Walking the Dog: An Urban Ethnography of Owners and their Dogs in the Glebe (Where Can 'Lassie' 'Go?' Territoriality and Contested Spaces).

This paper examines the ways in which dogs and their owners interact in the Glebe, a small upscale neighborhood in the centre of Ottawa. Using participant observation and autoethnography, the paper documents my arrival with my dog in this new neighborhood, and our adventures good and bad. Issues such as contested use of territory, along with an examination of stratified layers of legislation and local, more personal views on dogs, are combined to provide a picture of a society in transition and partition, particularly with regards to public land and park use. Competing interest groups include cyclists, young families, seniors and those who believe dogs should be neither seen nor heard. The paper shows that dogs are 'lightning rods' for different levels of public opinion, which are manifestly concerned with animals but latently more involved with human socialization, with governance of the neighborhood, and with allocation of natural resources in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]