To even the casual observer, it seems like there are dogs everywhere on campus -- running on the Green, sleeping on the steps of Thayer Dining Hall and sitting alongside students during classes.
Almost all of the College's 15 fraternities have dogs, and many fraternity brothers said they liked the idea of having the canines around.
"Dogs provide us with joy," said Alpha Delta fraternity brother Douglas Vandenberg '97.
AD owns four dogs -- Harry, Jake, Rosie and Vic -- and they can be seen regularly lounging in front of AD's house, tails wagging.
Rosie, a shepherd-retriever mix, is known as the "matriarch" of the house. According to Vandenberg, about three years ago, Rosie cornered a thief who had broken into the house.
"If Rosie were a woman, I'd marry her," he said. "Dogs should be everywhere."
But some people see problems with having dogs "everywhere."
"The problem is the dogs on campus have gotten to the point where they are left free to roam," Captain Chris O'Connor of the Hanover Police Department said.
O'Connor said there has been a substantial increase in the number of animal complaints on campus in the last few years, especially reports of dogs chasing joggers and bicyclists.
"They start to group together in packs," O'Connor said.
Last year the College extended its ban on pets in residence halls to include College-owned Greek houses.
Bernard Haskell, assistant director of the residential operations, said last year that animals have been a "constant problem" on campus. He said postal carriers no longer delivered mail to the 12 Greek houses on Webster Avenue because they had been harassed by packs of dogs.
Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia, who organized the committee that recommended the ban on pets in College-owned buildings, said there was a large problem with dogs going wherever they wanted.
Edward Hall '96, a brother at Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, said he disagreed with the College's stand on dogs.
"It's unbelievable that they impose restrictions on houses owned by the College," he said.
Hall's poodle, Dixie, lives at Sig Ep. Hall said he used to take Dixie to class with him, "but she would drive all the big golden retrievers wild."
Another notable dog on campus is Tucker, owned by Nicholas Kendrick '97 of Psi Upsilon fraternity.
Tucker gets excited at times, Kendrick said, especially when the Baker Library bells play the "Raiders March," the theme song from "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Tucker also loves to wander around, "getting into trouble," Kendrick said. Last week, Tucker had to be picked up from the pound.
Phi Delta Alpha fraternity's dog Buddy is immediately recognizable by the natural "mohawk" on his forehead.
Reid Veto '96 described Buddy as "an outdoorsy type who likes to go on hikes." Veto said Buddy is a government major, based on all the time the dog has spent in classes in the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences.
About six dogs can usually be found at the crew boathouse, including lightweight crew Coach Christopher Schmidt's dalmatian, Katie. On sunny days, Katie joins Schmidt at crew practice out on the river.
Scmidt said dogs are "one of the great things about Dartmouth."
But he said that students should not be allowed to have pets on campus because they do not have enough time to look after them.
