I am a dog lover. I live in the country and have a large fenced area just for my dog. I put in a dog door for him today BTW. He is extremely well taken care of. He is very smart and loves people.
BUT, I’m not so ignorant to think that he would NEVER bite someone. He’s so damned protective that it actually wouldn’t surprise me if he did so in fear.
My point is: If your place is so small that you have take the dog from your home out in the public.
YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE A DOG!
get something else
zwaldd
I don’t own a dog right now, but plan on getting one in the spring. And the answer is - I don’t care about laws that require me to put my dog on a leash. Call me stupid and irresponsible if you will.
To do into detail about why, what it’s like here, where I live, what the laws are here ASF would not be productive to this discussion.
You see my point is - and will remain firm - that dogs need to run around un-leashed. Paople saying that all dogs should be leashed at all times, simply don’t understand what having a dog is all about.
If the dog can’t behave, it’s always the owner’s fault and proper action should be taken. But we won’t cure the problem of stupid dog owners by enforcing stupid laws, making the animal suffer.
Just curious - all the folk who seem astounded that I might knowingly do something “against the law”? Any of you guys ever exceed the speed limit? Engage in sodomy? Jaywalk? Smoke pot?
In 20+ years of adult dog ownership, I have consistently walked my dogs off leash. I have never had leash laws enforced against me. But I have had on-duty cops pet my unleashed dogs.
Nor have I ever had a dog bite someone, or run into traffic. All of these dog “experts” who talk about the risk of dogs runninginto traffic - I guess I should beiev you instead of my daily experience with various dogs over the past 2 decades. I guess I have just been consistently lucky…
I will observe here that the vast majority of dog owners do not train their dogs adequately. My dogs listen to me when I want them to. They do not have an option. It is as simple as that. And that seems to appeal just fine to their pack mentality.
I’m sorry some people have irrational fears about dogs. And I do my best to avoid all people while walking my dogs. Generally I do it very early in the morning or late at night. I carry a leash, generally cross the street or atherwise alter my course to avoid pedestrians or other dogs, and always clean up after them.
And I intend to do the same, until enforcement is seriously ramped up. Again - I’m sorry some people have had bad experiences with dogs. Of course, not everyone with a dog bite scar reacts by developing a lifelong fear of the species. It is certainly within your rights to be bothered by someone violating the law - or acting in a manner you consider rude.
And it is certainly within your rights to call to request enforcement of the law. Tho it seems to be an imposition upon the complainant, that seems to be the way most local ordinance “nuisance-type” violations are addressed nowadays.
Just thought you might want to know that not every dog is a slavering mankiller - and not every person who walks his dog unleashed is oblivious to your concerns. As with so many things, it is the careless few who give the entire class a reputation. People who do not clean up after their dogs should be forced to eat it.
tlw sorry about the mopdog joke. Tho my personal taste runs to larger dogs, I have known many a fine miniature.
Why? There are plenty of breeds that don’t require 24/7 access to their own private playground to be happy.
I volunteer for an animal rescue group that is pretty, not strict, but careful about the homes out animals go to. There are certain things about potential adoptors that will make us turn them down. Living in an apartment, or other dwelling without a backyard, isn’t one of them. As long as we feel reasonably sure that the dog in question will get all the exercise they need, we’re fine.
Some dogs are perfectly happy with nothing more than a 20minute walk once or twice a day (with additional bathroom outings as well, of course). Some dogs require extensive exercise to be happy (dalmations come to mind). It depends on the breen and temperment of the dog.
Hmpf. I was bitten by an unleashed, uncontrolled dog just yesterday. (No damage, just a nip, but distinctly unwelcome nonetheless.) Subsequent conversation with the owner went as follows:-
Me: Hey, your dog just bit me.
Owner: Oh, no, she doesn’t bite people.
Me: She just bit me.
Owner, in tones of deep insincerity: Oh well, I apologise. (Gives me dirty look, as if to say “How dare you slander Darling Doggy’s character like that, and if she did bite you, I’m sure you’re a horrible person and you deserved it.”)
As far as I’m concerned, if you have a dog, you have a responsibility to prevent it from sinking its yellow carious fangs into my quivering flesh while I’m going about my lawful business. If you can do this by good training and strict control, fair enough. If you can’t, then keep the animal on a blinkin’ lead. And please excuse me if I’m cautious around unleashed dogs, because I have no way of knowing if their owner is a responsible person like Dinsdale, or a complete twerp like Darling Doggy’s owner.
Well, that’s your fault for reading the National Post.
(d&r)
Well just for the record, if I saw you walking your dog unleashed in my neighborhood, I’d call and report you. We have a lot of children here and a very multinational community. I’ve found that almost all of the people in my neighborhood who are from other countries are afraid of dogs. It is sort of weird.
Hey Opal - are these neighbors the same ones you were considering exposing to porn? If so, this opens up a whole new avenue of options. 
Sorry Opal - missed your last post before sending mine.
Do you mean that unleashed dogs don’t trouble you personally - but you would call for enforcement on behalf of your neighbors?
Any other legal violations you would take it upon yourself to call in because you believe others might be troubled - but not so troubled as to call themselves?
Just curious - how often have you called LEOs for law enforcement on matters that involved you only tangentially?
(Hell, I guess I should have made that a numbered list!)
Let me echo a point that I fear has gotten lost.
Parents, please teach your children to never approach a dog without permission. Our dog is a pound dog, with an unknown history. When we walk him on the leash, we try to avoid other people because so many of them insist on coming up to him and trying to pet him. He’s very skittish, and we don’t want him to bite or even just scare anyone. Nevertheless, we are constantly having kids run up to pet him who don’t understand why we don’t want them to, or worse, adults who insist on doing so even after we ask them not to. These adults will say, “Oh, it’s okay, I’m great with dogs.”
He’s not a violent dog, but we think he may have been abused in his past, and so he gets scared easily. We always have him on a strong, short leash with a lot of control. We’re doing what we can. Please help out by not running up to him and getting in his face.
I’d like to add some stuff:
There is a lot of bad feelings in this thread, and I understand it. Having a Dogo was much work, becuase many people perceived it as big and dangerous (they’re not) and I constantly got into arguments with people about this. My next dog wont be that big or ‘frightening’ - I’m thinking of a Boxer.
OK, so getting back to my original question, would you obey a leash law if it was consistently enforced? In other words, if you were issued a citation every time your dog ran around unleashed in a leash zone, would you continue to let your dog off the leash or would you give in to avoid racking up more fines. Lets say the fines amounted to at least a hundred bucks a week.
Heh. More likely, your tax dollars not at work. Animal Control departments tend to be pretty underfunded, but people expect them to have the same hours as a police department, and to treat loose dogs with the same care the police treat B&E.
But if your local government only fund animal control from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, you’ll be awful lucky to get someone out there on a weekend. And if your local government doesn’t fund officers to go looking for at-loose animals, you’re not going to get them out there looking for at-loose animals.
It’s a government issue just as often as it is a department issue. I know that our humane society provides animal control for our local government; due to funding cuts, we’re not able to provide nearly the level of service we’d like to be able to provide.
Daniel
I’d not have a dog or move to an area where he can run around freely.
My friend’s daughter just got mauled in the face by a friend’s pit bull (in the pit bull’s home). The owner thought he had complete control of his animal. You can’t say with certainty that your dog won’t bite someone.
Sorry to hear about your friend’s daughter.
You are absolutely correct in observing that there is no such thing as a dog that will never bite under any circumstances.
I don’t trust my golden retreiver around children - especially when I am not around.
Do you know what happened when she was attacked?
I do not intend to blame the kids, but IME they often do not understand issues such as dominance. It drives me nuts when a kid comes over, who has never met my dog before, and gets their face right in or below my dog’s. I regularly remind my kids to not let their friends do such things.
Personally, there are few dogs I would get my face close enough to to be bitten. Of course, a child’s face is a lot closer…
Was that the first incident with this dog? What - if anything - does the owner intend to do?
Again, I hope your friend’s daughter gets the treatment she needs and recovers fully.
Pit Bulls are very smart and very difficult dogs to raise. I don’t know what the debate’s been in the US, but in my country, and what I here from other countries in Europe, there are plans, or at least discussion, about outlawing pit bulls. On the black list are also: American Staffordshire Terrier, Cane Corso, Bull terrier and Fila Brasileiro.
There have been incidents these past few years with people and aggresive dogs. Invariably, the owners didn’t know how to raise them, or actually encouraged the aggresive behaviour.
Maybe a license to be able to own a dog would be a good thing.
Bottom line is still that (almost) all dogs were originally bred to work with humans. If you take away the type of work they were designed for, and don’t activate them enough, mentally and physically, they might turn bad.
This is exactly the reason I let my former dog run free, and why I’ll do that with my next dog.
Live in the country.
Dog chasing cattle that are not their owners cattle get shot. Period.
Dog comes on property, they get a one shot ‘get out of here warning shot’ head start. All subsequent shots are for effect.
Do not go into fenced yards with dogs present without a human invitation.
Get out at a house with loose dogs are your own risk.
Remember how to holler, “Hello the house.”
Like the guy in russia said, dogs running in packs, just start shooting.
Well, not all of us have the option of moving to an unapproachably remote island, off the coast of nowhere, with no neighbors and no traffic whatsoever.
Instead, most people take the necessary precautions, and leash their dogs, pick up their messes, and play with them in backyards and dog parks.
Good luck with that, though.
Um, the dogs, not the messes.
That was unintentionally really, really gross.