If exercise rules are tightened ....

[MilkTrayLimeBarrel]

Looks like the rules will be tightened because of the mindless idiots who cannot stay at home as they have been instructed to.

My question is this - what on earth are we going to do about our dogs? They have to be exercised and they need to do their business outdoors so what will happen?

Apparently, in Spain dogs have become hot property. You can rent them to your neighbours so that they can go out. The tighter the rules the more ways round them people will find.

TBH what really annoys me is not the flouting of the rules but posting that it is justified because people who live in cities are used to it. I am really stuggling at the moment and, yes, I know some people won't follow the rules (where I am or in the UK if they do come in) PLEASE don't come online to tell me that your mental and physical health is more important than mine. Just don't. What HAS helped me is feeling that we are all in this together and that this enforced lockdown is actually going to help.

Jesus, some people.

I'm pregnant. I didn't leave my house for 10 days until yesterday when I walked a mile up the road then back home. I have a horse I haven't seen for 11 days. Yard owner is caring for essential, basic needs and my desire to see her/exercise her does not outweigh the importance of bloody staying at home.

What will it take for people to stop putting themselves and their 'needs' first!

I am very fortunate that my working breed of dog is now an adult and can be exercised perfectly fine in the garden.

It would have been harder when he was younger but now we can get him running about outside at home and have a number of mental training games we can do if needed.

Ironically without our large patch of artificial grass the horror of such a thing on MN is quite comical we wouldn't be able to stay at home with the dog for such long periods.

But there are dogs they would need to be walked outside as others have said to avoid destructive or other negative behaviour. And people have managed dogs in flats or without gardens just fine but obviously no one could have foreseen a problem like this. I just hope if they add further restrictions they make allowances for animal welfare because as a decent humane society we should look after both.

I do wonder when, not if, some people are going to experience the dawning realisation that "I must have my littoow doggie, nice, lovely, cos" ......because what exactly. Dogs and cats are, I'm afraid a lifestyle choice for most - not all, I want to stress - and the number of people on this and other forums I'm active on who seem to plan their life on get house, get hitched, have children......oh bugga, need a (insert breed here) to go in the back of the 4x4/people carrier/ Chelsea tractor.....I'm sure you get the idea. Dogs are NOT essential to the vast majority of people in this country and before anyone gets on their high horse (dare I another contentious subject !!) I am well aware of the number of helping type dogs ie blind deaf etc. For the rest, no sorry. Putting my tin helmet and stab veston now and ducking behind the sofa with a weeks worth of rations. No offence intended to anyone.....but it's the truth.

@Seventyone72seventy3 Yep everyone in a City is a couch potato and everyone in the countryside walks 20 miles every day.

In normal times dogs can be fun toys for people to have, but now they are a liability
I suppose if things get really bad you could always eat it, then again I wouldn't want to eat the flesh of a carnivore so if I had to eat my pet I'd rather it was a rabbit.

@Lumisade we live in a 1st floor flat , rules were made here for the health of others and tightened as people could not respect them. ...It is obvious that you will do as you want , you know your situation where you live and if you will not see anyone . I am not risking a €500 fine ( and it goes on your criminal record) and the dog will have its legs walked off when this is lifted !

I'm coming to the conclusion that the only reason people are hell bent on stretching the rules to their limits is because they aren't actually worried about catching coronavirus. If it was Ebola then presumably people would be desperate to keep themselves and their kids indoors.

The problem is, if our healthcare system is overwhelmed by 'everyone else' (those people who - unlike you, do catch it and do need to be hospitalised) your access to treatment for any number of life threatening conditions isn't guaranteed.

Even if you don't expect to catch coronavirus, you need to help make sure that others don't either - otherwise it's your funeral when specialist care isn't available when you have a stroke, there isn't an ambulance available when you've been in a car crash, there isn't the normal level of specialist paediatric care available in your child becomes ill, etc.

You might be pregnant and have collie, but if you want the normal range of maternity and paediatric facilities to be available to you in a month's time you should be praying now that everyone does everything they can to slow the spread of this disease.

I really worry that some of the comments on MN in recent weeks could age really badly, and hope that by then there aren't numerous threads of grieving people claiming that 'nobody warned us it was dangerous!'

@alloutoffucks Not sure whether you are agreeing with me or not but my comment was in regard to another poster telling me this - I don't believe it! I am in the city and really want to get out for a walk! I just looked at my phone and my daily average steps for January (last completely normal month for us) was almost 9,000 (more at weekends). This has dropped to 180 over the last month!

@seventyone I am agreeing with you. I live in a city and go for a walk in countryside about 4 days a week. Most days walk at least 10,000 steps, dropped way down since lock down. But I want us all to survive more than anything. There will be plenty of walks in nearby countryside in the future.

I am in the shield group, so am not going outside

But I’ve run 3x virtual 5k runs - 2 by running 600 laps of my minute back yard, and one by running on the spot in my sitting room

You don’t need to go outside, even though it’s a zillion times nicer

I find the idea that the people who can go out are taking the piss to be staggering.

I've read what he said today and I'm quite passed off tbh. It's ridiculous - they should fine people and put up information about this in the daily conference. They could make it very clear what 'exercise' means - at first we were told no team games but a bike ride with a mate and social distancing was ok (the dCMO) and people need a clear instruction through one channel.

Dogs are members of our family, with the mental and emotional range of a 3 year old child. Animal welfare is important and I don’t agree that they should suffer, within reason and with owners behaving responsibly. People who treat them like objects to be put on a shelf or as a ‘hobby’ rather than living beings disgust me.

I think my child will be self identifying as a dog shortly.

Although given the number of times he exclaims "I'm a doggy!" in any given week, I think we're already there. Sweet, walks secured.