Caving Dogs
- Thread starter Amy
- Start date
Duncan Price
Active member
We were assisted by Pasha the cave diving digging dog at our excavations at First Feeder in Cheddar. She would jump into the resurgence and pick up at rock and trot over to the spoil heap and drop it there.
cooleycr
Active member
So there are lots of dogs that are happy to go caving, I see that now, I have only once come across a dog in a cave (well actually it was in a First World War tunnel up in the Italian Dolomites) and that was having fun...
So the question begs, are caving dog owners actually more responsible than surface walking dog owners?
I wonder that when the inevitable happens and it needs to, ahem, go to the toilet, what happens to the resulting output?
I assume that because I have never seen bags of dog eggs hanging from stal in caves that the owners take them home, unlike some surface walkers who could learn something... :-\
So the question begs, are caving dog owners actually more responsible than surface walking dog owners?
I wonder that when the inevitable happens and it needs to, ahem, go to the toilet, what happens to the resulting output?
I assume that because I have never seen bags of dog eggs hanging from stal in caves that the owners take them home, unlike some surface walkers who could learn something... :-\
Maj
Active member
I gather from a caving dog's owner the dogs treat it as being indoors.
Although I wonder if the same applies if entering a cave at night or if the entrance was a very large airy space.
Regarding bags of s**t down caves.
A few months ago two of us visited Star Shaft (28m entrance shaft) on Mendip, and were surprised to find a number of doggy do bags down there. Some were 25m along the horizontal passage leading from the bottom of the entrance shaft. There was also one bag on a ledge down the second pitch.
After a little more thought we realized that the bags had been dropped in through the padlock access hole in the entrance lid by a surface dog walker
. Some of the bags had then floated further in during very high water levels and had become beached at various points as the water level slowly dropped. We took out (very carefully :yucky: ) about a dozen bags.
To some irresponsible dog owners, out of sight out of mind not my problem.
Maj.
Although I wonder if the same applies if entering a cave at night or if the entrance was a very large airy space.
Regarding bags of s**t down caves.
A few months ago two of us visited Star Shaft (28m entrance shaft) on Mendip, and were surprised to find a number of doggy do bags down there. Some were 25m along the horizontal passage leading from the bottom of the entrance shaft. There was also one bag on a ledge down the second pitch.
After a little more thought we realized that the bags had been dropped in through the padlock access hole in the entrance lid by a surface dog walker
. Some of the bags had then floated further in during very high water levels and had become beached at various points as the water level slowly dropped. We took out (very carefully :yucky: ) about a dozen bags.To some irresponsible dog owners, out of sight out of mind not my problem.
Maj.
Katie
Active member
Can't speak for other dogs but my caving dog seems to regard caves as indoors and doesn't go.
I have however caved over a few human poos - Roger Kirk cave and Lower Cales dales come immediately to mind, but there have been more. I presume it was walkers who were caught short and thought a cave entrance was a good hiding spot? Maybe hikers should carry poo bags too ;-)
Poo bags dropped down a cave entrance is grim - well done you Maj for bringing them out!
I have however caved over a few human poos - Roger Kirk cave and Lower Cales dales come immediately to mind, but there have been more. I presume it was walkers who were caught short and thought a cave entrance was a good hiding spot? Maybe hikers should carry poo bags too ;-)
Poo bags dropped down a cave entrance is grim - well done you Maj for bringing them out!
Hmmmm . . . I once set off to go to Cape Kennedy in Lancaster Hole but at the tope of the fixed ladder ? Canuk Climb, is it? ? I turned left instead of right, and after a few metres stuck my hand into a pile of shit. For those who've never been there, this is old, abandoned phreatic stuff, with hardly a drop of water, so cleaning it off was something of a problem; furthermore, there is dried mud and sand in abundance, so ? acknowledging that 'when you've gotta go, you've gotta go' ? the least they could have done was bury it.
