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So what does taking responsibility for your dog look like?

Quite a number of dog owners are unaware of some of their legal responsibilities under W.A. state law.

One of the main responsibilities is having your dog under effective control in public areas.

This means having the dog on a lead and being handled by a responsible adult. Yes, that's right, walking the dog is actually too high of a responsibility for a child under 16.

The only places where dogs are allowed to be off lead, are at designated off lead exercise areas, and within these areas you are still required to have your dog under effective control.

This means that your dog should have a reliable recall, even around distractions, and you should respect other people using the space if they don't want to interact with your dog, and recall your dog away.

This is just a part of your responsibility around taking your dog out into public areas.

Being a responsible Dog owner is not only essential for your own dog's safety, but it also means that other dogs and their humans can use public spaces without concerns about being approached.

The City of Albany is urging owners to take responsibility for their pets following an increase in dog attacks.

There were 121 dog attacks in the 12 months to the end of June, and 14 infringements issued.

While there were 107 from June 2023 to 2024, and 7 infringements issued.

Ranger coordinator Carl Fjastad said the City of Albany takes all dog attacks seriously.

"Many of these sad and unfortunate incidents can be avoided if dog owners take proper responsibility for their animals," he said.

"Several dog owners have been prosecuted this year, with court fines ranging from $6,000 to $10,500, and orders made for the destruction of the attack dogs."

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Sometimes we make things a little harder than they need to be. If we can follow these mindset tips we'll be well equipped to handle various behaviour situations. Make sure we are paying well (high value rewards!) and we're putting money in the behaviour piggy bank,