Living together: Our dogs in town

A few good habits. Humans and dogs can live together peacefully, provided a few necessary rules are observed.

Clean streets. It is a polite habit to pick up dogs' faeces from public areas, besides being provided for by decrees and regulations issued by the Italian municipalities.

A plastic bag or an ad hoc scoop with bags should always be carried when walking your dog. Intolerance against dogs very often stems from their owners' wrong attitude.

The fear of dogs. There are people who fear cats or dogs just because they are not accustomed to deal with them or because they suffer from real phobias. We have to respect other people's fears: when needed, we must keep our dog on a leash as near to us as possible, and show a reassuring attitude towards those who are visibly afraid.

Big dogs and toy dogs. It may happen that big dogs attack people - even their owners and families - but also toy dogs, sometimes killing them.

If your pet is aggressive with other dogs, don't leave them free to do whatever they like, especially if there are smaller pets around. This should be one of the sound unwritten rules of social life. The law of the strongest is not a good case either among humans or pets.

If your dog is quite aggressive with other dogs or humans, you should be very careful when walking him/her in public areas and not leave him/her in care of people who are not able to handle your pet (for example, elderly people or children).

If these few rules of politeness and common sense were respected, there would not be any dangerous breeds either for humans or other dogs.