This advice is for dog lovers who also love the Heath! Did you know that the Heath has millions of dog visits per year? At a dog swimming pond in summer, we have counted over 100 dogs swimming in a single hour. These visits to the Heath are highly beneficial to dog health, and to our own. For many of us they mean healthy exercise and time in nature.
Through no fault of their own, dogs can harm nature on the Heath and reduce its benefits to them and to us. Every season on our nature boards we will share different ways in which you can be a Nature-Friendly Dog Walker. Here are our messages with more detail and helpful tips on nature-friendly dog walking.
Keep your dog out of dense vegetation in Spring.
From March to July, over fifty kinds of bird nest on the Heath, many in low, dense vegetation in woodland and field margins. Please keep your dog out of patches of holly and brambly scrub, so that they do not disturb nesting and feeding birds and hedgehogs. If your dog is well trained and responds to basic recall this should be easy. There are tips for recall training at the end of this page. Otherwise, please put your dog on a lead in these areas.
Be very careful when letting your dog swim
Dog swimming is very popular. Specific dog swimming areas were created years ago to reduce tragic incidents where dogs attack, or are attacked by, waterfowl.
In the past year, a serious problem with dog flea treatments has been discovered on the Heath. Spot-on treatments for fleas are powerful poisons that wash off into our ponds and affect pondlife like fish and dragonflies. Through no fault of their own, dogs are causing serious pesticide pollution.
Dog swimming ponds on the Heath now have levels of these pesticides as much as ten times that considered safe for nature. We are working to find the best way to remove this risk. Meanwhile, please consult this advice, and talk to your vet about alternatives to spot-on treatments, if you regularly take your dog to the Heath.
Remember to only swim your dogs in the three designated ponds and strictly within the floating barriers there. This will limit both poisoning of the ponds and risks to waterfowl. Finally, when there is a blue-green algae outbreak on our ponds, signs will go up to keep your dog out. This is important. The toxins from these microscopic plants can seriously harm your dog.
Many songbirds collect dog fur in Spring to line their nests. Scientific studies show that, if this fur has spot-on flea pesticides, it may kill eggs and chicks. If you are concerned about this impact on wild birds, you may wish to consult your vet on alternatives to spot-on flea and tick treatments.
Keep your dog on paths in woodland
Scientific studies on the Heath have shown that the floor of its woodland is used by special Heath species like thrushes and hedgehogs which are disturbed by dogs. For instance, a study using camera traps has shown that hedgehogs, which forage mostly at night, reduce their activity near dawn and dusk in areas with high dog activity.
We are concerned that, by squeezing wildlife into smaller parts of the Heath, we may be limiting their ability to forage and feed. If your dog is well-trained in basic recall, it should be easy to keep her or him in sight and on paths. If not, please consider using a lead.
Don’t let your dog frighten wildlife or dig in meadows
Dogs love to play and run on grass and chasing pigeons in city parks is fairly harmless. But Heath meadows are home to more sensitive and rare wildlife, like Green Woodpecker, Stock Dove, Rabbit and Grass Snake. When walking your dog on Heath meadows, please discourage it from chasing and disturbing wildlife.
Heath meadows are also home to rare plants and less visible wildlife like Yellow Meadow Ants, which make the mounds you see in many fields, and which are the special food of Green Woodpeckers. When dogs dig in meadows, particularly in these ant hills, they damage these habitats.
Train your dog for walking in nature
If you have not done so already, why not train your dog to recall to a cue? Then you can successfully call him or her back if they go into areas where they may disturb wildlife. Here are some tips from Dean Ashton, The London Dog Trainer who also coordinates the Hampstead Heath Birders WhatsApp group.
Set aside a little time every day to condition the value of your dog’s recall cue. Simply say “Come” (ONCE) and reward your dog with a very tasty tidbit treat. Do 10/15 reps per session, always providing a treat. “Come = treat x 10/15. Aim to reach 2000 reps in daily sets of 10/15 over the next few months.
Do this in different contexts, start in a range of environments with few distractions, like at home, and then moving gradually into more distracting environments, building up to areas like the Heath.
Go slowly, with lots of breaks. And always reinforce “Come”. You will find that, with enough reasons to return to you when he or she hears your cue, your dog will become conditioned to recall. And remember – always think about the behaviour you want, not the behaviour you don’t want! Enjoy the process, do the work, and the rest will follow.
Prepared by Jeff Waage (Heath & Hampstead Society)
and Dean Ashton (https://www.thelondondogtrainer.co.uk/)
