Keep away from that dog in yellow ribbon!

When we see a new dog, it’s but natural to pet it or play with it. The dog permitting. For sure there would have been isolated instances that taught us a hard lesson against our natural inclination. Inviting aggressive behaviour, repulsive attitude or in worst cases, a bite or two from the canines on stranger tides.

As with humans, dogs also don’t want strange persons to invade their privacy. Most of them would like to keep to their spaces and retain their sanity. And then there are pups that are yet to be trained, scarred dogs, service dogs that might not reciprocate your intrusive love in kind. The moot question here is: how many of us understand and respect their need to do so?

This is where Canada-based The Yellow Dog Project aims at sensitising common folks like you and me on how and when to approach a dog and which ones to maintain a safe distance from. It’s more about ‘making contact with a dog with permission of a dog owner only, whether or not a dog is a Yellow Dog.’

Now, a Yellow Dog is not something that is covered with a sunshine coat. “Yellow Dogs are dogs who need space – they are not necessarily aggressive dogs but more often are dogs who have issues of fear; pain from recent surgery; are a rescue or shelter dog who has not yet had sufficient training or mastered obedience; are in training for work or service; are in service; or other reasons specific to the dog,” explains the project’s website.

Tara Palardy of Alberta, Canada, launched The Yellow Dog Project to promote the use of yellow ribbons to identify and mark dogs that would do better with that bit of extra space. “The Yellow Dog Project is a global movement … to educate the public and dog owners to identify dogs needing space, promote appropriate contact of dogs and assist pet parents to identify their dog as needing space.”

The project is yet to hit the Indian shores. We are sure that it will be a major eye-opener on dogs needing space as and when it does.