Since this just happened to me I thought I'd toss in another bit.<br /> <br /> I also can't stand people who sit in their front yards with their dogs off leash. I do not live in a rural area. My road comes off one of the busiest roads in this county and is a small circle of a street. Its like, a fifteen minute walk around my block and the past few weeks I haven't been able to finish that walk because of owners allowing their dogs to be off leash in their front yards. Hello people, to your dog that is THEIR territory, and they might try guard it. FYI, the yards in question are not fenced.<br /> <br /> BUT lets just go into todays venture, which happened no more than five minutes ago and I'm still shaking.<br /> <br /> Its a sunny, hot day so I decided to give Draco his bath outside, and let him play in the hose. Afterwards I like to walk him around the block, he dries fast and that short walk usually does it. So we're heading out, walking past my neighbors house and just about to pass a large bush that separates his house from the house beside it, so we got barely two houses down from my own. <br /> <br /> I just stepped past bushes and hear a bunch of barking. Oh yes, two dogs, one lab sized mutt and another small terrier looking mutt, are sitting with there irresponsible mother on the porch, off leash. The large dog barks but it's the small dog that goes darting through the yard. This isn't anything too new to me so I backtrack a couple steps, back past the bush, in hopes of the dog loosing interest. (Keep in mind that once her dog is past the bush too she can no longer see it.) I turn Draco around so he is now facing home. He goes into a heel just in time for the small dog to reach us. I have to grab Draco's collar to keep him from whirling on this dog as it sniffs his legs. Thank whatever fate it may be that Draco was compliant and quietly stood there, hair raised, as I told him 'easy' and 'leave it'. <br /> <br /> From the house with the dogs I hear 'hold on, i got a dog problem', so the lady is chit chatting on her cellphone, with two territorial or aggressive dogs under her 'watch', I don't care which they shouldn't have been off leash. She casually walks from her porch to her drive way, still talking on the phone, and once I see her I yell at her that my dog is aggressive and she needs to come get her dog. Just then her dog starts approaching Draco from the side, Draco turns toward it and the dog must have had a change of heart, I think Draco growled but I was too busy trying to get this lady to control her own dog to remember, and her dog took off back home. I yell at her again that she should keep her dog on a leash because it could have been seriously hurt had I not gotten Draco turned away from it. Lets face it, 100 pound shepherd mix against a possibly 15 pound terrier mix? Yeah.<br /> <br /> Her response? An annoyed look as she walks back to her porch, no apology. I'm sure she went back to sitting there with her dogs out, meanwhile I had to cut my 'walk' short because I'm not risking going by her house and having the large dog come at us. My dog did nothing to even spur her dog into charging us. He didn't even see the thing until it ran at him. So for anyone who thinks that having your dog off leash in your front yard is fine because it's YOUR yard, don't. It's inconsiderate to those walking by and it ruins walks for the rest of us. (Unless your yard is fenced, of course.)<br /> <br /> Am I the only one who gets things like this on a regular basis or do any of you guys have similar annoying problems like this?<br /> <br /> Now I get to sit here and smell wet shepherd. :|<br /> <br /> -end rant-<br /> <center><img src= http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y273/shadowwolf2028/inahole.png></center>

---

Yeah I like the leash laws. 110%. My husky doesn't like very hyper dogs bouncing up licking her face. One day I was walking her and this golden retrever came running up to us and licking and jumping all over her. She snarls and snaps and she was able to grab the goldie and lets just say she left holes in the other dogs face...I didn't think she'd do anything like that. the dogs owners got all mad at me and called the cops. they ended up getting a fine because there dog was off leash.<br /> They got even madder when the cop told them he wasn't gonna do anything about my dog attacking there dog.

Leash laws are great. I agree with them 100%, and think more people should follow them.<br /> <br /> Just because <b>your</b> dog is good with other dogs and humans doesn't mean <b>all</b> dogs will be good with your dog. You are endangering your own dog, as well as someone else's dog. e_e<br /> <br /> A lot of people around here don't follow the leash laws. It irks me to no end. They let their dogs off leash on the beach. (I live on an island)... so their dogs poop everywhere, they don't keep track of it, and their dogs will go up to random people and other dogs. :/ Seriously? People need to follow these leash laws. They're good laws to have.

One of my dogs (a very large german shepherd mix) is extremely fear aggressive towards people. She will not hesitate to charge up to them and bite so on the rare occassions she even gets to go anywhere close to people she doesn't know, she's always on a leash. Always. <br /> <br /> The only time I have her off leash is when we are outside. I live in a tiny little town in the middle of no where. There's hardly ever a person walking the streets and the only neighbor I have is seperated from our yard by a large, deep creek (my dog is also afraid of water). She's very responsive to me and is always supervised by me. I don't trust any one else to let her out off leash so if I can't do it, she stays in until I can. The only other time she's off leash is when we are using her for cattle herding, which she does for a local farmer that she's come to adore. <br /> <br /> Leash laws are there for a reason. I've seen some of the "best dogs in the world" bite. In fact, my father's chow-chow nearly tore my sister's eye out when we were kids, even though he swore up and down the dog was a wonderful, sweet, loving dog.

I think that in public places, dogs should be on leashes, unless they're playing with a frisbee in a park. My dog is playful and jumps on people and he's quite big so if I don't use a leash, I'm in big trouble.

---

I can't stand seeing people walking their dog without a leash beside a busy street. I think it's reckless and irresponsible as an owner to put your dog in that kind of danger. I don't CARE how 'well trained' and 'well behaved' a dog is, every dog has that moment where they might see something interesting. You can't guarantee your dog won't go after a squirrel that suddenly bolts out of no where, a loose dog nearby, a cat running across the street. ANYTHING can happen when you're on a walk THAT is why we have leash laws. If you are out in public and the area isn't a designated off-leash zone your dog needs to be on a leash.<br /> <br /> -deep breath-<br /> <br /> I've been charged one too many times by dogs being walked off leash. And I'm not talking in parks, I hardly go to parks because my shepherd is still fear aggressive toward large dogs, I'm talking about around town. Too many people think that just because THEIR dog is friendly that it's okay. No. It's not. You want to know why? Because when MY dog sees yours he'll start whining and YOUR dog will react. Usually quite viscously. I've kicked so many dogs that have lunged at Draco I can't keep track. <br /> <br /> I've seen a dog get hit because its owner neglected to put a leash on it. You want to know why? It saw a plastic grocery bag blowing in the street.<br /> <br /> I have no respect at all for owners who think they're above the leash law.

---

I agree with what everyone has said. My puppy while on our yard goes without a leash because I know I can trust her and she is very susceptible to my voice and will stay on our property, however, I wouldn't trust her in public areas because she gets excited if people get too close to her. I can't control people in public so I would keep her on a leash and the fact that I'd like to keep her close in case something happened (say someone elses dog that doesn't follow the leash law but should). <br /> <br /> I know there's some dogs that can go off leash and be amazing (my shepherd I used to own could go on walks without them. My dad did that with her, not me) xP, but the few that can't behave ruined it for others. ^^; Its much safer anyways.

I think leash laws are good because if you let your dog off lead there is many things that can go wrong unless your dog is trained off leash but again your dog can get hit buy cars get into a dog fight get lost may die many things.<br /> Some places you have to have your dog on a lead like when I was going walking with my dog there was a sign that says "all dogs must be on leashes". (I always walk my dog on a leash).

Leash laws around here aren't taken very seriously. I've only had my dog for about two months now and we've been charged four times, at least. My dog, Bear, is a biter towards other dogs and strangers. Its very annoying when someone's dog charges us while we're walking. <br /> All in all, I'd love leash laws-if people actually paid attention to them.

---

Indeed. The dog who has problems with other dogs IS contained - it's their fault that their off-leash dog ran up to someone else's leashed animal.<br /> <br /> Would these same people blame the driver of a car if their dog darted out in front of it due to their dog being off lead?<br /> <br /> Wait... just.. don't answer that one -_-