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The doghouse

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Original poster

what are you views on dogs kept on leads?

45 replies

secretpoet · 06/04/2015 10:19

I met a lady last week who was with a beagle and, as we have one, I stopped to speak to her. The dog (a bitch) was lovely - 8 months old and typically soft and affectionate. I asked her if they found her hard work as beagles can be and she said no - she had several others at home. When I said that we found that ours sometimes got on the scent of something and disappeared into the distance she said that they never let theirs off the lead.

What is the general opinion of this? Of course she may have a massive garden and there are other dogs in the family so guess they play together. The dog was obviously well cared for and loved, but I just love to see my dogs run.

Is it ok if they don't really get an opportunity for this? To be honest there have been times with ours when I have got her back on the lead after a 20 minute wait for her and have said "never again" and vowed to keep her on the lead. I haven't stuck to that though cos it seems mean. I never let the dogs off anywhere they could get onto a road.

I don't really have a firm idea of what I think here but thought it would be interesting to see what the general consensus is.

OP posts:

D0oinMeCleanin · 06/04/2015 16:25

My terrier is rarely let off leash, due to being hit and miss with other dogs (hates puppies and dogs with poor manners, loves other terriers but this love can quickly descend into madness shorty followed by aggression, he also loves tennis balls and thinks nothing of running off with them, regardless of whether they are his)

We play lots of ball games in the house and gated alley. We do lots of clicker training games. He's generally happy.

He does get off lead with my dad's dogs when we go with him. He takes his to the beach in the dark when it's pretty much deserted. I see no difference in his behaviour after these runs, so I assume that whilst he enjoys it, it's not necessary to his well being.

Humansatnav · 06/04/2015 16:30

I've got a 14 week old Springer x lab , I was going to use a long line to help recall training , any thoughts ?
I also think time off lead is important IF recall is reliable.

momtothree · 06/04/2015 16:58

We call - treat- between 2 of us - moved on to 3 then 4 in order then out of order - then we moved i.e if started in bathroom - move to kitchen - moved to call treat - stroke head - when out side - moved to just head stroke - stoke needed if u want lead back on.

Helgathehairy · 06/04/2015 19:24

I have a 3 year old golden who thinks every person and dog is his best friend ever. For this reason he's always on-lead. We've tried off-lead a few times but once he can see me he doesn't see the need to come back to me. A low point was having to run up sand dunes to catch him at 6 months pregnant.

I have a 2 acre field specifically for him and a farm where I can walk him if there's no animals in the field.

I do wish I could nail recall though as he so loves running off-lead. He loses all interest in food, toys etc though when there's other dogs/people around.

NeedABumChange · 06/04/2015 20:42

If you have to then you have to. Some dogs need to be on lead.

But to just keep getting dogs and deciding to never let any off the lead doesn't sound very nice. We taught our rescue using a training line. If he didn't come back then I'd at least take him out round the fields on that so he can have a good run and sniff what he wants instead of just being forced to follow me.

SistersOfPercy · 06/04/2015 23:23

I have a Scottish terrier, his recall is OK and he great with others but the field we live by has foxes, rabbits and badgers and he is a proper terrier. As I don't really fancy dragging him up from a badger set by his tail he stays on lead.

I do have a 100ft leash and if the field is empty I click him onto that and let him go mad making sure I stay over the side of the field where there are no sets etc but I don't think I'd dare let him off fully as I just don't trust him.

D0oinMeCleanin · 07/04/2015 00:08

SistersOfPercy, my terrier, for the most part, appears to be 110% terrier.

He is grumpy, snappy, temperamental, barks at anything and everything, chases everything from dust bunnies to double decker buses, will play fetch or tug of war for hours and hours on end (there's a saying in this house "even so much as think about the raggy rope near the terrier and it's on you, good luck and we will keep your dinner warm ) He is the perfect example of a stereotypical terrier.

Show him a badger set (by accident, we didn't do this on purpose btw) and he'll sit, stay and wait for you to chuck his ball

He reacted similarly when the golf course management person tried to send him into the shrubbery to scatter the rabbits for our lurchers (the only reason they let us exercise our dogs on their golf course is under the mistaken impression that as we have a combination of sighthounds plus a terrier, they are proven working dogs and will help control the rabbit population, between the 5 of them, over the course of 3 years, they've caught 1 rabbit). Now, if he sees a rabbit he will chase it and fail to catch it, if he comes across the entrance to a burrow, he'll run straight past it

It might be worth showing your leashed terrier the entrance to a set and see how he reacts, he might have failed to read the book of how to be a terrier like mine

SistersOfPercy · 07/04/2015 00:23

Half of murphs troubles is he's a digger, show him a set and I suspect he'll be tunneling in.
He can be a rather unobservant terrier as well so I think he's probably also failed to read the book. I've often seen squirrels in our garden sat right behind him and he's failed to notice.

Ultimately though I don't trust him, he is incredibly quick and he is so very very precious to me the thought of something happening to him because I'd let him off lead terrifies me. I realise it's probably completely irrational.

For now he has a large safe garden he can go mad in and a long long lead and I think we'll stick with that.

Nesspot · 07/04/2015 03:43

I have an ex-racing greyhound and there is not a bloody chance he's getting off lead! He's got such a strong prey drive and is so fast that I'd never get him back - Ussain Bolt would have difficulty chasing him down! He's a lazy sod too - even when given the opportunity to run in an enclosed area, he can't really be arsed and you end up doing more running about trying to gee up some enthusiasm - typical greyhound!

I have a very dog-reactive lurcher too. She does get let off lead (in the middle of nowhere where there are no other dogs) but her recall is excellent. She's a rescue dog and having her has made me wish that more people would keep their dogs on a lead - the amount of times owners have let their dogs come charging up to her despite her going to to and me asking them to call their dogs back is ridiculous. If you have no control over your dog then the responsible tho g is to keep it on a lead!

surroundedbyblondes · 07/04/2015 05:27

We also have a rescue dog who can be unreliable with other dogs. Because of this we are careful about where we let her off lead. We do it whenever possible though and she has access to our large, unfenced, garden and is perfectly trustworthy.

SIL's dog is a bolter and they are on permanent high-alert in case a door might be left open. Even in their or PIL's garden he has to be on a lead. It's such hard work and I feel for the dog. I wish they would put some time into training him rather than just tieing him up

mathanxiety · 07/04/2015 06:37

Where I live, if you have your dog out anywhere apart from your back garden, it has to be on a lead. There are a few dog parks that are fenced off where they can run free.

Lots of people do their daily run with their dogs, always on a lead. The dogs seem to enjoy it -- most are larger, running type breeds.

Bubble2bubble · 07/04/2015 09:27

In an ideal world, then yes, I think all dogs benefit from off lead runs but this is not always possible. What makes me sad though is the number of people who get puppies and just assume they will bolt and keep them on an extending lead for life when in fact they could have been perfectly trainable.

The other extreme is the woman I met this morning who claimed her pit bull cross had every right to be off lead in the park even though she had a history of seriously attacking other dogs because it was the offlead dog who would be at fault and seriously injured. Oh yes, and the vet had apparently told her a muzzle would make the agression worse so she wasn't going to muzzle her dog either

D0oinMeCleanin · 07/04/2015 09:32

Muzzling, when done wrong, can make aggression worse, so it's possible the vet said something along those lines and the pitbull (staffy x I would imagine) owner misconstrued this. Not saying she's not an irresponsible owner, just that she might not be as daft as she seems. Just pig headed and lazy.

Bubble2bubble · 07/04/2015 09:47

I get that doin', in fact I did say exactly the same thing to her and was talking about how dogs need to be trained into a muzzle, that it's not just a matter of shoving on a muzzle and off you go...It was she who said the dog was a pit/ staffie X btw
Just felt afterwards that she was giving me a warning because she saw my dogs off lead and I am a bit scared now

YouMakeMyHeartSmile · 07/04/2015 09:48

Even the instructors at the training classes I go to have admitted defeat with our beagle! We started going at 12 weeks, he's now 4 and noone has found a treat/command/technique that will stop him bolting if he gets the scent of something interesting.

D0oinMeCleanin · 07/04/2015 09:57

There's one near us similar, Bubble, I think, sadly, that is type of muppet staffies attract.

Ours also insists her, clearly pedigree staffie, is a pitbull. She thinks it's our responsibility to keep her dog away from ours. In it's our best interests, you see, what with her dog being a a pitbull and all (she appears to think this makes it invincible)

What she's not getting is that, yes, her dog is stronger than any one of ours, but we have between 5 and 7 dogs with us at any one time.

I'm not entirely sure how she thinks we can keep her dog away from ours as on every occasion we've met it, it makes a beeline for ours, whether they are leashed or not. I usually manage to lure it away with my treats, whilst my dad corrals ours away to a safe distance. Her face is always a picture when I clip my lead onto her dog

YouMakeMyHeartSmile · 07/04/2015 10:08

We were out with our dog yesterday and there was a woman with a staffie and three young children. At one point she went to push her daughter on the swing, handed the staffie to her son who was about 6 (on a piece of rope) and said 'don't let go, if he gets loose he'll attack that other dog' pointing at our dog. The poor boy was being pulled over.

Bubble2bubble · 07/04/2015 10:21

Sighs.... Doin that is grim...
Top tip about the lead though

limesoda · 08/04/2015 15:39

Our beagle is allowed off lead in quiet areas. He isn't bad at 'darting', but assumes everybody wants to be his friend so we don't let him off when others are near by.

We liv ein an urban area, so most of his walks are on lead. He doesn't seem that bothered, but we walk quite a bit, and have a large garden.

catnipkitty · 08/04/2015 15:43

I'm an experienced dog owner, but my current dog is a Cairn terrier and is obsessed with hunting, so in our local park where she gets her daily walk she stays on the lead, otherwise she would disappear for literally hours hunting rats, foxes, squirrels etc etc. her recall us good in every situation apart from when she is hunting. There are places where we let her off for a short while and she runs around our garden a lot. It's not ideal.

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