Basic Responsibilities of a Dog Walker

I don't have the most "athletic" or youngest dog, but I give her the short occasional walks that I believe she deserves. I have an 11-year old Shi-Tzu named Sprinkles. She gets happy with the smallest things, such as rubbing her stomach, giving her food, and just basically giving her attention. I guess through the years, she's become less energetic, in a sense that she gets tired pretty easily, and she does not run as much as before. However, when she sees me go outside, or get her leash, she gets really excited, because she knows she's going out for a walk.


my dog, Sprinkles. Took this photo back in 2nd year college for my Fine Arts class.

There are few things that I take with me before I take Sprinkles out for a walk:
-my cellphone
-my house keys
-a disposable PLASTIC BAG, and if needed, my disposable "pooper scooper" (but I rarely use this one anyway, haha).

Now I can definitely leave behind my cellphone and house keys, but THE PLASTIC BAG IS A BIG NO NO. In fact, all dog walkers (whether you are the yaya or the owner) should always bring with them a plastic bag, or a newspaper, UNLESS, they are positively sure that they're dog will not poop on the street.

One time, before leaving the house, I saw a house helper walking this dog.  All of a sudden, the dog stops in front of our house and takes a dung on the road. As I was watching what the house helper was about to do, I noticed that she didn't have anything with her to clean up the poop. She knew I was looking (because if she just walks away without doing anything, I am definitely going to have some serious talk with her, haha), so she goes around looking for something to pick up the poop and sees this piece of leaf (yes, I believe she had every intention to pick up that poop with that piece of leaf). Being unable to understand how she was all going to do this, I get a piece of newspaper from our garage, and hand it to her.

I don't remember if Mang Roger commented about the whole thing, since he saw it as well, but I remember telling him, "Kung hindi niya kasi yun lilinisin, sisigawan ko siya", hahaha. A few days later, when I was telling my dad what happened, it occurred to me that maybe if nobody was looking, she would have just gone off without cleaning the dog's crap. It's just that it's happened before, and I've seen a couple of dog poop on the street, and I get so annoyed, because the dog walkers don't even have the decency to clean it up. For cryin' out load people, that is like DOG WALKING 101 -Pick up your dog's crap.



In fact, we're not even allowed to bring our dogs to the park in our village anymore, because I guess the dogs just end up pooping there, and I guess the "village custodians" have gotten so fed up cleaning it up. It is frustrating, haha. And I can't blame them for imposing this rule, because some dog walkers have become so irresponsible.

Back when my mum was still here, she bought me a pack of biodegradable doggy poo bags, along with some disposable tongs to pick up the poop (haha). Anyway, I think I used up the last of the poop bag last week, so I decided to just get a small used plastic bag. The point is, you don't have to have an official dog poo bag (I wonder if there was a better way of calling it), any disposable bag, or even a couple of newspapers will do, so as long as YOU PICK UP YOUR DOG'S POOP, AND DISPOSE IT PROPERLY. That is all. Let us be responsible dog walkers.