Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Cassie Jefferies: Professional Dog Walkers' Association on Auckland Council's proposed changes to dog walking regulations

Transcript

Cassie Jefferies: Professional Dog Walkers' Association on Auckland Council's proposed changes to dog walking regulations · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Auckland Councils considering new restriction for dog walkers councils. The
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: council is suggesting a maximum of six dogs we walked
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  Speaker 1: together at a time, with only thrieving allowed off leash.
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  Speaker 1: It's also looking at making more of Auckland's fourteen regional
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  Speaker 1: parks and sixty four local parks completely dog free. Feedback
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  Speaker 1: on the proposals is now being accepted. Cassie Jeffries is
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  Speaker 1: a dog walker from the Professional dog Walkers Association. She
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  Speaker 1: joins me, now, good morning, Cassie, thanks for your time.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you doing good?
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  Speaker 1: Hey? What are these restrictions going to mean for professional
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  Speaker 1: dog walkers?
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  Speaker 2: At this stage? Council hasn't given us any other options,
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  Speaker 2: so it'll mean exactly what it means to everyone else.
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  Speaker 2: Most likely a lot of services will have to change
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  Speaker 2: if this all goes through.
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  Speaker 1: How will that a pac impact your business?
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  Speaker 2: For me? We walk packs of about fourteen, so we
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  Speaker 2: will be looking at dropping numbers, possibly maybe going to
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  Speaker 2: private land. We haven't completely decided yet, but we are
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  Speaker 2: looking at lots of different options.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because you kind of get hit two ways, don't
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  Speaker 1: you get hit on where you can go? And you
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  Speaker 1: can get hit on how many dogs you can.
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  Speaker 2: Take exactly, And for us, it's not necessarily about the numbers.
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  Speaker 2: But the reason we run the service way that we
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  Speaker 2: do is so that it's affordable for people. We pick
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  Speaker 2: up a group of dogs, we take them out to
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  Speaker 2: the beach or the forest, places that do take or
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  Speaker 2: require quite a bit of driving. So we do spend
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  Speaker 2: a lot of money on petrol and the way we
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  Speaker 2: balance out all those costs taking the numbers that we do,
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  Speaker 2: and we do want to keep our service as affordable
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  Speaker 2: as we can for people to actually utilize it, because
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  Speaker 2: a massive three our adventure in the middle of the
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  Speaker 2: day is so good for so many dogs when they
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  Speaker 2: have quite high energy needs.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, see, do you know how much of the complaints
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  Speaker 1: to counsel are actually about walking multiple dogs?
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  Speaker 2: Zero point seven percent of all complaints received last year.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So you're taking a hit here, and I imagine
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  Speaker 1: you're taking I imagine you're taking a hit here because
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  Speaker 1: there's probably a few people out there that aren't as experienced,
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  Speaker 1: knowledgeable who have entered into the industry causing some issues.
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  Speaker 1: Would that be fair to say.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, So there's obviously been a lot of feedback,
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  Speaker 2: especially last year due to an issue with a particular
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  Speaker 2: dog walker, and we've been very aware of her for
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  Speaker 2: quite a long time. We also tried to get to
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  Speaker 2: stop doing what she was doing and then unfortunately it
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  Speaker 2: just went the wrong way. But yeah, there's been a
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  Speaker 2: lot of negative feedback. Realistically, though, the actual feed that
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  Speaker 2: council has gotten is so much left.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So if the council looked at easing the rules
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  Speaker 1: for professional dog walkers, what would you like to see?
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  Speaker 1: What would help?
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  Speaker 2: So we're pushing for a licensing system. We think it
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  Speaker 2: would have a lot a much better effect. Basically, any
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  Speaker 2: kind of limit it ignores the real situation. Walking multiple
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  Speaker 2: dogs requires training for both handlers and dogs and the
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  Speaker 2: establishment of processes and safety and so that we can
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  Speaker 2: create a quality service.
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  Speaker 1: Right Yeah, I mean, I agree, I agree with you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not a dog owner, but I'm out and about
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  Speaker 1: walking around a lot and i'd like to know that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, whoever's got fourteen dogs knows what they're doing,
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  Speaker 1: right yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly that. And so with a licensing system, we
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  Speaker 2: would actually be able to monitor those dog walkers. We
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  Speaker 2: might be able to put them a certification system. We
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  Speaker 2: might be able to ensure that they have a certain
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  Speaker 2: level of dog first aid, and I M sure they
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  Speaker 2: actually have control of their dogs, and if they don't,
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  Speaker 2: we can take those licenses off them and they can
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  Speaker 2: stop operating.
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  Speaker 1: Oh sounds good. Thanks so much for your input, Cassie
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate that. That was Cassie. Jeffries, a dog walker
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  Speaker 1: from the Professional Dog Walkers Association, can to hear what
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  Speaker 1: you think about this. Wherever you are, is there a
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  Speaker 1: problem with dogs? Would you like to see more restrictions
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  Speaker 1: on dogs where they can go, how many dogs a
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  Speaker 1: dog walker can take with them. I think the council's
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  Speaker 1: heading in the right direction here, but I think you
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  Speaker 1: are say you've got to be really careful that you're
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  Speaker 1: not penalizing all those people who know what they're doing
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  Speaker 1: and are really responsible dog owners. For more from early
• 3:56
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• 3:59
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