Saturday 11th November 2006

Well the Pet Dogs Democratic Party is going to have more work to do than I had envisaged. I decided to conduct a survey amongst the other dogs staying here, asking them about everything from what they are allowed to do at home to what they enjoy doing in their spare time and what were their main concerns. I typed it all out on the computer and printed it out and then started going round the other dogs to ask them to fill it in. It turns out that many dogs can’t actually read and write. I was shocked. It seems the first priority must be to have freely available education for all dogs regardless of their ability to pay for it. Many had been to training schools but despondently explained that all these had set out to do was teach them to obey rather than any of the tools they needed to be able to think for themselves. It is no wonder more of them have not signed up for membership, they didn’t know anything about it. In the end I held a little meeting and explained that the PDDP was there to work for better conditions for them, less social exclusion, equality and all the usual bits and pieces. One or two of them sloped off saying they weren’t sure if their owners would like them being part of something so radical, but the others listened all the way through. I did get a little depressed when a Jack Russell wouldn’t stop bouncing up and down asking whether it would mean he would get free dog biscuits. A couple of the brighter ones seemed to get the point and said they would like to work with me on it, so it wasn’t all bad. We put the survey off until later today and I said I would go round them individually and ask them the questions.