable IMO. If nothing else, nobody is picking the shit up.

Why would this be ok if it were a cat? Or rather, because it isn’t a cat why do people object?

cats poo, and can carry disease, could be hit by a car, etc etc.

we’ve got one too on the local Facebook group. It’s so annoying! It’s the way people comment acting like it’s just impossible to keep this dog in. Given the chance my dog would also be out at the park having a rare time but no he’s safe at home due to me putting up a decent height fence! I hate this jovial attitude about it 🙈 It’s a dog, dogs don’t have road sense and could easily be stolen or hit by a car. Get your dog in like the rest of us!

We used to have one locally. It would walk around town quite happily and wait for the pelican crossing to make the 'diddly-diddly' noise before going to the other side. Never knew who it belonged to.

We have 1 too. Jumps over garden fence and does a loop of the road and goes back. He's a little scottish terrier, nobody can approach him as he turns snarly, owner is aware and isn't bothered 🤷‍♀️

His house backs onto the park so presumably a lot of the issues raised re road-sense aren't an issue.
Sounds like it's been going on a while with no ill effects. I'd be giving him a pat as he passed me and my less free range dog and enjoy seeing the local celebrity. Not really something I could get worked up about tbh 🤷‍♀️

Why?

My dog has a shit first thing in the morning and again before bed, if she were to roam she wouldn't be shitting so where's the harm. People need to lighten up and stop making rules when none are needed.

Poor dog, he’s not being looked after properly. I love dogs, but yes there’s issues with no one picking up his poo, potentially attacking someone or being attacked by another dog, getting run over etc. Some people are just irresponsible and don’t deserve a dog.