On the banks of the Arve, a free pack that sets a good example for humans
A huge playground, between meadow and pebble beach. Two hours of reportage in wandering immersion with five dogs and their master of the day. What happiness.
Walk along the Arve, below the Vessy Sports Center, for Stéphane Boulanger and his pack.
Nicolas DUPRAZ
No summer job or student job. It is with a professional walker that the appointment was fixed, early in the morning, this Saturday of July, in the sector of Vessy. Walker of what? Of dogs. Readers who don’t have one, move on. This series which begins is told at both ends of the leash. Of men and beasts. Women too. Many of them practice it as a profession or aspire to do so one day.
His name is Stéphane Boulanger and he comes from the restaurant business. For eight years now, he has been a full-time “dog walker”, summer and winter alike, intensive outdoor activities, pack outings punctuate his daily life, he works without breaks and, moreover, he earns a better living than before.
We alternate shaded path and open ground. Don’t forget to play. The group is motivated. Australian Shepherds, Labradors, crossbreeds, not to mention the short-haired Chihuahua, who wants to do “just the same” as the big dogs.
Nicolas DUPRAZ
Junction at 7:45 a.m. on the banks of the Arve. The heat wave obliges to advance the schedule. “We walk around in the fresh air, always having a water point nearby”, says Stéphane by way of a welcome word. The voice wide awake. His pickup tour starts an hour early. “I walk an average of 15 kilometers a day and I do about sixty kilometers with my vehicle.”
Approved, the vehicle. Good size crates in the back, securely stowed, waterproof and non-slip cage mats. Dog transport in the rules. Stéphane ticks all the boxes of the Consumer and Veterinary Affairs Department (SCAV), he is on the list of some 50 people authorized to carry out the activity of dog walkers on Geneva territory, as soon as one drives ” more than three dogs, including his own canines”.
Refreshing swim for the Australian Shepherd, the first in the water.
Nicolas DUPRAZ
Stéphane’s dog is an Appenzell cattle dog, he – she, it’s a female, first name “Hindi” – stayed at home after his private walk. Places are expensive in the declared pack. “The demand is strong, in fact, I had to make up my mind to put together a waiting list”, explains our multiple but indivisible leash specialist.
You have to show your credentials: “I only accept compatible and balanced dogs. I sort the candidates, by testing them in the long run, I observe their behavior, I select, so as to ensure safety between congeners.
The smallest of the band never let himself get off the hook. He is of all terrains, attentive and obedient.
Nicolas DUPRAZ
Incidentally, his, for protection. Preventing fights that end in biting is an art. Particularly in this rather hybrid environment, to say the least, where you see everything: dogs in packs, joggers, walkers with poles, vitamin-packed cyclists with electric assistance, all of this together by simply approaching the Arve. “The ground is stumbling in places, roots, dead wood, people sometimes tend to blame our dogs for their fall.”
A shame, when one observes for a moment the mastery of this walk in detached mode. The beasts know each other. Positive emulation. The group is tight. The two Australian Shepherds (Eran and Swen) play pacemakers, Balu and Ninette (a female Labrador and a cross) followed just behind, and Siamthe miniature companion, of the short-haired chihuahua breed, holds its rank wonderfully in a category which, however, is not its own.
Return to the car park. End of the walk. We put the leashes back on for the last 100 meters, before returning to traffic.
Nicolas DUPRAZ
If we want to cite for example a harmonious pack, in one voice, without accompanied leashes, of its driver, who anticipates, frames and animates this rewarding outing for 90 minutes.
The ultimate dream of the walker lies in this confidence: “I sometimes vary the routes, take another path, in order to check that the dogs are indeed watching me in turn. The roles are reversed. It’s the pack on the loose that brings its leader back to the parking lot. Thank you for this inaugural and remarkable walk.
A transport vehicle with approved equipment. Individual cages for a pack of five dogs. Not to mention the first aid kit (disinfectant for wounds, fabric strips and tick tweezers).
Nicolas DUPRAZ
Two hours of walking immersion full of teaching. Our interlocutor draws on an old know-how, refreshed by awareness courses and regular exchanges with, in particular, canine educators specialized in rehabilitation (that of difficult dogs who put their owners “in apnea”).
“I was a dog driver in the Air Force, during my year in the army, at the Saint-Dizier air base, in Haute-Marne”, says Stéphane Boulanger, trained in demanding breeds, shepherd German and Malinois, working dogs par excellence.
Vessy is calmer, even if it happens that its plateau is flown over by a Puma helicopter in the night search for people who have disappeared. Leaving at five and returning at four precisely evokes the fears aroused by the professional of the canine pack.
“There are a lot of currents and whirlpools in the river”, underlines the reasonable game specialist, before adding: “Some throw the ball or the stick 10 meters from the shore. It is absurd and often dangerous. The dog eventually wears out. The risk of drowning, carried away by the flow, is very real.” Not to mention hypothermia, in water that descends from the mountain and does not exceed 12 degrees at the Bout-du-Monde.
On-the-fly advice is often misunderstood. “I gave up, I’m walking away from the stage.” The edges of the Arve, and its very quoted left bank, become philosophical. You learn a lot about human nature here. And on the striking shortcomings in the overall management of public space.
Only one poop bag dispenser for miles around. And it’s out of stock more often than not. Vessy deserves better in terms of useful equipment for everyone.
Nicolas DUPRAZ
A single caninette dispenser in the entire sector. And it is empty. This is a poor estimate of canine attendance in this semi-countryside area where dogs have the right to frolic in complete freedom. There are so many of them in the coolest hours of the day – between 6 and 9 a.m. – that one sometimes has the impression, at the crossing of two packs, that the humans are there only to keep them company.
To bring some order to the outdoor categories, which have to coexist with each other despite the different practices, it would be useful to mark out the circuits taken by qualifying them. In short, to put one or two summary panels, just to lower the sound level of the insults.
A dog walker at his place of work and well surrounded. The profession of Stéphane Boulanger. “I am 54 years old this year. I hope to work well until I am 70, even if it means slowing down the pace of my outings a little…”
Nicolas DUPRAZ
Honest citizens have asked for it. It is being studied by our cantonal authorities. No need to meet in an advisory committee to add poop bags and pictograms that say what can be done. One of them might even feature a hobby drone.
These drones also fly in packs. Their noise is certainly not that of a Rafale taking off. But they can panic dogs. “One morning I saw about twenty canines completely stressed by the hovering flight of one of its machines”, testifies a canine educator met by chance. His on-board music is more gentle and pacifying, Bob Marley and The Wailers: “I called my own dog ‘Ziggy.’
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