aagh wrong key again, have moved my keyboard and keep hitting enter by mistake... sorry...

"Both of these suggestions will stop the presence of dogs worrying those who do not wish their weekend spoiled by other people's love of dogs. To me they seem eminently reasonable suggestions with an eminently reasonable charge. "

to me they don't seem eminently reasonable because I think the risk of something bad happening is pretty small and you are suggesting placing a massive restriction on dog owners. Some of your objections to dogs seem to be down to annoyance factors rather than actual danger factors, and I don't think its fair to single out one group (dog owners) for annoying things, when you don't seem to want to place similar restrictions on other annoying things.

Your segregated areas suggestion sounds so restricted that actually anybody who took a dog to a festival with that set up may as well not be there - in which case you may as well go for your total ban option.

Fair enough to have some restrictions in place to try and minimise risks of actual injury, but I think I agree with others here who don't want to live in a risk free society. It sounds like you have been particularly unlucky with dog incidents in your past Dave - for which you have my sympathies. But in my own experience and that of my friends I have never come across a single incident at a festival like the ones you have described which does make me think that such things are thankfully pretty rare.

(Btw, dogs with muddy feet jumping up are not, to me, in the same category as being bitten. Mud is an annoyance to be sure. The b****rd who smeared coleslaw on my tent at a festival a few years back was a massive annoyance too. Ban coleslaw at festivals!!)