The Auburn City Council's plan to adopt a tougher dog ordinance makes sense as a concept, but it's important that the council and city staff are careful to make sure their actions address the real problems.

We support changes to the ordinance to deal with an increase in dangerous, uncontrolled dogs in the city. But we worry about blanket policies that ultimately could punish responsible dog owners.

That's the key with any dog ordinance. Rather than target specific breeds or even a specific number of dogs, a strong ordinance would zero in on the root of the problem - irresponsible dog owners.

Owners who let their dogs run freely are irresponsible. Owners who train their dogs to be vicious toward all other living creatures, including people, are irresponsible. Owners who fail to clean up after their dogs are irresponsible.

Any ordinance should target those types of owners.

The bigger key, however, to a dog ordinance is enforcement. If the city is unable to cite people who violate the new code, it won't make a bit of difference.

We hope the council's discussions on this matter include careful consideration of the enforcement aspect. We've heard in the past that the city's animal control resources are spread thin, as is the police department and codes office.

Take a read on the existing dog ordinance, which is available on the city's Web site. It sets some fairly straight-forward rules that clearly were not being followed in many of the cases that generated this current attempt to revamp the law.

That makes us wonder if the city is equipped to deal with tougher rules for dogs. If it's not, the result could be the opposite of what it intended. Responsible dog owners will most certainly give up certain freedoms in order to abide by the new code, while the irresponsible owners will just continue doing what they have always done.