Does anyone remember pet dogs being let out to roam???

[EinsteinaGogo]

I was just reading another post about 'the old days'.

Someone remembers pet dogs being let out to roam in the 70s.

Oh my god, does anyone else remember this? And white dog poo on the pavements?

Indeed - my dogs poo goes white if left due to the fact they are raw fed and have a lot of bone. It's not smelly either 🤷‍♀️

Street dogs were a thing in my childhood - we didn't have gardens. In the late 90's I rehomed a dog via Rspca that had been a street dog - he couldn't understand why he wasn't let out every morning - used to go to the front door and wait.

I don't, but where I grew up in the 70s, either not a lot of people had dogs (Victorian terraces with lots of immigrant families) or it was too "suburban" (later homes) - too many cars even then.
Ironically our current house is at the edge of town, and in the 90s you'd regularly get a pair of golden retrievers from a nearby house "in the country" getting out and taking themselves for jaunts across the fields and into the 'burbs.

I remember and it’s interesting how the dogs all rubbed along, no fighting and now people are bloody terrified to let their dogs off lead and interact with other dogs.
As for white dog poo, most of the kids I knew were of the agreement that it was poodle poo as only poodles did white poos. Ridiculous but we really thought that.

Yeah, I remember this being a thing! Also remember being told the story of an ex boyfriends family dog who used to take himself off for the day and one day got on the bus to the next seaside town 😂😂

Sorry I'm 48 and thought all the white dog poo of my childhood was because it was old and had been there ages, is that not correct ?!!

No, the dog food had a very high calcium content (bonemeal), so it went like that.

Wow I had no idea, this is why I love mumsnet !

it’s interesting how the dogs all rubbed along, no fighting

Oh I saw plenty of dogfights, but they tended to be brief. Sometimes you would get a whole bunch of dogs fighting, until someone's dad came to break it up.

We get it all at work. Foxes, deer, dogs ... and that's a school in housing estate in a city! Oh and not to mention the police tackling someone to the ground and arresting them. This has all been in the last term btw 😆 People most definitely still let their dogs out here. One in particular- a big Akita type likes to come and take a shit right near the school entrance. I've seen at least 2 terrier types pottering around outside on the street too.

Stupidly I thought that's what happened to dog poo if you left it out in the sun. Apparently I was wrong!

I can definitely remember dogs just being allowed to roam. I can't particularly remember many being ran over or anything, but that would really worry me if my dog was out and about.

I just love the stories of dogs taking themselves on day trips!!

(Although I hyper-ventilate if my dog goes behind a bush and I can't see him for 3 seconds!).

I grew up in 60’s & 70’s with 2 dogs. They weren’t allowed out but quite often escaped or went out with us kids. Don’t know who had a better time - us or them.

They got out once & the elder one got together with a standard poodle.

Gave them away - now we could have made £10,000! How times have changed. My rescue lives the pampered life now!

I was born in 86 and this didn't happen then where I lived - Greater London/Kent border. I'd have loved to see dogs in the school playground!

We had a German shepherd and he was pedigree - my parents paid £400 for him and that was a massive amount for a dog then lol! He was never just allowed out on his own... we took him to the woods and he went offlead but never strayed far ahead as he was always checking we were all still there with him. Don't remember seeing white poo either but we always picked his up!

I remember seeing a dog take the ski (chair) lift up the mountain in France in the 90s. Apparently it's owner worked in the restaurant at the top and it was off to visit them!

Ours used to get out sometimes and come back a few hours later.

Yes, early 80s in Stepney, my friend used to just open the front door so her lovely mongrel could take himself off for walk round the block each morning. He kept to the paths and could get to the local park crossing just one side road. He wandered back an hour or so later. Seems nuts now. Also, in the 70s when I was little me and all of the children in our road would ‘knock’ for Sofie the Old English Sheepdog and her owner would let her out to play with us! The little ones would even get her back for a ride. Also nuts now!

We had a jack Russell that wasn't allowed to roam but was a master escape artist and would frequently sneak out and be gone all day before coming home filthy, happy and tired.

He would climb up through open windows (the top opening!), scale our 6 foot wall and be gone.

The village I currently live in had a free-roaming dog til very recently. A scruffy black terrier. He would make his way to the shops at lunch time and wait patiently round the back of the butchers for scraps before taking off to one of the 3 pubs frequented by his owner, for a fuss from the locals.

When the butcher closed down the chippy next door took pity on him as he would still turn up and wait (and bark if they didn't get their act together quickly enough!) and give him bits of left over fish.

He passed away last year and is very missed.

I'd love to see this - how brilliant!

I thought white poo was from raw feeding?
Our neighbour’s dog in the 60’s had a busy day would go out as soon as front door was open. Over to the butchers for his lamb bone, took it back down the road to the park. A couple of unaccounted hours then over to the Catholic Church when he was given left over sarnies from the coffee morning and a bit of a fuss from their own Mrs Doyle and then back home at night. Don’t ever recall him being a bother to anyone but everyone knew him- a chunky beagle.

My dog definitely wasn't raw fed - he used to eat anything and everything! He was a proper character, too. Used to follow me all over, and would sit patiently while I dressed him up. He followed me into school, once, and no one knew he was there (sleeping in the cloakroom) until he started snoring and the teacher went to investigate. He'd pulled my cost down and gone to sleep on it. 🤣

I grew up in the 80s. I have very fond memories of a neighbours dog Jack who used to visit. He always seemed to know when a biscuit was about.

Always willing to sit in the garden with us and listen to us prattle on. Looking back he came from a family of older kids and was looking for a bit of company.

YES white dog poo as well as brown so it must have been something in certain foods they ate presumably!

And lots of local dogs out and about ‘on a mission’ like they knew where they were going.

Our family Jack Russell was run over and killed about half a mile away from home - I had a row with my mother recently about it - it was just the done thing back then (80’s).

You say it like it's a thing of the past - it's certainly not in my inner city neighbourhood. It ranges from dogs being allowed to run around off lead semi supervised but right next to a busy road, through to one that's much more free range. It's young and lovely but I did recently have to warn a visitor "he's very nice but he does sometimes chew your arm when he gets overexcited..." I think his owners are possibly Romanian or Bulgarian and letting dogs out to roam there seems to be the done thing.

Sometimes I think I'm the only one who actually keeps mine on a lead all the time, except at the park.

In the middle class village I grew up in there's no chance people would let their dog roam!

Definitely a thing of the past in my world, @NotMyCircusNotMyCircus .

A lone dog outside in my area would sparks numerous 'is this anyone's lost dog' Facebook posts with pictures round here (which I'm thankful for, to be honest 🙏🏻).