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Originally Posted by boopster  I hope you will rethink your idea about ever letting your dog off leash. No matter how well trained a dog is, it is still a dog with doggy instincts. All it takes is a split second of that dog letting instinct win over training to turn into a tragedy. We had a very well-trained hunting dog when I was a child that darted in front of a truck unexpectedly. No more well-trained dog.
The other side of it is that not everyone is dog-crazy as we are. While you and I might be delighted to have a strange but friendly big dog run up to us (because we are pretty good at reading the dog's body language), there are loads of people who are terrified of ANY dog. It would be so easy for a person to be injured or injure your dog when they react out of fear.
I expect people to respect my dog's space (asking if she's friendly and can be petted), and they deserve to have their space respected too. That said, Britster, if I ever see someone walking a Rottie and a Yorkie together, I will be sure to ask if I can hug their dogs.  |
I am sorry about your hunting dog! I definitely realize that off leash has risks, but I think that a lot of dogs are deserving of off leash privileges and I have nothing against it as long as it is not in a populated area where off leash dogs are not permitted nor near any kind of road. I also think everyone knows their dog best, well most people do, and certain breeds are more inclined to stick around in general. I definitely think terriers are a lot more work than a GSD, who naturally usually stays close off leash.
I do not do it with Jackson often, but have in the past, but I do not any more because he darted twice. Yes, it was only twice out of probably 30 times being off leash but until we practiced more, he will not have the privilege. For now, he gets 50-100ft of rope and we practice recall almost every single day. We also live with 3 acres and 90 acres of farmfield behind us so we have a HUGE empty field away from the road to practice on. You can see here-
If you have ever seen justjesse197 on youtube, for example, her JRT is *highly* trained but besides that, they also have an amazing bond. He works in movie, tv, commercials, etc, you HAVE to be reliable off leash.
I definitely appreciate when people ask first before approaching us. I also dogwalk an obnoxious Lab and I admit, I HATE when people come right up and start petting him because he's SO overly friendly that he begins jumping on them, going crazy, tugging at the leash, nearly pulling my arm off, so I tend to avoid people for that reason. I always say "oh he jumps and is crazy!" and people don't seem to care. I tried to walk by this one owner with a little dog and she kept insisting our dogs said hi... ummm, can you see he's here pulling my ARM off?!? LoL.
But yes, here is Ezekiel and Jackson!