Tie a Yellow Ribbon...

[Catsmamma]

Just saw this idea on facebook.

Posted by The German Shepherd Dog Community, the gist is in case the link does not work that you tie a yellow ribbon on your dog's lead if they need space

Maybe they have health issues or are training

They may be a rescue dog being rehabilitated

They may have had a bad experience with another dog or just not like the friendly kind of dog who always wants to say "Hi!"

Apparently there is something similar in the Horse community, a red ribbon on the tail for the same message.

This has come over from USA, the GSDC facebook page is from America, but I think it is an excellent idea that would really benefit from a wider audience. They'd like this to become a world wide thing I think.

Red ribbon in horses tail has always meant I wil bite and or kick very very old technique used when out hunting.

Problem I can see with yellow ribbon on the lead is you have to get quite close to see it.

Interesting idea, but I guess it really should be the default that you don't approach/let your dog approach an on-lead dog unless the owner says it's OK - you shouldn't really need a ribbon to tell you that.

I don't think it's a good idea. Tbh if I saw someone with a yellow ribbon on their dogs lead I'd just think they'd tried to jazz it up a bit! It's a bit of a pointless thing to do if no-one knows what it's there for.

My dog wore a red bandana, for no reason other than it looked cool with his black fur, it was just a normal, red paisley pattern bandana and people avoided him like the plague. Dragged their children and dogs as far away from him as possible. I swapped it for a blue one and people stopped avoiding him! I can only assume they thought the red one was a danger warning!

I do think that's a good idea. The red ribbon on a horse's tail works well. It would need a lot of publicity to get it embedded in people's consciousness, but worth it.

I think I like the idea but most of the dog owners I know don't do training or go on dog forums or anything like that so how would you get the message out? Even more so to non-dog owners!