I see this all the time in Chicago, but today’s incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
How freakin’ difficult is it to keep your dog leashed when he/she/it is not otherwise confined? I see people walking down the street with their unleashed dog at their side all the friggin’ time. Yes, I’m sure liddle snoogums always stays by your side. I’m sure you have such perfect control over liddle snoogums that he/she always will listen to you and you never have to have to use a leash. Every dog owner does - until the day that they don’t, and it doesn’t take much - a squirrel, a bicycle, a jogger, a loud noise, a squealing child. You stupid people are the reason dog owners get a bad rap for not giving a crap about their dog.
Today’s incident? For those in Chicago, it was at the intersection of Milwaukee, Damen, and North Avenues. A busy, noisy intersection filled with cars, buses and, thanks to the nearby L station, a lot of human traffic, especially at 8 AM (rush hour), when I saw an unleashed dog sitting in front of the Half & Half coffee shop while his asshat of an owner was inside getting his morning cappucino. (The asshats in this scenario, BTW, are uniformly male. I’m sure there are female dog owners who don’t put their dogs on leash either, but I haven’t seen them.)
Was the dog behaved? Yes, but that’s not really the point. Anything can happen in an instant, from nothing more than the dog being a dog. These asshats, like the ones that can’t be bothered to pick up the dog’s poop, are the ones that get the rest of us in trouble.
We have a worse kind than this; they pick up the dog shit, using some sort of thin plastic bag, then hurl it into the undergrowth, or worse, into a tree - some of the regular dog walks around here have trees absolutely festooned with bags of dog shit.
It’s just as well firearms aren’t in general use here.
Not only is it possibly dangerous to other people to not have your dog on a leash, it is also dangerous for the dog. No matter how well your dog behaves most of the time, there will be that one time it tries to chase a squirel, other dog, cat, plastic bag, whatever, and gets hit by a car in the process. The driver of the car can basically do nothing to prevent hitting your dog when it darts out into the street.
My family has two dogs. I don’t live with them anymore, but the dog walking rule was always, no matter how well-behaved the dog was, ALWAYS USE THE LEASH. If the dog stays by your side without a leash, then you’re not preventing him / her from doing anything they weren’t already doing, except perhaps injuring themselves or somebody else. My parents live on a road that isn’t even paved, VERY few cars, but this is still the rule, and it’s actually for our dogs’ safety more than anything else.
Not keeping your dog on a leash because they’re well behaved is like not leaving a babysitter with your 8 year old for the night because they’re so well behaved. Sure, they’re well behaved. They may not, in reality, even NEED the sitter, they’re such a good kid. But would you really be willing to take that kind of chance? I hope not!
I hate irresponsible dog owners. It paints dog lovers in general in a bad light, just because they beleive their Precious can do no wrong.
I grew up in Baltimore, perhaps the capital of the world for big, nasty, ill-treated and totally unleashed dogs. The suburbs, particularly east of town are full of shitty little houses with such dogs patrolling aimlessly in the yards waiting for an excuse to run after something. I didn’t get a car until I was 18. Before then I had to walk or ride my bike everywhere. I lived in constant fear of the fucking mutts that could pop out unpredictably all over Baltimore’s vast shitburbia. I used to carry a handfull of gravel and sometimes a cap-pistol (noisemaker). Never used the capgun but a few times I got chased and tossed a few rocks behind me at the snarling menaces. Fortunately, my legs were so strong and I was so light I could out cycle the beasts if I had to. Now I live in FL and the people here seem a little smarter about this stuff. The lady across the street though acts like a real Baltimoron and constantly lets her big, untrained mutt out in the front yard w/o leash. It constantly chases the neighborhood kids and cars. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been run over or shot yet. I told the silly bitch I’d call the cops on her next time. Gawd I hate these people. :mad:
Well, even if the owner has the dog on a leash the dog will probably have to be left outside the coffee shop. And the dog was being well behaved. What are you, some kind of a dog Nazi?
No, you’re a moron. Just because the dog didn’t happen to be doing anything bad does not make its owner any less of an asshat. If someone let their infant play at the edge of a cliff, they’d be an asshat whether or not their kid fell over the side. It’s too easy for something to go wrong, and any dog owner will tell you that it only takes a split second.
I’ve always thought part of this unleashed dog thing was aberrant psychology. It’s a person’s way of saying “look here buddy, I’m important, places to go, people to see, deals to make. I just don’t have time for things like dog leashes. Did I even bother to train him - no I didn’t train him. Being around me, basking in the radiant warmth and light of my vast intellect and humanity is enough to civilize him. Besides, you should want to meet my pookums. He’s probably smarter than you are. Maybe you can learn something from him. So, to sum up, fuck you, fuck your plans for the day, fuck your desire to simply be left alone, fuck your wish not to have a big slobbering thing knock you down or chase you. Now, where did I park my car - have you seen it, it’s the Canyonero with the extra lights I put on the front right at head level for all those morons in subcompacts. I got it for my dog. He loves it.”
You would hate Fort Collins, Colorado then. Head to that city’s downtown, and you’ll almost always find unleashed dogs, almost always Goldens or Labs, sitting in front of one or more bars, waiting for their owner to finish their pint of Fat Tire. One time, I saw FIVE unleased Goldens just sleeping near an entrance to a tavern. Each of them belonged to a different owner, apparently, because I saw one outdoorsy-looking guy walk out, and one dog leap to life to follow him. Several minutes later, another goateed REI regular-type left the bar, and another Golden jumped up, happy again.
Well, if the dog is trained there is nothing wrong with leaving the dog outside on a sit and stay command while eating or having coffee. What is your problem with that?
Omg, Flash Taco… cries I miss Chicago too. I used to live just around the corner from Bar Louie and MAN, do I miss their cajun catfish po’boys. sigh
Wicker Park and Bucktown are both very dog-friendly areas (Chicago is a pretty dog-friendly city in general), and when I lived there, I sadly saw dogs off-lead constantly.
My Rottie however, was on-lead at all times outside, the sole exception being the double-gated, fully enclosed dog park Wiggly Field…boy oh boy, did she love that place.
I don’t know why I should even bother trying to educate a lack-brain like you, but here are my problems with it:
No dog has a 100% reliable sit-stay that will keep it from moving under any circumstances. None. No trainer will tell you that they have a dog whose sit-stay is so reliable that nothing whatsoever would make the dog break it. The potential is always there. Some dogs may be very, very good, but none is 100% reliable.
The owner was inside, the dog was outside. So if the dog did break its stay, the owner wouldn’t be there to call it back.
This is a busy intersection with a lot of noise and traffic. Lots of things could distract it. Lots of things could move it, too. Like people running to catch their train at the station not 50 feet away.
Dog-napping. Happens a lot in Chicago. People kidnap dogs to use as bait in dog fights. This is why responsible dog owners don’t leave their dogs outside unattended.
It’s just plain irresponsible dog ownership. That’s my problem with it.
Well, parents tell children to play in the yard aand not cross the street. Now they have no guarantee that the child will not cross the street but it is done. Same with a well trained dog. Sure, if you set fire to that dog’s tail, well it ain’t gonna sit-stay but life’s life and one does one’s best - which apparently isn’t always up to your standards.
I can’t agree with you about it being irresponsible.
I just house-sat for some friends who have a dog. They live out on a rural road (some traffic, but next to none most of the time). They specifically told me I didn’t need a leash to walk him, and it was true. We walked. He came when I called. Whenever a car came by I’d call him to me and hold on to his collar until the car passed. He showed next to no interest in any passing traffic. Not once did I have to call more than once to get him to come, and his not being on a leash allowed him to run around a little while I walked down the road.
While I wouldn’t argue that there is no risk of not being able to physically control a dog at all times, in some cases it really isn’t necessary.
This was a busy city intersection. Three streets cross at this location, and each has a city bus line. In addition, the L station is right there. So, lots of cars, buses, and people. And this was during rush hour. A rural environment may bring different considerations into play, but this wasn’t a rural environment - it was a very busy intersection at a very busy time of day.
In the city, there is no excuse for not having the dog on leash when it can’t otherwise be confined. It’s a basic safety issue.
And yes, county, I’d pit someone who left a very young child (say under the age of five) outside unattended while he/she ran in to get a cup of coffee. It’s a matter of basic responsibility. I can’t believe that there are people here who would defend what the dog owner did here as responsible or acceptable conduct. It absolutely boggles the mind that someone could be labeled a “Nazi” (always the epithet of first resort for the slow-witted) for condemning the dog owner in this situation as irresponsible.
I have to agree that no matter how well trained your dogs are (or how well trained you think they are), they belong on a leash outside of your house, your fenced-in yard, and the dog park.
My dogs heel and do sit-stay very well. I can’t take a lot credit for training them because they were extremely easy to train. Also, the younger one had some professional agility training back when I had the time to pursue it.
However, even though they are extremely well-behaved dogs that want to obey, they do have minds of their own. No dog will 100% of the time stay in sit-stay. It can be as simple as them misunderstanding and thinking they’ve been released. My dogs are released when I say “okay” in a particular tone of voice. Of course, occassionally I say “okay” to the pizza guy or other visitors and inadvertently release the dogs. That’s just one example. There are many others I could give about times when even obediance champians miss a cue or just don’t do it right. They aren’t machines but animals with their own (however small) brains.
Not that they misbehave all the time. Just that they’re not 100% reliable. And I don’t want that 1% of the time to end up in my dog running into the street.
I live pretty near the neighborhood of the OP and I too see this thing all the time. The weirdest thing to me is the neighbor who lives in the building next to mine. She walks two to four small dogs at a time (I don’t know if they’re all hers), and while most of them are on leashes there’s always one that isn’t. I can’t tell if it’s always the same dog, but it seems really weird to me to have two dogs on a leash and one that isn’t.
I have met people whose dogs are better trained than most children, but these people are few and far between. Besides, what’s the intelligence equivalence here? I don’t know anyone who would let, say, a two-year old child play unattended in the yard, especially if that yard is next to a road which might have a car roaring down it at any given time.
It is not a matter of intelleigience, it is a matter of training. And comparing a two year old child to a dog with regard to training potential and willingness to obey a simple command is unfair to the dog.
