Dr Liesel van der Merwe is a small animal medicine specialist. Send her your questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Liesel van der Merwe

I love going walking on the beach or in the veld with my dogs and I like letting them off the leash so they can run around freely, sniffing at things, following tracks and running at full speed. But this comes with responsibility.

Beaches and open spaces are for the use of others as well. We as people are guests in the open spaces. We shouldn’t leave “footprints” or harm the normal residents. We have to be conscious of what we do.

Other people may be scared of dogs, they may not understand that the dog rushing up to them just wants to say hello and get a pat. It is the dog owner’s responsibility to keep this dog on a leash or train the dog to respond to verbal commands and stay with the owner.

When you meet other off-leash dogs on the path, you need to be very sure your dog will not start a fight and that it will respond to voice commands. If not, rather place it back on the leash. It’s too late after there is biting and blood flows.

Also, pick up after your dog. Poop bags are easy to buy and there are even very good quality biodegradable bags on the market, which don’t tear and keep your hands perfectly clean when you pick up after your pet. If you’re worried, then double bag. It’s not fair to other users to just leave poop lying around. The more people using a park, trail or beach, especially at holiday times, the more poop.

I have recently created a small open-air garden waiting area at the vet hospital where I work. I am amazed how people just leave mounds of dog poop lying there, even with poop bags and a bin.

All of this seems minor, but to me it is an aspect of our increasingly selfish way of living. It is all about me, my perspective and how things affect me. This type of behaviour is normal in very young children, but they outgrow this as they get older and are taught that they share this world with many other things and people. Maybe this was called manners in the old days, but it’s just plain consideration for others and treating others the way you would like to be treated.

I tell my students once they reach their clinical year, that it is no longer all about them. They are now part of a process where patients, clients and colleagues all have to be considered and their wants may not be those which ultimately get seen to in every situation.

Imagine a world where people once again consider each other, not necessarily to martyr themselves, but just to see the other person’s point of view. We are often bashed by political correctness and “wokeness”, yet ironically these same societies or people are bullies in their insistence that their way is the only right way, polarizing people. We live in a world full of greys and nuanced situations where, if we just put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, see their perspective, we would react differently and with more empathy and humanness.

Well, that was a load off my chest and this column was going to be about my neighbour’s barking dogs, which bark non-stop every time I put my nose out the back door into my lovely wild back garden which backs onto a reserve. It would be nice if my neighbour could manage the problem, but they don’t, so I’ll increase the height of the wall. Good fences make good neighbours.