Dogs on leads, yay or nay

[Aibutousethisname]

Genuinely interested in people's opinions on this. Should dogs be on leads in public places?
Yes =yanbu
No= yabu

That depends on the dog and the public space.

My dogs are always on a short lead on pavements, where there's traffic, and in crowded public places like ferry, train, bus, buildings, the vets, in rural places around livestock etc.

They are offlead on an empty beach/ woodland / on private land away from livestock .

All dogs should be on a non-extendable lead in public places, no exceptions.
Most owners think their dog is well trained, very few actually are.

Dog owner here and yes, absolutely. Most people who let their dogs off the lead have zero control over them. One of my dogs is dog aggressive, but only because of other peoples out of control dogs going for her. Most dogs owners are completely oblivious.

This morning I moved well out of the way of someone with an off lead dog, who was throwing a ball for it. It was quite obvious I was waiting for her to go past, but she was walking about three steps before stopping and lobbing the stupid ball. She then stopped right in front of me, throwing the bloody ball by which point my dog starting reacting. Of course she was, as there was a dog running up and down and ball being lobbed right in front of her. I shouted over the to woman would she mind moving on as mine was not friendly and clearly on a lead, and she just gawped at me, thick as mince. This sort of thing happens pretty much on a daily basis. People who don't have "problem" dogs can't possibly see why their diddums might be effecting others, because they are selfish idiots.

It's put me off having another dog after my current two go. Or if I do, it will be so small that I can just pick it up when yet another out of control dog comes over to "play". Which is a shame, as I'm very much a big dog person. But currently the stress modern dog ownership really isn't worth it. Too many dogs on a small island, owned by idiots that shouldn't own a goldfish.

No, the actual option is that people who don't control their dogs have them on leads, and those who do don't need to. Which is in fact the current position - the fact that some people don't pay any attention to this is another matter entirely, and ignoring the law or sense is not a thing that is confined to bad owners. And equally, ignoring the law when it suits you is often the advice on MN threads.

It also makes me laugh how often we have these threads, as though having an out of control dog on a lead is the answer. Out of the three times my service dog has been attacked, on two of those occasions the dogs were on a lead when they attacked (and tore the lead away from the owner); and we are regularly met by owners being dragged around after their dogs who are growling aggressively and lunging at us.

Leads do not result in controlled dogs - they can, in fact, have the opposite effect, especially if dogs have been always kept on lead and not properly socialised / exercised. Owners and training controls dogs - leads are a tool not a solution.

Depends how you define public place.

I walk my dog on the beach before work every morning, OFF the lead because he chases his ball and enjoys a good long run.
However, it's massive and at the crack of bloody dawn theres perhaps me and 1 or 2 other dog walkers in the far distance. No families, no kids.
It's still a public space though, and if you want him on the lead in an empty place simply because it's public then YABU.

At any other time, whether thats park, woods, open landscape, streets, then he is on his lead. YANBU.

Yes they should be. Even a lead isn't enough for some dogs, I drove past a dog yesterday that the owner was struggling to control. She was nearly pulled over as the dog was fighting to get to a smaller dog that had walked past. The owner of the small dog picked it up and crossed the road, and the larger dog nearly got itself hit by a car by running after it. The owner had zero control.

Under control. It will depend on the individual dog, the owner, and the nature of the public place as to whether a lead is required to achieve this.

It's also perfectly possible for a dog to be on a lead and out of control at the same time. It's a particular problem with extending leads, and long-line leads when they're being used as every-day leads and not for training in the manner they're designed for. I'd happily ban extending leads.

I think yes to leads. I’m a dog owner and honestly fed up with the amount of dogs that are not under control. A dog running up and jumping all over us because it is friendly is not under control. My dogs are super friendly, they’re also super bouncy and despite hours of training I cannot 100% guarantee their recall. So they’re on leads and we hire fields/private woods for off lead runs.

Well, there are public places and public places. A busy town centre park is public, but dogs should certainly be on leads, imo. The public footpath where I walk my dog is usually deserted so I let him off and call him back as soon as I see anyone in the distance. An empty beach is fine, a crowded one is not.

Why were you expecting an in control dog who was playing and exercising to move because you have an aggressive dog? The out of control dog is yours, not the other one. So whilst I dislike the fact that too many people have out of control dogs / don't give enough time and consideration to training their dogs, I also wouldn't move if your dog was the aggressor just because you wanted me to. If you have an aggressive dog, then the answer is to work through the agression and retrain / find a private dog field where there isn't any trigger for the aggression.

Dog owner here.
Like many others I think it depends. Quveas gives a good answer.

On a pavement, crowded park etc I keep mine on a lead. His recall is 98% reliable but not 100% so I keep him on a lead. However, I live next to a massive forest and let him free run for his walks there, although whenever I see another dog/person/cyclist/deer etc I call him back and put him on a lead. Once I've confirmed the other dog/person is ok with dogs, I will let him off to socialise (he's very friendly) but not before.

If dogs were legally never allowed to be off lead in public/open spaces, we will end up with an epidemic of under-exercised, under-stimulated, under-socialised dogs with multiple behavioural issues.

I don't have a dog and in general I'd prefer if they were always on a lead even in the park, because I'd like to be able to eat a picnic without dogs constantly bounding over and dribbling on my food. But then again, do they need some time off leash to get their exercise, run and catch a ball etc.?They are annoying at times, but I wouldn't want to create a world where there was a lack of freedom to the extent that people were being prosecuted for having a well behaved dog off lead.
So... not sure really

Thanks for the advice, master dog trainer. So you don't think it's a dick move to stand there lobbing a ball towards someone with a dog on a lead? most dogs will "react" to that, aggressive or not. It's extremely bad manners. If you see a dog on a lead, call your dog to you and walk past, don't be a dick.

Take it you've never owned a dog, or if you have, you've never owned anything more complex than a fat Labrador.

99.9% of the time my dog is glued to my side, and has fantastic recall. The other 0.1% he might decide to chase a lorry/squirrel/swan/goose/duck/excited child/postman/any man in hi-vis jacket. So in any busy public space he's on a lead.

I couldn’t agree more. I can’t count the times I have called my dog to walk with me to pass other dogs, only for the owner to allow their on lead dog to jump all over my dog. Or get in her face and snap.

Those ridiculous, dangerous long leads should be banned!

if you're going to phrase the question like that and allow only a YES or NO for a completely undefined "public places", then I'm going to have answer...

sometimes YES sometimes NO

(and YABU on principle).

Depends what you mean on public spaces. Towns and parks etc yes.

Specified dog walking areas and out in the wide open countryside, no. Unless there is livestock obviously.

Define ‘public place’. My three were off lead in a park today. There were children in an enclosed play area, other dog walkers with dogs off lead on the field. My two youngsters went to say hello to another dog, came away when asked. If I couldn’t let them off lead, I’d have to walk them miles. They like to gallop round, sniff, eat grass.

If you had bothered to read the thread you would know that I have a service dog, which, for your information, I trained. And also I have owned and trained 7 working dogs over my life. Every one of those were Border Collies. So, yes, I have owned dogs and CAN train them. A sight better than you it seems. You love calling other people "thick as mince" or "dicks" but YOU are the one with an aggressive dog - on or off the lead YOUR dog is the problem so why don't you bloody well train it, and if you can't then get someone to help who can???? It is extremely bad manners for you to take your on lead and out of control aggressive dog out in public places and expect those who do have control over their dogs to manage that for you.

Perhaps, given your attack mode here and this morning, the dog is actually just taking after it's owner.

I was walking in a large country park with my friend and our 2 dogs. I preferred to keep mine on a lead as he tends to get happily excited and wants to play with any children he sees approaching just as he does with my grandchildren. My friend mentioned several times her dog had great recall and she was 100% positive he’d run back to her immediately when called. A young family were sitting on a rug having a picnic lunch a few hundred yards away. My friend’s dog bolted in their direction and paid zero attention to her calls and whistles. It ran through the picnic rug and without even stopping grabbed a sausage roll from a little girl’s hand as he passed! Fortunately the family saw the funny side of it and accepted her apology.

Public places, to me, would be places where other people are around.
Parks, streets etc

Always. Even if it's a long lead that can be retracted. But never off lead unless you're definitely alone in a big field or something. You never know how a dog can react in any situation even if they're usually OK. I honestly don't even like strange dogs on leads near me because owners these days seem to have dogs that are too big for them to handle. My biggest peeve is "they're friendly, they won't bite" while they're literally barking and pulling towards you and showing aggression to me and my small children. No.

Generally speaking, yes on-lead, except in parks, beaches etc.

However, adults should also not believe it’s their god-given right to allow them or their child to be able to stroke any dog. Always ask the owners permission first.

I just don't know why anyone would take the risk with their dog babies... it's the dogs who suffer when something goes wrong.

They're not humans, they're dogs and will behave like dogs when threatened and that 1 time is enough to face them being destroyed

My neighbour has just had to muzzle hers - he's not aggressive and we adore him.., but he is heavy and he got frightened by another dog going for him off lead, and bit it knocking over a small child in the process he adores... he wasn't the aggressor just got provoked and what can she do now? She's a very responsible dog owner with a lovely friendly dog but unless she muzzles him he'd now be reported and probably destroyed

Also! I cannot count the amount of times I've been in a park having a picnic and a dog has come over and a couple times, successfully eaten some of the food while the owner says absolutely nothing and walks off.