Home Organizations & Associations Canada Post Canada Post employees require safety around dogs

Canada Post employees require safety around dogs

July 12, 2021

dog, leash — Door-dash incidents can be avoided by keeping your dog on a leash before opening the door. [web]

BC 2024 Provincial Election news analysis

Monday July 12, 2021 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated July 14 & 15, 2021]

by Jalen Codrington | Island Social Trends | Updated by Editor: Mary P Brooke

These are the ‘dog days of summer’, and again this year Canada Post is asking for customer assistance in keeping its employees safe.

They estimate that over a third of the households serviced by Canada Post have dogs. Those canines are in communities where letter carriers are out delivering mail and parcels. In summer months, many owners are also home, with dogs more present at the door or in the yard.

“As much as we love our canine pets, they are protective of their home and their family, and it’s impossible for delivery agents to know how any dog will react when they approach your home to deliver the mail,” the corporation stated in a news release to the Victoria-area media today July 12.

Dog incidents can be serious:

Canada Post, community mailbox — If a postal worker is at a Canada Post community mailbox, physical distancing of 2 metres is to be maintained as COVID-19 continues.

“Dog incidents can range from encounters with threatening dogs to being attacked and bitten,” says Canada Post.

Canada Post this week reports 600 to 800 incidents between dogs and their employees on an annual basis, though in 2019 that jumped to 1,000 incidents. During the pandemic in 2020 that dropped a bit to 900 recorded incidents, said Canada Post in a direct statement to Island Social Trends today.

To help avoid door-dash incidents, they ask customers to curb this number by keeping dogs behind closed doors while employees are working in the neighbourhood.

Incidents between dogs and Canada Post employees tend to be more frequent during the warmer months when people and children are more apt to be at home, says Nicole Lecompte, Media Relations, Canada Post.

Keep your dog back from postal workers:

“Do not open the door during deliveries or allow your dog to approach our employees while they are out in the community. This makes it difficult to adhere to physical distancing when owners need to retrieve their dogs, and it increases the risk of dog bites. A way to prevent your dog from approaching our employees is to keep them in another room at the time of the delivery,” says Canada Post.

Letter carriers also report seeing dogs roaming free in the neighbourhoods, which can lead to further anxiety.

Canada Post would also like to remind customers that even as COVID restrictions ease, the pandemic is not over. Customers should maintain a two-metre distance from carriers at the door, community mailbox, apartment mail room, or anywhere else where mail is being handled or delivered.

Tips for dog owners:

To help keep Canada Post employees safe, here are some tips offered by Canada Post:

Be careful when answering the door, so your dog does not slip out.
Keep them in another room at the time of delivery.
Keep dogs inside, in a fenced yard, or tied up far from the front door or mailbox.
Keep front doors and fence gates closed.
Keep dogs away from the screen door, even if it is locked.
Do not allow your dog to approach our employees while they are out in the community.