Canine Courtesy on the curb.

Walking in the heat of the city streets of Syracuse is pretty brutal in the months of June through August.

You can tell what season it is by looking around you and seeing the mass exodus of people whom move furniture out of their homes and onto their patios, porches, stoops, lawns, steps, driveways and sidewalks.

They sit and enjoy what breeze they can, watch the kids play, catch up on neighborhood gossip, and revel in being out of the house while they can.

I too enjoy this time of year. It is the time I take my dog for late evening walks. Armed with plastic bags, my cell phone, emergency money, and self defense device. I often take to the street with and without the hound to walk to the local coffee shop, pick up a book at the library, or just tool around and check out what is growing in my friends gardens.

When my canine companion is with me on my walks he routinely stops in one of three places and takes a masterfully large dump. I always come prepared and carry three plastic bags.

I pick up the poop, tie off the bag, and off we go.

He continues his walk on his leash, I carry his droppings, to be disposed of in my trash can or a dumpster.

Never does it occur to me to leave his crap on someone else's lawn.

Neither does it occur to me to take off his leash and let his run amok.

Would he listen to me? Yes. Would he come if I called him? Yes. Would I absolutely rely on that? Absolutely not.

So why is it that I am the minority?

Walking around my neighborhood it drives me insane to see piles of dog crap left everywhere. I don't mean here a crap there a crap, I mean everywhere a crap crap.

Walking in the park we passed twelve dogs who had taken massive dumps and their owners smiled, shrugged, and walked away from the steaming pile of poop.

My fiance and I just stared at each other. This is why when we go to the park, we have to mind our step, because other dog owners cannot be burdened to carry a plastic bag and pick up dog crap.

Which brings me to the next issue of canine courtesy that seems to be missing in Syracuse local dog scene. Leash laws. In parks, dogs must be on a leash. This is for your dogs protection, and mine.

Here is a situation. My dog is afraid of other dogs. We keep him away from other dogs. Your dog,who is not on a leash, runs up to my dog, who is on a leash, I have to grapple push, boot, and yell at your dog to go away and get back to you, you whom are standing there holding your leash mouth open gaping like a fish not helping me by grabbing your dog.

Thanks.

Don't count on your dog listening to you. Dogs are dogs. They are driven by instinct and it takes one second and one time chasing something across a busy street and not having a leash on and being hit by a car and suddenly hindsight is 20/20.

Your leash could be made from a shoelace if thats all it takes for your dog to remember to stay within a certain distance of you. But in a park where there are leash laws and rules about picking up after your dog. Everyone has the right to enjoy the park, and if you want to come out and play, follow the rules.

You want to leave your dog crap on the ground and run loose with your dog find somewhere where everyone is cool with it. until then watch out.

I see your dog taking a crap and you leaving it, you might wake up to a weeks worth of dog crap on your doorstep with a note saying "Dear inconsiderate citizen, I believe you forgot to clean this up when you walked your dog. I left you some plastic bags so next time you can clean up your dogs poop. We are watching you, next time you leave your droppings on our lawns and gardens you will find it on your doorstep in flames. Sincerely, Citizen Canines"

We are pissed, we are watching, we will your crap at your doorstep.