to ask if dogs should be on a lead or not in public places?

[GospelTruth]

Following on from a recent thread about dogs snatching food & biting very young children in public places, should it be mandatory for all dogs to be on leads in public places, it's a yes from me. Who could argue otherwise?

I reckon its too late for that , my brain is addled from

mine is hardly ever on a lead - we live in the middle of nowhere.

We never take her into town. We do carry a lead on walks just in case (ie other dogs being aggressive, needing to restrain around children teasing with food (and by that I don't mean kids sitting on a bench eating their food) and I do have her on the leash when we go to the vets.

If I forget her lead I just use my belt or my handbag (works honest!) if I need to

YANBU

Okay I accept that I am being unreasonable to a point, and as most of you have said you are sensible dog owners that respect other people whilst out with your dogs. I would like to make it clear that I have not said I dislike or hate dogs on here, some of you have taken my comments out of context and think that is why I have posted, not true, I am just scared of them when they run/jump towards me.
Laska, some rules in society we dont like as most of us are law abiding citizens, but we have to put up with them due to others intent of breaking them, take speed cameras for instance, if all drivers kept to the speed limit we would'nt need the cameras.

In Germany (as I've said in other similar posts) no dog is allowed off the lead in public places. There are special dog walking areas/parks and I don't see why this couldn't work in the UK

But, Vintage, it doesn't work in Germany, because they just ignore the law and do what they want anyway!! It was the same when we lived in Northern Germany....

Plus, the Germans/ Europeans are notorious for never picking up their dog pooh, whether it be in the park, or in the middle of the street!!

There is a lovely park in london near great ormond street hospital i think its called coram fields, no dogs are allowed in there and it is wonderful, little children can toddle around and you dont have to worry about them stepping in dogs mess or getting scared by a dog.

Why doesnt every borough designate one park dog free like this park? most boroughs contain 5 or 6 parks so there would still be plenty of places for people to take their dogs, maybe the larger parks with more open space could be the 'dog parks' as its important for them to get a lot of exercise and some owners may not even have a garden and it would be unfair for dogs to always have to be on a lead in public.

Most council's have rules regarding dogs - on lead on paths, roads etc fines for not doing this, huge fines for not picking up dog poo, beach areas designated dog free for most of spring summer etc. - I think these def need to be enforced more to "encourage" the small minority of dog owners, and it is very small, who don't follow the rules to do so. Dogs need space to run around, just like kids. We all live a country with limited space, which we all have to share - whether or not we like it. And we dog owners are in the parks 2 or 3 times a day EVERY single day rain or shine, not just in the spring & summer. The teenagers from the school by our park leave the park in a filthy state every day - if the parkies didn't clean it up every morning the park would look like a tip, literally. I have young DC's and a dog, and I can tell you that the school kids leave stuff lying around that are more of a danger to my dc's than any dog and leaves our park in an awful state - but I'm not calling for your ill mannered teenagers to be banned. ( tempting tho it is) I get sick of all this talk about banning dogs from any area where children are - the reality is that children younger and older will come in contact with dogs if not in your neighborhood then somewhere else in this big wide world. teach them to respect animals, be careful with them but also enjoy them. One of the 1st thing we do with DC's is give them books full of happy stories about dogs, cats, animals in general so why go on to then teach them to be so fearful?

Scuse the essay but am a bit fed up with certain breeds always getting blamed for agression, so I did some research:

The Telegraph Tuesday 22 February 2011
It?s easy to stereotype bull breeds as aggressive, snarling, salivating monsters. The fact is that they?re often highly sociable with humans. If you look at dog bite statistics, the majority of dog bites on humans are inflicted not by bull breeds, but by common breeds such as Collies, Cocker/Springer Spaniels, Terrier breeds, Jack Russell Terriers, German Shepherds, and Golden Retrievers. These dogs don?t fit the stereotype of ?vicious animals?. The point is that any dog can be aggressive to humans; all dogs carry a risk.
All dogs ? regardless of breed ? need to be kept under effective control by their owners. The responsibility lies with humans: there?s no point whatsoever in trying to vilify the animals.

UCD News (University College Dublin)
Posted: 10 October 2007
?The majority of the dogs involved in the attacks were male dogs between 2-6 years old, over 10kg in body weight and were among the popular breeds of Collies, Cocker/Springer Spaniels, Terrier breeds, Jack Russell Terriers, German Shepherds, and Golden Retrievers,? said O?Sullivan. ?And the biting incidents were equally likely to occur in rural and urban/suburban areas.?

Pets D0, Pet Resource and Community website Oct 2007
There is a Dog Statistics done on every dog each year that shows what dogs are more aggresive than others. Are you ready? Don't believe me look it up. Atts - Amercian Temperament Test Society
Anything above 80% is good[ie the lower the score the more that breed bit, the higher the score the less it bit]

Dalmation 81.8%, Husky 86.6%, German Shepard/ cop dog 83.5%, Rotts
82.6%, Mastiff 83.9%, American Pit Bull Terrier 84.3%, American Staffordshire 83.4%, Staffordshire Bull Terrier 85.3%, and Boxer
84.3 I don't know where they got there information but it's wrong.
Now the beloved little dogs..
Collie 53.3%, Bichon Frise 79.3%, Corgi 75.4%, Chihuahua 70.3%,
Dachshund 70.2%, Setter 75%, Schnauzer 75.5%, Lhasa Apso 69.2%
I think we can all see that the little ones are far more aggresive than the big ones.