Do you walk your dog on a leash?

my dogs are on leash im public except when i am working off leash obedience.

where i live, there isn't anyplace secluded enough to let them off leash. they are all (except the pup) good at staying near me as well as at coming or downing on command, but i don't take chances when there are other people, dogs, cars nearby.

i do let them off leash in the yard so they can have their zoomies, but it is brief and supervised because we live on a busy road. the yard is big enough to keep them away from the road for short periods of time, but given the chance to stay off leash longer than that, i have no doubt they would wander their way to the road.

i don't particularly care for leash laws. i prefer control laws. i have seen a lot of dogs on leash but out of control, and when that aggressive on'leash dog is dragging the owner straight to my dog and the owner is unable to stop it, it's no better than the dog being off leash.

some leash laws say the dog need to be leashed when off your property OR under control by the owner.

I have a feeling his dogs are under control because i highly doubt that he would not have a dog that is not under control off-leash.IMO

Xena is always on a leash when we walk. Not only is it the law around here but I don't need her either biting someone or getting hit by a car because she saw a bunny across the street.

I have great respect for dogs trained to be off leash. Takes lots of patience.

Wow. My dog, yes, my prey-driven, dog aggressive dog...I have to leash. Does she have a recall? Maybe. If I had a squeaky cuz ball in my hand and she doesn't see a dog to go kill or a furry to catch and kill.
But because of those two reasons, I'll NEVER EVER trust my dog in an outside area that is not fenced in, off leash.

Am I bad owner because my dog is not trained with a recall? Perhaps. I mean, I guess so, but I'd rather have my dog alive and all my neighbor's dogs alive than to risk letting her run around outside to test and see if she has a good recall.
To me, recall is situational. And if you have a dog that you know 10000% that you can call off of ANYTHING, then congrats!

I don't. My dog gets the occasional run free if I take her to my in-laws' and she can run around in their fenced in yard.
For my breed, and my breed's rep, it's too risky to trust a recall.

Most laws here state that dogs must be leashed when off your property, but nothing about under control.

I believe whole heartedly in leash laws like the ones we have. I mean really, how hard is it to hook a leash to your dog. What harm does it do to have your dog connected to you.

although the comments refer to it as a "leash law," it is a control law. no where in the wording here does it state that the dog must be on a leash.

that's my point.

Laws are not in place for "very good reasons".

Laws are generally knee jerk reactions, caused by a combination of irresponsible jerks, and overly dramatic people that have some agenda to tell everyone else how to live.
Most are usually enacted due to almost obsessive/compulsive campaigning by a small minority of people who feel harmed, or inconvienienced in some way.Or to create revenue to government agencies.

This is especially true for pet ordinances, and laws.
Spay, and neuter regs are there specifically because of irresponsible owners.
and overly restrictive spay, and neuter laws are in place because of overly dramatic jerks who want to tell everyone else how they should live, and/or breed their animals.

BSL is another fine example of stupid laws, designed by uniformed, overly dramatic do gooders, who want to control everyone elses lives with their own personal dictates, and agendas, instead of holding the irresponsible people to a standard, and leaving everyone else alone.

We as citizen have a duty to ignore such stupid assinine rules enacted by idiot politicians, and zealots.

Don't even get me started on the HSUS, and PETA who have an ultimate goal of eliminating pet ownership, paid for by unwittingly conned people who donate to their orgs, and the media, and politician who actually consult those two bands of lunatics to write animal control ordinances, and laws, even though niether group of frauds actually operate any animal shelters.

So no, laws are definitely not necessarily there for a good reason, they are put in place due to political agendas, by crackpots, pressuring, and paying off politicians that rarely have anything to do with the public good, or safety.

People who control their animals, spay, and neuter, and do not allow their animals to attack other animals or people do not need laws, and laws are generally already in place to provide for any damage caused by irreponsible people who pay no attention to the laws, albeit old, or new, anyway

That's only for Indiana though. Some states do actually require a leash.

I would be fine with an "under control" leash law if it weren't for the very loose definition people have of that concept. Luckily for me, I haven't seen an aggressive dog off leash yet. Just dogs running up with their tails wagging while their owner is behind them screaming "Rover leave it! Rover! Rover! Rover! Come here! Come! Come! Rover! Is your dog okay with other dogs?" (As their dog is sniffing mine, by the way.) Uh, what if my dog wasn't okay with other dogs just running up to him and getting all up in his face? It's a little late now.

And so if leash laws are so stupid, can you say with 100% certainty that you dog will never EVER disobey you?

They are dogs people. Animals. Animals are unpredictable not matter how good you *think* you have trained them.

It only takes once. Why take that chance?

Leo walks on a leash, without exception. As soon as our fence is done (hopefully by next week, if the weather is good), he'll be able to play in the backyard off leash. Right now, even to go out to potty, he's on a leash. He runs around in our family room. But of course, he only weighs 10 pounds and isn't going to get much bigger, so he doesn't need 5 acres of running room!

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ovusdogleashlaws.htm#s2

I always leash reggin when in public, but I do not leash him when we are in the woods. He doesn't have a big enough yard to run in, so I take him out to the woods sometimes. Walks just aren't enough for him, he needs to run.

i was at a park with my dog training drop on recall on a flexi lead when someone else's dog came racing across the park to see us.

the owner of the other dog made no attempt to come and get his dog, and in fact didn't even call his dog.

i picked up mine because he doesn't do well with big overbearing dogs, and when the owner of the big overbearing dog yelled to me, "Oh, he's friendly," i answered with, "That's nice, I'm not!" I had to walk, carrying my dog to the other owner to return his dog!

For the most part Blaze is never on leash. And that is becuase we are out in the woods he has a great recall, (I called him of a rabbit just the other day). Plus we go to the dog pak for a good 2.5 hours a day. if we are in the neighboorhood walking, its always on leash. If we go to the school field he is allowed of leash to run and play fetch. I think I have him very well trained for all this, as he has never taken off in the 4.5 years I have had him, and he is never more then 15 feet away from me. (Unless we are at the dog park, he may be alot further only becuase he is chasing a ball or his dog friends.)

I allow Traveler to be off leash--she is very well behaved, and very obedient. Plus, she really just wants to be 'with her people" and play fetch! Baxter..nooooo ---he is always on leash--as he is unreliable, especially if he becomes distracted by his hound nose! he really does need to run though, which is why we frequent our local dog park--there he can run, sniff, track, etc.--he so enjoys it (you've seen the pictures!). I doubt he will ever be reliable off leash--he has improved, but I wouldn't trust him.

One big reason why I always leash reggin in public is because of stray dogs or other peoples dogs that are off leash. If a dog came after reggin and he defends himself, its automatically going to be reggins fault because he is a pit bull. If he was on a leash at the time, then its more likely to be the other dogs fault.

Houndsmen put radio collars on coonhounds for a reason. They do not come back, you must go to them. I'm pretty impressed with myself at our little whistle emergency recall (just used it about a half an hour ago to call them in from a rabbit they discovered just on the other side of our fence). I can take them to the off-leash park that has a tree line but no fence (though I prefer the one with a fence, just for the sake of my own blood pressure). But you better bet that when we got hiking in Vermont next week it will be long lines, not off-leash. Prey drive will always be a factor with my dogs. Always.

Our city has leash laws (which actually include the length of leash allowed--up to 6 feet and no more). I really wish people would respect them. A tiny fraction of the people who take their dogs off leash in our parks (where it is not legal to do so) actually have any business at all doing that. They jump in front of cyclists, trip up joggers, barrel up to other strange dogs, poop in ecologically fragile areas, chase and kill local wildlife and scare children. My parents are joggers and they and all of their friends have at least one story about being chased by an off leash dog in the park, or tripping over one, or having one jump up on them with muddy paws. And the owners all say the same thing: "Oh he's never done that before!" Well, he did it now, so use your leash.

When you choose to go off leash in an area where there will be other people and dogs, you know your dog is not aggressive and is well behaved, but when I see your dog from down the path, I have no idea if you're going to be calling your dog to heel or if you're just going to blithely ignore him as he comes racing up to my dogs to get in their faces. Every time I see an off leash dog down the path, I tense up because I'm not a mind reader and I don't know what's going to happen. I have to stop walking to see what's going to happen so I can choose whether to go on or turn around and go the other way. It's really not a very pleasant way to take a walk.

Harley and Buster are always on a leash - about 10'. Cocoa usually gets to be free just because he's still a puppy and does not wander off...ever. He stays with his buddies.