ohhh Oakley, hahah!
- Thread starter Dreeza
- Start date
Well, it depends on where you live, how prevalent some of the water born pathogens are. Here in Pennsylvania, leptospirosis is very common, and it is nasty and often fatal--and easily transmissible to humans. There is a vaccine for it but it only lasts 6-9 months.
You guys don't have rabies to worry about either. There's a definite benefit to living on a small island!
You guys don't have rabies to worry about either. There's a definite benefit to living on a small island!
I didn't bother reading the whole thread, but I just wanted to clarify. I really envy you Chazzers in other countries. From what I understand, it's quite common to let your dogs off-leash. You can't really do that here in the States: no common greens, and leash laws everywhere. Unless you're in a dog park, one of the rare country areas without a leash law, or in your own yard, you're usually required to have your dog on a leash.
I still walk my dogs. It's not like you can't walk a dog if you have to keep it on a leash. And I take them to the off-leash dog park, and we have a fenced back yard where they can run and play to their hearts content.
It's not a zero-sum game. It's not like if you have leash-laws all of a sudden you can never walk or play with or interact with your dog outside, or you can never go some place with a fence and remove the leash. The choice is not between having a dog have 100% freedom all the time and having 0% freedom and never being allowed to go outside at all. That's ridiculous. My dogs only spend about an hour a day on leashes, when we take our daily walks. The rest of the time they are free to play in the yard, go in and out of the house any time they ask, and on weekends we have trips to the dog park. And Marlowe twice a week goes to the training center to practice agility (off-leash obviously).
The way you guys are characterizing people who choose to take leashed walks is just completely ridiculous. There's so much more to a dog having a full life than just this one thing. And given I live in a city, even if I had perfectly trained dogs for being off-leash, they'd still have to be at heel all the time because we walk on city sidewalks next to busy streets. How's that different to just being on a leash?
It's not a zero-sum game. It's not like if you have leash-laws all of a sudden you can never walk or play with or interact with your dog outside, or you can never go some place with a fence and remove the leash. The choice is not between having a dog have 100% freedom all the time and having 0% freedom and never being allowed to go outside at all. That's ridiculous. My dogs only spend about an hour a day on leashes, when we take our daily walks. The rest of the time they are free to play in the yard, go in and out of the house any time they ask, and on weekends we have trips to the dog park. And Marlowe twice a week goes to the training center to practice agility (off-leash obviously).
The way you guys are characterizing people who choose to take leashed walks is just completely ridiculous. There's so much more to a dog having a full life than just this one thing. And given I live in a city, even if I had perfectly trained dogs for being off-leash, they'd still have to be at heel all the time because we walk on city sidewalks next to busy streets. How's that different to just being on a leash?
Houndlove, you're right, but this is more about the fact some people don't seem to let their dogs be dogs.
i mean Dreeza was critized for letting her very well-trained, sensible dog off the leash in a decent area just because their might've been a chance something bad could've happened... which it didn't.
So why do they get so uptight about it? No idea.
So i figured that they're just those kind've people who assess every situation to the full, and won't do anything if it isn't 100% safe. And let's face it, almost nothing is said to be safe these days.
And I'm not asking them to give their dogs some freedom, obviously it's their choice, but there's no need to attack others who do.
i mean Dreeza was critized for letting her very well-trained, sensible dog off the leash in a decent area just because their might've been a chance something bad could've happened... which it didn't.
So why do they get so uptight about it? No idea.
So i figured that they're just those kind've people who assess every situation to the full, and won't do anything if it isn't 100% safe. And let's face it, almost nothing is said to be safe these days.
And I'm not asking them to give their dogs some freedom, obviously it's their choice, but there's no need to attack others who do.
I don't really consider a residential area particularly safe for off-leash dogs, no matter how well they are trained. The more other people of all kinds, and other dogs, and other domestic animals there are around, the less safe it is, even for a well-trained dog. There are places you can safely have your dog off-leash and if you've got a dog who can handle that freedom, fine. But around the neighborhood with lots of people around doing unpredictable things, and kids, and other dogs, and cats, and cars there's just way too many variables for me to consider it a safe choice. In my neighborhood, my dogs even being on 4 foot leashes have been almost run over (I think it's happened 3 times now) while crossing the street with me because people run stop signs. Because they were just a couple feet in front of me, I was able to pull them back even closer very very quickly (way more quickly than I would have been able to get out a verbal command). But if they had been off leash and we'd just been strolling across the street in a loose formation, they would have been toast.
Oh good one- funny one here people!
Alright, as much as I would love to sit on Chaz all day (and haha, I do mean that in all seriousness), I really have some crap to get done (boooo)
So let me say this:
I DO understand the dangers of walking off-leash. I am not a complete idiot. However, while some of your dogs may be good with an hour-a-day walk (HA!), you clearly do not know what it is like living with a hyperactive Oakley when he has not gotten his walk. And since we ALLLLL know a "tired dog, is a good dog" I hope you can understand that we do what we have to to tire him out as much as possible.
So we got him trained. Professionally trained to be able to walk off leash, and behave on leash...
Here is the thing I don't understand. You all act like a leash is going to prevent ANYTHING from happening to your dog. And I hope like heck nothing ever does happen to ANYONE's dog. the thing is...what happens if your dog breaks loose? What if you slip on some ice and drop the leash? Collar breaks? leash breaks? etc. There is more than one extremely unfortunate occasion where this has led to a dog running in the street and getting hit and killed (I can think of one off the top of my head that I read about here on the forums
) What are you going to do then?
When Oakley got out of his kennel my bro came home (he had been at school for 7 HOURS) to find Oakley napping on the front porch. Chances are he got bored in his block radius and just came home.
I rarely see other dogs on walks...and have seen ONE stray dog/off leash dog w/no owner in basically my entire 21 years of living where I do. The chances of anything happening to him on the sidewalks are EXTREMELY, extremely slim
I actually thought it was a funny incident that came out of a WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN dangerous incident. But nothing happened it turned out fine, and when we look back on it, it was pretty funny. Just My opinion.
Gipsy is off leash almost all the time, she has a great call back ect. and its just a much nicer walk for her to be off leash during her walk where she is able to play with the other dogs around without having a leash in her way. When we lived in the states and she was still on a leash she saw a cat and ran after it I was on the other of that leash and got pulled into the (small) river. Mhm that leash helped.
Sure, we've had some incidents; she got electrcuted (SP?) by the cow fence because her tail touched it or she ran home because it pouring out.
Gipsy is off leash almost all the time, she has a great call back ect. and its just a much nicer walk for her to be off leash during her walk where she is able to play with the other dogs around without having a leash in her way. When we lived in the states and she was still on a leash she saw a cat and ran after it I was on the other of that leash and got pulled into the (small) river. Mhm that leash helped.
Sure, we've had some incidents; she got electrcuted (SP?) by the cow fence because her tail touched it or she ran home because it pouring out.
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**As for the childish bickering, that ends now... for everyone. If you can't contribute in a respectful manner, don't do it.**
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Having a guard dog, who I *KNOW* will attack intruders, I don't find the story funny. And I share the sentiments of elegy because it would be MY fault that YOU couldn't control YOUR dog.
I see the seriousness of the issue as you just posted a thread about Oakley getting snarly with mailmen... that to me, does not sound like a dog that is, or should be, allowed off leash in a residential area.
I know you love Oakley and I sure am glad that everyone was okay in the end, but you have to learn from this and make sure that it never happens again. Oakley ended up in someone else's yard... that is NOT safe.
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Having a guard dog, who I *KNOW* will attack intruders, I don't find the story funny. And I share the sentiments of elegy because it would be MY fault that YOU couldn't control YOUR dog.
I see the seriousness of the issue as you just posted a thread about Oakley getting snarly with mailmen... that to me, does not sound like a dog that is, or should be, allowed off leash in a residential area.
I know you love Oakley and I sure am glad that everyone was okay in the end, but you have to learn from this and make sure that it never happens again. Oakley ended up in someone else's yard... that is NOT safe.
I completely agree. No matter how trained your dog is to be off-leash, I would never consider a residential area to be a safe place to walk my dog. Trust me, I know. I have a dog on our street that is "trained" to stay in her yard. Does the dog when the owner is there? Of course! Does the dog when the owner is gone? Of course not. The dog walks off leash on the street with the owner or going through mine or my neighbor's yard. - with the owner watching.
I can't remember, but does Oakley still wear a shock collar?
I can't remember, but does Oakley still wear a shock collar?