Do you let your dog(s) off leash....

I'm not sure actually. I don't know what the leash law is where I walk my dogs. I don't see any postings either way. But people walk their dogs all the time in those fields at the park without a leash. So far my dogs have never gone up to anyone (we do lots of recall training) and no other dogs I've seen there have gone up to me. It's pretty much known that it's not a dog park and you need to keep to yourself.

No, I don't. There are plenty of dog parks around where I can let Lucy off leash to run. Everywhere else (parks, hiking trails, etc) are on leash only, and I respect that. I'm grateful dogs are allowed at all! I don't take her to school fields at all, as those are no-dogs-allowed zones.

I let Riley off alot, but it depended where. If we went to our main walking park then no. Too many animals and people. A different walking park that was very quiet, sometimes. My friend and I would take him and her shepards walking offleash next to a very quiet road with cornfields alot. At the beach when no one was around, etc. He was very good and very relilable off leash, but I just felt better and like a better owner in public with him on. It wasnt until he was over 5 that I let him offleash in non fenced areas.

Depends on the place, but yes, I have broken the rules to let my dogs off leash once the dog is reliable, won't approach people or other dogs, and in a location away from traffic and other people/animals.

Depends where.

Near a road? Never. It makes me cringe when people i know who have a) had dogs get hit before or b) don't have their dogs under control let their dogs run around in parks or on paths near roads.

In the "Nature Reserve" type areas or ones with lots of wild life? Only for pictures. She won't chase, but there's lots of deer in the river bottom and porcupines too. If a deer charged her she'd probably be killed, if a porcupine hit her she'd be VERY injured especially with her flat face I can just see her losing her eyes. There's also coyotes around here and they're very bold, Izzie would be an after dinner mint to them.

At the park by my house that has nice big fields away from roads that's pretty much considered an unofficial off lead park as long as dogs are under control. I usually go to a more secluded area of it to do heel/obedience work, will start tracking there in the spring maybe too! But I've also used it for play dates and ball too, there's a really nice little island that is awesome for taking the little dogs to play around on and no one goes there.

I do ALWAYS make sure Izzie is under control though, especially when other people are around. If someone comes walking toward us with a dog, I put her in a down stay and I go down on one knee by her.

Sometimes their toys have to be on a leash!

I probably have let him off-leash illegally, though not intentionally. If I know there is a leash law in the area I'm in, I will abide by it, but if it's not obviously posted and there aren't a lot of people around... I've been known to let him hike on rough trails off-leash.

I did kinda "loophole" one leash-law at our local park, though. The requirement is dogs must be leashed and the leash must be 6ft or less. I had Morgan on a 30ft training lead of to ourselves in the soccer fields, practicing stays and recalls. A park officer actually did stop to watch us. I'm guessing he was about to warn me that Morgan was supposed to be on a leash, then saw the mega-long leash AND the fact that my dog was clearly under control, so watched us for a bit and then left us alone.

Nia is always off leash at the park but it's not a dog park. There's leash laws all over the city.

When a dog we don't know comes into the park in our sight, we leash up. But honestly, we know 98% of the dogs that ever go to that park and they all know Nia and we have no problems.

I don't see how else to throw a ball halfway across the field on a leash...plus Nia doesn't bother other people and only says hi to dogs we know and they don't mind us saying hi.

Also other people's off leash dogs don't bother me in the slightest either unless they come over and trample all over Nia and Nia starts screaming.

I have no idea what the leash laws here are and nobody seems to care. Doom walks well on a leash but does even better off leash, so he usually is. He sits out in the front yard with us all the time while we smoke, but its our property so I don't think it matters. Bobsie and Piglet stay on leash though. Bobsie has wanderlust and I don't trust Piglet enough yet to try off leash.

No! I have high prey driven dogs that can run 35 miles per hour and snap a small dogs neck in an instant. My dogs will run at 35 mph and snap the neck of their prey. Just a few weeks ago, Spencer killed a stay cat on our property.

To allow my dogs off leash anywhere but my own land is highly irresponsible. They have awesome recalls and get to run loose on two acres, supervised. We do have a fenced area, too.

I hate, hate, hate out of control loose dogs that approach my leashed dogs. Spencer was bitten as a puppy by a lab and he still does not trust labs completely.

There are giant parks here in Ohio, immense fields of grass that are almost completely unused when it's not peak season. They say "no unleashed dogs". I am so sorely tempted to still take Eve there for some quality chuck-it time, but that would mean taking off the leash and violating that rule.

Frankly, I consider a well trained dog to be leashed at all times, but the law doesn't. I'm not sure what I'd wind up doing, since my dog isn't suitable to visit dog parks.

My dog is a service dog able to be offlead and responsive virtually anywhere in public. My concern isn't with a lack of response from her in a distracting environment, but that perhaps other people would see me and my dog and try to let their dogs off leash, too - with dangerous results.

Yup.

We go to many small woods around here, that have great hiking trails.

Neither bothers with people. and we are walking the whole time, its all trails, so not many places to just stop. Both are under voice control.

we also go to alot of unofficial dog parks. where people just know there is offleash dogs. If I see some one coming towards us with a dog, or not with a dog (or dog stuff such as a leash ect). i call them back and leash up.

There is no where around here to legally let them off. aside from the 4 dog parks in the 30mins area.

And 2 of those dog parks are in or on the border of the wooded trails we walk. so people leave the dog park, and continue to walk with offleash dogs on the trails.

Yeah.

The leash law doesn't really get enforced though unless there are complaints. That's been my experience, at least.

I only do it in empty areas though. I don't like, go to crowded parks and let my dogs loose.

Nope. Never off leash. Never will be unless it's during a trial or dog park. No need to for us. If they need some room to run outside of our yard, they get put on 30 foot leads. Kimma is the only one that I will let drag a long lead, and only when we are actively training (usually in an open field). If another dog comes near, she gets put in a down/stay and I will either go sit beside her or step on her lead (not that she tries to go anywhere, but just in case).

I've had too many annoying experiences with people that do not have control over their off leash dogs, and these dogs usually end up coming up to my guys. It really bugs me, especially having Pentti who is "dog selective" and Bubbles who is reactive (Kimma has gotten tons better with her reactivity, but she definitely doesn't appreciate being charged by random dogs). Now, if there's someone with their dog off leash and they have complete control, then I don't care - I just rarely see that at the parks I frequent....

Seeing as we practice agility at the park, definitely.
I have to plan when we go, though, because Kailey's not 100% with other dogs walking around her and other people like to come let their dogs play fetch or whatever else in the same field. (I think Denver has a law along the lines of 'it has to be on a six foot leash or completely under voice control.' Very few people who live in my neighborhood use leashes, though. They just clip them on when they're about to walk past someone else with a dog.)

Yes and no. In town and in public residential areas? Absolutely not, and I get extremely annoyed at people who do, weather their dogs are in control or not. Charlotte can be extremely dog aggressive with strange dogs, and the fact is even dogs who are well behaved and are well trained are still dogs, and will act as such. I've had a lot of people who's "well trained, friendly dogs" have run up to us off leash and gotten into my dog's face before, and the owners replying with "I'm so sorry, he usually just stays with me and listens really well".

My mother in-law has a large plot of land that sits right near where we live. There's a big hill that you have to climb with a vast, flat plateau area at the top. We go hiking up there and let them off leash. It's private property (and posted as such) so we know no one else is going to be up their with their dogs, and it's far enough away from the public to worry about traffic and other people and dogs.

No lead laws here. Unless otherwise stated (ie, kids park etc).

Walking a dog off lead is a lot of the reason I OWN a dog.

Nope. I don't. Bamm is the only one I trust off leash as far as recall is concerned. He has a solid recall and is usually glued to me. We hiked offleash once on some trails near Noludoru's place, but outside of that no. He has been offleash in a fenced in baseball field a couple times which was illegal and also been offleash in a tennis court. Outside of that he is always leashed.

I eventually would love go get Cricket to the point where she is reliable offleash. Right now I still don't trust her 100% and the idea of her deciding to run off freaks me out. Maybe when she is older and we have a lot more training under our belt with her then we can try offleash, but right now I just don't think its a good idea.

Plus, out here you pretty much have to have your dog leashed everywhere outside of designated dog parks.

That. Although once I did break the rule somewhere because they had 2 notices, one at the entrance that said all dogs must be "under control", and one further on that said all dogs must be on a leash. I saw the first one and let Fudge off since he's very reliable off leash and then didn't see the other one until we were on our way back. Fudge didn't cause any problems and if we went back I'd probably still let him off.