No treats in this doggie bag

OPINION The author Lynley Dodd once wrote a wonderful picture book called My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. I'm considering writing a canine-themed equivalent, to be titled My Dog Likes to Shit in Nettles.

And we're not just talking nettles: my dog also likes to do it in gorse bushes, among patches of lethal toadstools, on the edges of cliffs, through barbed wire, and once - in an appalling display of disrespect - into the open mouth of a decaying kahawai. She is, in every other respect, a sweet-natured creature whose only act of aggression since puppyhood has been to maul her half-brother's soft-toy duck.

As far as she is concerned, however, defecation is not merely a bodily function: it is an extreme sport.

The subject of dogs, and particularly dog poo, has been much in the news recently, thanks to Wellington City Council's proposed reform of its dog control policy. MORE>>