You know what my greatest pet peeve is? It’s the dogs tearing up the beautiful, green moss carpets in our remaining natural areas, and digging up the wildflowers that grow best in their spongy, water retaining carpets, while they provide a partial barrier to the weeds better adapted to the churned, plowed soils, of agriculture, and of dog claws. For the last 20 years I have been thinking about how I might influence dog owners to keep their dogs on a short leash, and on the trails, to protect our remaining forest floor communities, and to protect some of the plants barely still surviving in our urban parks. I thought about posters showing the damage (I never laid out or posted), and about other methods. I tried different things. I tried showing some the rare plants that dogs trampled. It was helpful in one case, but I didn’t find I could engage many dog owners that way. Only recently I realized that a jingle, the dog owners would hear, and not be able to get out of their heads might be more effective than any of my other ideas or attempts.
We love our dogs!
Are you a dog owner, about to let your dog off trail on one of our last places in your area with an intact forest floor community, with its beautiful green moss carpets, and the surviving wildflowers there that grow best in that moss? Before you let him out on that long leash, or no leash, think of this question:
“What are dog claws made for?”
Now if you are old enough to remember Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walking”, sing the following, to the tune of that song:
“Those claws are made for digging,
and that’s just what they do,
they dig-up the green moss carpets,
and the wildflowers too …dah doo dah do”
Are you one of the people that loves the remaining natural wealth of species and natural beauty of a local park? Do you see a dog owner with their dog off trail, on a long leash or no leash? Why not ask them, (in a good humored manner): Do you know what dog claws are made for?” Then you might sing the above song to them, as an answer, also in a good humored manner. (It will be better heard that way.) If you don’t want to sing the lyrics to them? Just sing the tune, full of spirit, to yourself, as you pass by each other: “Doo, doot, doo-doo, dooo doo-doo…” They can learn the words from others, or from posters.
Why not spread the word? This could be posted anywhere it could be seen, anywhere in America, (Is Nancy Sinatra known in any other country?), from park bulletin boards to electronic media, and spread, by anyone who wants to protect our remaining, natural, forest floor communitites, with their wealth of species, and natural beauty. Here is a printable poster version for those park bulletin boards!
And don’t forget to teach the kids and their teachers this song! The kids are the key to spreading the word, and teaching the adult generation!
Especially you Seattleites, ever heard of “Stinky Bob geraniums”? While the name “Herb Robert” was the best known English name for it,
G. D. Carr
when I learned it, that name “Stinky Bob” for Geranium robertianum had not been widely used before I dressed up as the devil one Halloween, and led nature walks where, using my best Bela Lugosi Dracula voice, I told the kids and parents, “I am the devil, here to show you some of my favorite plants.” Then when I got to Geranium robertianum (a ubiquitous weed), I got the kids and parents in a half circle, and took the geranium that I had crushed a bit, to get its strong smell out better, “Who dares to smell the stench of Stinky Bob?” I then put the geranium close enough for them to move their heads next to, and smell it, if they dared, while moving it in a circle, so everyone who dared could come a bit closer to smell it. The kids reportedly talked about this act for years!
Then, over the following 10 years, while regularly leading nature walks for kids from elementary school from around the metropolitan area, I just showed every school kid on these walks, along with their teachers and parents, the geranium, and then after putting them in a half-circle, with the same Bela Lugosi voice, did the same “Who dares to smell the stench of “Stinky Bob” act. The kids must have all then seen the weed at home, and excitedly told their parents that the plant was “Stinky Bob”. Maybe some teachers taught more students too! Now, ask anyone in Seattle the name of that weed, and most, who know it, will say “Stinky Bob”!
