This Saturday – 18 July, 9 a.m., at Lloyd Park – is the date of our next PUP day.  We will be clearing the fields before the (dog-friendly) Walthamstow Garden Party starts setting up.

Perhaps not our most glamorous event – but PUP days are occasional meetings where we literally pick up poo – clearing up after some of the less considerate local dog owners and highlighting to other residents that many of us *are* responsible.

Bring poo bags, rubber gloves if desired, and meet other WF4Dogs members. Let’s impress the many visitors to our borough by ensuring the park is in great condition.

Saturday (11 July) is the London anti-BSL rally, part of the anti-BSL protests happening worldwide. Various WF4Dogs members will be going. The march starts at Old Palace Yard, Westminster, at 2pm.

We have noticed this year that many ‘found’ dogs can’t be reunited immediately as their chips aren’t up to date. When moving, there is so much to think about that it’s not surprising something small and hidden is forgotten – but it’s so important. To help us all remember, Annelie Rosencrantz has created this message for us. Please feel free to share and spread the word.

Perhaps not our most glamorous event – but PUP days are occasional meetings where we literally pick up poo – clearing up after some of the less considerate local dog owners and highlighting to other residents that many of us *are* responsible.

The next PUP day is: Saturday, 18 July, 9 a.m., at Lloyd Park. We will be clearing the fields before the (dog-friendly) Walthamstow Garden Party starts setting up.

Bring poo bags, rubber gloves if desired, and meet other WF4Dogs members. Let’s impress the many visitors to our borough by ensuring the park is in great condition.

Committee members Marita and Katherine met with LBWF on Tuesday for our quarterly meeting. This is Marita’s report:

Clyde Loakes was unable to attend but we had a great meeting with Mandy and Scott. Here a summary of our discussions:

– Garden Party in Lloyds Park – DET are not aware of any changes regarding the ‘dogs allowed’ status and agreed that last year was a great success. Katherine did ask that DET together with the organisers could please try and keep access to the small, enclosed, off lead space accessible as last year there was an issue about the entrance being blocked off. The gate on the long side may still need to be blocked off, due to the stage being nearby, but if that’s the case the request to have the side gate unlocked has been noted.

– Jubilee Park – we highlighted the concerns of park users that there is no fence between the park and the very busy road and that users are unable to exercise their dogs off lead for fear of dogs running onto the street. This is not directly a DET issue but Mandy is having a meeting with Clyde, in Jubilee Park, later this week and will try and get this matter addressed and solved. Will update as soon as we have further news.

– update on dogs found – we have welcomed the fact that there now social media presence from the council and that dogs that are found are being tweeted about but have requested that we get an update as to whether the dogs have been reunited or re-homed in order that we can update the dog lost posters. This should be possible and Scott will try and implement.

– message given to callers by switchboard that DET do not go after un-contained dogs/are off duty over bank holiday weekend – both Mandy and Scott were quite surprised about the message given to callers during out of hour calls and will take this matter up with the call centre. To clarify, obviously DET prefer if stray dogs are contained, but will go and look in areas where strays have been spotted. However as strays can be quite elusive it is not as easy to spot and catch them and it can be difficult for DET to drop everything they are working on to go on a dog chase.

– education about behaviour with and around dogs in schools – unfortunately the liaison role is vacant at the moment and only when a new person has been appointed will this topic reappear on the horizon. Mandy welcomes the idea of some members of our groups working together with the schools, but says it will have to be council led and a more detailed framework can really only be worked out when the position is filled.

–  we briefly touched on BSL but as this is a legislation the law needs changing, which is not something we can do through these meetings.