Leash Laws

I'm not sure what my county law is as far as length of leash, but I may be breaking it by having Frodo on a Flexi. If so, then I'm breaking it in that way, but he is never NEVER off-leash outside unless he is 1. In a Burnsville hockey rink, which is allowed in the off-season, or 2. we are in a friends' fenced yard or on their land.

It would be completely irresponsible of me to let Frodo off-leash in a public place due to reactivity and lack of recall (though his recall has much improved).

That being said, I do not mind people having their dogs off leash as long as there are no other dogs/people in the area, they are under voice control, and as soon as they see people/dogs then their dogs are recalled and stayed until the other people are out of sight. Unfortunately, this is not often the case. Out of control, off-leash dogs are what ruin most of Frodo and I's favorite walking spots for us.

I fail to see the "rofl". The lack of people abiding by them as well as the lack of enforcement is a large part of why it's increasingly difficult to own dogs, to own large dogs, to own certain breeds of dogs, to own multiple dogs, to own intact dogs...

*sigh*

Would you rather my dog bites your dog?
And even if my dog is friendly, or even if I don't have a dog with me, I don't want to be bothered by strange dogs walking up to me. I have every right to defend my space.


Well, if the loose dog hadn't been loose, there wouldn't have been a confrontation. So yep, I'm blaming that one.

Which just gives me more time to plan my defensive tactics and ensure better aim when I kick.

"Normal" dog behavior isn't to sit quietly and stare at their owner while a
potential threat is approaching. That's advanced training, and for some dogs quite an unfair request to make.

I don't expect my dog to sit quietly while a strange dog approaches with unknown intentions. My dog has the right to communicate to the other dog that he wants none of this and that he's prepared to defend himself. My reactive dog NEEDS to look at other dogs. That's how she assesses things going on around her and decides to not react.

Besides, I've had many dogs run up on us when my dog was walking (and looking) away from them, I've also had dogs run up on us when my dog was in a down stay.

I'd also like to add I've been barged at when I have a kid. Poor Briggs has been knocked down by the friendliest of dogs who want to say hi and being pregnant and usually toddlerwearing... its really not fun to be harassed by random dogs in a non off leash area.

I have no issue ifpeople break the law and have trained dogs. Untrained dogs are a different story. I won't just smack a dog upside the head for comign up to say hi. My leashed dog IS friendly and so am I. That is until I'm given good reason not to be. Like I said I've only ever had to tell a dog off harshly I think 3x in the 7 years of owning Bandit. One got hucked over a fence and two got a good slap to the bum.

I'm generally really nice. Things happen. just please do not put the safety of my dog, my child or myself at risk because you think your dog deserves more freedom than it actually does.

Agree!

I have no problem with offleash dogs if people are willing to deal with someone else making a decision about their offleash dog which may include pepperspraying/bearmacing your dog, cracking it's skull with a walking stick, or outright killing it via firearm. In my experience though most people don't deal with these kinds of consequences very well.

I've known 3 people to either kill a dog or lose a dog because their dog was offleash in a non offleash area.

The first one was walking their dog on a rural path with a posted all dogs on leash sign on the trail head. Their dog was some ways ahead of them and was shot for crittering by a DFW officer. Was the dog crittering? Who knows? Was the dog obedient offleash? Who knows? Doesn't matter really. Someone else saw an offleash dog - assumed it feral - and shot it before anyone could say otherwise. They also ended up getting a ticket in addition to getting their dog killed.

The second was a person who was jogging public pathway who was approached by a off leash dog. He blew it's brains out all over the pathway while it's owner yelled "he's friendly!" Was the dog friendly? Who knows. Was he a threat? Maybe. Was he obedient? We'll never know. Someone else made the decision that the dog was a threat and IMO it was their right to make that decision for their own self preservation. The dog was dead and there was nothing the owner could do about it.

The third person was walking their dog on leash in a public park when they were approached by an offleash dog. They bear maced the dog and then cracked on the head with a baseball bat. The dog was taken to the vet by it's owner where it seized and died. The owner when they reported the incident was told they were lucky to not receive a ticket for having their dog offleash in a public park.

I will respectfully disagree. I don't care if my dog is barking her fool head off, straining at the end of the leash and flashing her teeth; if the other dog were restrained in some way, that would be the end of it. I have physical control over my dog, therefore my duty (as a member of society if not a dog owner) is done.

Now granted, if the loose dog is a ways away and not actively trying to engage us, I absolutely do what I can to keep Meg quiet and walking along nicely with me. But if it seems like it is coming for us, either happily or being confrontational, I absolutely let her express her displeasure. Ideally, it will keep the other dog from coming all the way over, or at least get the attention of the other owner.

Of course it isn't ideal, but really? It is like blaming a girl who wears short skirts if she is assaulted, because she was "asking for it".

My problem with this is the potential damage that can come to my own dog, or even myself, before I am able to do something to said loose dog. You can say that you will kick/hit/ninja the other dog from here to Mars if it comes after you, but in the heat of the moment things move *SO* fast during altercations like these and you can't always defend yourself and your pets as well as you say you can when you're safe at your computer screen.

My main line of defense when dogs come after me/Frodo on a walk is to pick him up and sling him over a shoulder, as I'd rather a dog bite me than him. I can emotionally get over it faster and I'd rather go to the doctor than take him to the vet, as sad as that may seem. When we were attacked at my previous house the dog didn't make any noise when it came after us until it was on us, it was pitch black out, and I couldn't very well swing Frodo over my shoulder with 60 pounds of muscle on top of him. Yes I kicked him and screamed, but he didn't lay off until a car slammed on it's breaks and blew the horn at him. His owners did nothing more than continue to stand in their yard and scream at their dog to come back

So yeah, while they may have been willing to deal with the consequences if I had had a gun or been able to do significant damage to the dog, the fact was that I wasn't equipped to do that kind of damage, but my dog still had to pay the price, not theirs.

Stories like Kat09Tails' chill me.

My dad killed a dog once, before I was born, who was sent after him and his dog while he was walking at night. They were in a field out behind a college campus, and the guy thought it'd be funny to sic the dog on my dad. The dog engaged with my dad's dog, and my dad stomped on it. :/ I know it still bothers him to this day, since he still brings it up sometimes. (This isn't super relevant to the thread, since it's not just about an off leash dog; obviously I don't think all off leash dogs are dangerous.)

Stories like Kat09Tails' is when knowing your area, the people in it and the actions they most likely would take are the most important. I know around here that the probability of any of those happening is very very VERY low. Thank god because if that was more common I would not let them off leash anywhere.

This, definitely.

LOL, apparently I’m not articulating myself very well.
I don’t begrudge anyone the right to do whatever they feel necessary to protect their dogs.

For ME part of protecting my dogs means making sure they don’t invite unwanted attention. I deal with loose dogs daily, and I can’t do a darned thing about it, but I CAN make sure MY dogs are controlled and that if a dog does happen to come rushing at us, it will be me and my handful of gravel that meets them first, not one of my dogs lunging at the end of the leash.

I also expect my dogs not to make a bad situation worse. Just today I was at a trial and on 3 occasions some dog shoved his nose up mine’s butt, another dog literally leapt in to my face while I was sitting on the floor next to my dog (I did shove him away roughly with my arm), and two different little dogs snarked at mine who was not paying them any attention. Each instance he checked in with me FIRST as he has been trained to do. Had he leapt back at the dog leaping at me, I would have had a dog fight in my lap, had he snarked back at the little dogs it would not have been pretty either. I don’t want that PERIOD. I don’t really care who’s at fault, for me its all about keeping my own dog safe. Either from an unlucky bite or from being labeled vicious because he snarked back and did damage (which he very easily could).
I can’t control what other dogs do, so I control what mine does. Plain and simple.

BTW, the dog getting snarked at today is my dog who used to be pretty reactive and who is still very prey driven. Control Unleashed guys - it works!

Tons of people around here walk with golf clubs, bats, mace, and so forth.

If dogs are controlled I don't care but I too will kick a dog and kick hard to protect my own. I suppose that is a risk that comes with the freedom of off leash walks.

This is very true.

Interestingly enough, Meg will tolerate pretty much anything at an agility trial without a grumble. Out walking in the "real world"? No way. She very clearly understands that trials are "safe" in that the dogs there are attached to dog people who are generally going to keep them under control, so she doesn't ever get "on guard".

I'll send ya Nyx. Let me know how the CU goes, kthx.

Meaning, not every dog can benefit from the same training method.

CU is great though for most dogs, I agree!

I didn’t know how to take it. I thought the not every dog will benefit part was self-evident, and yes, most dogs greatly improve with CU type stuff.
IDK, just seemed like a bit of an aggressive response to a benign statement. :shrug:

I'm not sure but some of it could be rooted in annoyance. Coming from someone with a dog that people have all the answers for until they actually try to work him I know how annoying it can be to be told oh-so-simply "you're doing it wrong, do it this way". Honestly though I think it was more of a "Yeah, yeah, feel free to give it a shot" comment cause I've made plenty of those myself too.

Ok, now I'm kind of glad carrying around guns and all that other crap is illegal here. Those dogs being killed while off leash and were killed without question, that is ridiculous to me. While the owners should have had the dogs on, killing them is way to far. That's just sad.

I also believe it's about knowing the area.