Guernsey Post working with dog owners for safer rounds
POSTAL workers have told of incidents where they have been victims of dog attacks.
As the team continues to wind down after their busiest period of the year, they told the Guernsey Press of various incidents which led to Guernsey Post sending leaflets to all homes to encourage better control of dogs or to put up signs to warn postal workers about the presence of a potentially unfriendly dog.
It said that there had been four bites and 53 ‘near misses’ in the past few months.
Postal worker Waritsara Khongyim said she loved dogs, but was now left on edge when she heard a bark after some difficult experiences.
Her worst one was on a driveway.
‘Usually the dog would be inside, but on this particular day as the gate closed the dog ran out, it was large dog and it started lunging at me,’ she said.
‘I held the parcel in front of me and tried to calm it down, but he kept lunging at me and had my hand.
‘In panic I tried to pull my hand out of its mouth and tried to walk backwards to the van, but it did damage my hand. Because he was so big, I just thought that there was no way I was getting out of this situation.’
The owner came out, apologised and bandaged her up.
‘I was in so much shock,’ she said.
Part of the campaign is to work with dog and property owners to make things safer for the postie and the dog.
‘There is some complacency from some dog owners and some don’t take accept the blame, perhaps they think that the worst will happen to the dog,’ said postie Danny Vennard.
‘The worst one I had wasn’t even on the dog owner’s property where there’s a safe place set up, but I went next door and the dog got into the neighbour’s driveway.
‘It was very aggressive.
‘I was trying to hold the mail in the way, but it started pushing me back.
‘I was shouting for the owners, but it pushed me back into the road and I fell over a wall about 5ft into loads of brambles.
‘I was cut and bruised and twisted my back.’
But he said that such incidents were rare and some dogs were happy to see a postal delivery.
Mr Vennard said he also had a couple on his round who got a new dog and asked if he would spend a few minutes meeting the animal, so it got used to posties and their fleeting visits to the house.
In most incidents, the bite does not happen at the door, but when the postal worker is in the driveway.
Darren Tourtel has been bitten twice in the same type of incident.
‘Owners open the door and try to hold the dog back with their foot, the dog escapes and as you walk back to the van they bite the back of your leg. That’s happened twice,’ he said.
‘One of my worst experiences was a location where we know there is a particularly bad dog.
‘You always hear the dog bark and he’ll come out, then one day there was no barking, but as I went to deliver the parcel the dog was running full speed at me.
‘The sliding door to my van was open so I jumped inside and hit my head on the frame of the door.’
He added that posties can tell how the situation will be based on how some dogs are barking at the window.
Boxes outside the front door would make a big difference.
‘If I’m going to a new place I don’t know, I rattle the gate, whistle, cough, just making sounds to see if there’s any barking or reaction,’ he said.
‘Some dogs bark and they’re absolutely fine, whereas others are not so great.
‘And whenever I start to learn a new round I’ll ask another postie what the dog situation is like.’
If an incident happens with a dog on a round, posties file a ‘near miss’ report, and management seek to ensure that it does not happen again.
If there is an attack, then Guernsey Post may stop delivering to the address.
Some post is marked to identify that there is a dog at the property, and staff undergo dog awareness training with a dog behaviourist.
