Episode 32: The Future of Dog Ownership Part 1 - Dog Walks with David Bavin

Ep 32: The future of dog ownership Part 1: Dog Walks with David Bavin

Walking your dog is one of life's most beautiful and simple pleasures and there’s nothing quite like the frustration of being faced with a luscious swathe of land you’ve taken the time to travel to, beset with a big sign that says ‘No Dogs’. Some will turn and find another place to walk and others might take a quick look to check for witnesses and wander on anyway ready to claim stupidity if challenged.

In this episode we meet David Bavin, a researcher from Exeter University and the National Trust that has conducted some fascinating research about how we all use Englands green and pleasant lands, the effect of dogs on the natural habitat and most importantly the best strategies land managers can use to help dogs and wildlife coexist so that everyone has a fair share of our beautiful natural world.

We talk about:

• The difficulty dog owners have in meeting their natural behavioural needs while also respecting protected spaces for other species
• How ecologists study different species and measure the weight of evidence on each side to work out the impact dogs really have on nature
• Things dog owners can do to make sure we’re walking our dogs responsibly and sustainably and things we can do that could encourage land owners to have a zero tolerance policy on dogs if we’re not careful!
• The design of a national dog walking highway code that could simplify land access for everyone
  

To learn more about ‘Paws For Thought’ and the work of David and the EXCases team, check out their interactive land use maps and infographics head over to:

https://renewbiodiversity.org.uk/paws-for-thought-excases-mission/

And check out the National Trust’s Open Data portal to see the research displayed in delicious detail:

https://open-data-national-trust.hub.arcgis.com/apps/National-Trust::paws-for-thought/explore

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy