Dog in the gamezone?

[son of dan]

Barney has less brains than a 0.2 BB.  He would probably poop himself if someone let off a pyro.

imagine barneys reaction from that one pyro that went off next to me in my last game day

my ears still ring because of it ?

 

[Dan Robinson]

That would actually be cruel for any dog - their ears are far more sensitive than ours.  

Anyway - it's your bedtime.... Scoot.

 

[Madhouse]

That'll be Eric the dog at Rift. There's a lot of love for him (marshals and players) and heaven forbid anyone that points a pew at him, fire at him and I'd fully expect your body to never be found and everyone to deny you were ever there.

Having played there he's a fantastically well behaved cocker and while he may be in the gamezone he's always out of the way, in fact I've never seen him once a game's started. His owner's a great bloke too (typical that I can remember the dog's name but not his!) and he'd certainly not want his dog to come to any harm.

Most of us pamper our pets, but it's a gun dog and if it was really working then it'd be in loads more danger. 

I'm more than fine with Eric the marshal. Rift's a great site too so if you're avoiding it because of Eric then it's your loss because you're missing out on some great game days and you don't get to meet Eric and the rest of the (human) marshals.

I wish my cocker was as well behaved.

 

[Tommikka]

AWA had a spate of dog walkers walking happily through the game zone even though there was 70 heavily armed blokes lobbing pyro's and going brrrrt pew pew.  You'd have thought the numerous signs around the place would also have been a clue not to wander in.  Luckily nothing/body got shot that wasn't paying to be so.

Purely on the dog situation, hopefully they have a justified case to allow it in the game zone plus all the relevant risk assessments and insurance in place if they are ever inspected or the dog is reported in the game zone

Councils and the RSPCA don’t have much of a sense of humour where animal welfare is concerned 

For dog walkers etc when we first ran an event at Ambush Alton and conducted the initial site walk going back across the full site into old zones and the areas between zones the common dog walker / rambling routes were pointed out to us, even with no right of way.

We set off a publicity campaign between us and the site to make the locals aware and put up numerous signs around the paths etc to warn off the date and timings that gameplay will be taking place across the wider site

All was going smoothly until I took a radio call from a marshal who had discovered not only a member of the public walking through, but they decided to follow the noise and walk up to an active firefight to get a better view

On the opposite extreme at Camouflage Bournemouth we put out extra boundary tapes in some areas - which was colour coded for different ‘categories’ of territory.

A ghillie crawled off to find a nice spot and kept circling away from groups of players. He didn’t look up at the boundary tapes, came to a fence and turned.

He eventually found himself at the boundary and roadside - and chose to walk up the road trying to sneak back in undetected through the car park

Cue Sunday morning traffic congestion near to the airport 

 

[Dan Robinson]

I wish my cocker was as well behaved.

This might be why I have an image of Eric being a service dog - my mate's Cocker, whilst adorable, is as thick as two short planks cut in half and nailed together.  So dumb in fact that you can't rightly call him poorly behaved because he's two stupid to be judged LOL.

 

[Cannonfodder]

Councils and the RSPCA don’t have much of a sense of humour where animal welfare is concerned 

Righty so.

In my experience it's horse riders who are the worst. We used to have them trying to ride through site on more than one occasion (despite there being no public right of way) at my old site and the riders couldn't understand how loud bangs and the horse potentially getting shot could ruin their day. It was only when threatened with us calling the police they would leave

 

[Defender90]

In my experience all the airsofters I've met loved dogs and when I take my labrador into the safe zone everyone wants to stroke him, so I don't think anyone would hurt the dog deliberately.

But in my experience many airsofers have little idea of gun safety and anyway in game all bets are off as it's spray and pray in any case, there's a high chance of the dog getting hit accidentally. Even assuming the dog is wearing actual dog eyepro as opposed to ill fitting human ones, there's still the chance of the dog's highly sensitive nose getting hit. It's not cruel per se to do this but it is neglect and frankly the marshall should have more common sense, not to say empathy.

As to the horse riders, that is very stupid indeed. The thing is that, as we are a much richer society than ever, while at the same time having a predominantly urban/suburban mentality, there are more clueless people with horses than ever, hence also their not apparently understanding the basic rural concept of rights of way.

Anyhoo I'm tempted to say that's likely to get sorted out via a Darwin Award situation as equestrianism is a super risky activity at the best of times, add in the aforementioned loud bangs and... Well Dobbin doesn't like sudden, noisy surprises and doesn't react well.