Actually..most leash laws either require a leash or the dog to be under 'control' of the owner (verbal is acceptable). In most cases a well trained dog does not need a leash and is fine with voice or hand commands - as is mine. My dog will 'unleash' and go play or scout under command, but will also return to a heel when called. I suppose you can't stand that either? Don't be harsh to judge because you can't see something that something is not happening or that someone is not being a responsible dog owner.
Correct. My town law requires I have control at all times, not that the dog is leashed or restrained. Anywhere else can ticket me, I'll quietly and repeatedly pay the fine... but still won't leash the dog. When in public my dogs all have heeled on my knee without fail. At home I have land and there are barely five cars that pass daily so I let the dog remain loose. The neighbors and the road are a pretty good distance away and neighbors also let their dogs run loose. It's not uncommon for me to go outside and find a mastiff, border collie and mini schnauzer all hanging out on the porch. I'm a dog lover. I clean-up after my dog daily and I don't care if other dogs leave a load. I'll happily clean it up just to have their company too.
After some thought I do agree that there are times when letting the dog off the leash is OK. IMO they generally involve wide open spaces with zero potential for the dog to run into traffic. I don’t care how “smart” your dog is he has no idea that it’s not OK to run out in front of a bus.
My ire is directed at the idiots I see every day walking/ jogging down the 4 lane highway that borders the East side of the facility I work at with their dog unleashed. Like I said if your dog flushes a rabbit and the rabbit darts into traffic your dog is going right after it.
I also take exception to the idiots that are out “walking” their dog on the same busy highway and the dog is 50 yards away from them. They’ll all tell you the dog is “under their control” too.
Then there are the idiots who’s unleashed, unvaccinated and unlicensed (but “under their control”) dogs tihs on my front yard and then “don’t understand” why I’m pissed when they do it.
There are also the dogs I run into in the mountains that are completely out of sight of their owners. Did I mention that there are mountain lions and bears in our mountains?
Anywhere else can ticket me, I'll quietly and repeatedly pay the fine... but still won't leash the dog.
So, you are in fact above the law?
See, that’s what annoys me. I play by the rules. My dogs are licensed (not to say that yours specifically aren’t) I do follow the leash laws, I don’t let my dogs run loose (around here you might as well cover them with ketchup for the coyotes if you do) and it bothers me when I run into folks that some how think they don’t have to do that.
The other day at work I watched a woman on the property adjacent to ours. She parked her car right under a sign that said “Road Closed” “Do Not Enter” “No Trespassing”, walked right by it and took her dogs out onto the property and let them loose.
They ran clear across the property and up to our fence which is alarmed and which I have to account for every time the alarm is tripped.
When the woman caught up with her dogs I asked her “Did you somehow miss that sign right next to your car that said “Don’t come in here”? “
She went absolutely bat tihs on me and started screaming and telling me what a mother****** I was and who TF was I to tell her where she could and couldn’t take her dogs ( I responded ‘I’m the guy that’s going to have your dogs impounded and you summonsed for trespassing “) and why don’t I just go **** myself and mind my own ****ing business (Lady when your illegally unleashed dog tripped my motion alarm you
became my business).
And the point to all this is she was the one in the wrong and she didn’t give a monkey fart what the law said or what the property owner wanted she was going to what she wanted to do.
And
my point in all of this is that for every one person whose dog truly is well trained and well behaved there are ten of this woman who don’t ****ing care and
they are the one’s that are presenting your public image.
