Dog walking off leash

I never let my dogs off leash unless they're fenced in.  Neither of them have reliable recalls, unfortunately, though I've been working on it a little lately.  My dogs WOULD reliably run up to other dogs however, and that just is not acceptable.

Thanks for the opinions and answers, everyone.
 

ORIGINAL: acesmom

I don't care how well behaved your dog is or how many commands he knows.  If you are in town you need to keep that dog on a leash. 

 
1) Your comments were rather rude.
2) I don't live in a town.

I didn't mean to be rude, and I'm sorry if I've caused offense. 
 
I do have strong feelings about this, though -- just yesterday I posted a thread expressing my frustration with all the unleashed dogs that are running around my neighborhood and causing problems for my dog when we are on leash walks.  But, my comments were a result of my experiences where I live, and here there are a lot of people and dogs and there IS a leash law.  When there's a rule about it, I don't think it's right when people just ignore it. 
 
If you don't live in a lace that has a law requiring dogs to be on a leash, then of course it's a different situation.  If that is your situation I didn't mean to get mad at you.  []

ORIGINAL: acesmom

I didn't mean to be rude, and I'm sorry if I've caused offense. 

 
It's fine. Thanks.

Leash is on at all times when we leave the backyard. Not only do we have city-wide leash laws (I do not know about the parish law) but I do not want to expose my dogs to a possible accident or to expose other people and their dogs to the perhaps unwelcome potential attentions of my dogs. They stop and sit before crossing each street and we get out of people's way (in a sit) to give them room on the sidewalk.
 
Five seconds of inattention or a too strong stimulus is all it takes to have a dangerous (for dogs or people) situation develop.

I've been working up to off-leash walking ... building a solid recall, directional commands, working on distractability.

Right now I'm practicing with a 30' lead, here in my neighborhood. It's amazing how much more and different work is involved in managing the movements of a dog when you don't have the leash to do the work for you!

For now the only places we go totally off leash are remote and off-trail.

ORIGINAL: acesmom

I didn't mean to be rude, and I'm sorry if I've caused offense. 

I do have strong feelings about this, though -- just yesterday I posted a thread expressing my frustration with all the unleashed dogs that are running around my neighborhood and causing problems for my dog when we are on leash walks.  But, my comments were a result of my experiences where I live, and here there are a lot of people and dogs and there IS a leash law.  When there's a rule about it, I don't think it's right when people just ignore it. 

If you don't live in a lace that has a law requiring dogs to be on a leash, then of course it's a different situation.  If that is your situation I didn't mean to get mad at you.  []

I am with you , and I think it is common courtesy not to let your dog run up to someone else without their OK.

Three of my five dogs are walked off leash, almost exclusively .  They have dead-on recalls & they don't wish to go visit others.  The fourth dog has about a 98% recall, & by the end of summer I expect her to be off leash as well.

Tojo and Loki have pretty bad recalls by i-Dog standards. Well, they always stay within sight, leave people and dogs alone when I tell them to (unless the other dog is not leaving them alone) and generally follow my lead without any prompting, although sometimes it takes a few minutes of convincing to come put the leashes back on when the walk is over. 90% of the time, they come no problem and the other 10% we have to wait around for five minutes until they decide to be caught.

I know the people here on i-Dog probably really disagree with my ways, but I do let them off leash at the dog run, even though it's not entirely fenced in, and at my new property, provided we are far away from the llama. They will only bother the llama if we get within a certain distance of him and the llama will only bother us if we bother him first. I'm going to commence llama avoidance training ASAP, though, because otherwise I won't be able to go on walks without checking where the llama is. Sometimes he's a mile away, but sometimes he's right outside the house.

Anyway... that's my policy. I don't ever ever ever walk off leash in the city or where it's illegal, just in designated areas and on my own 160 acre property which miles away from even the nearest house.

Luke's off leash commands are "over" (to get him off the shoulder of the road), "here" (to call him back to me if he's gone wandering on the trail and there's someone coming), "stay by me" (to put him in a heel position - either on foot or on the bike -- he stays here until I say okay), "wait" (before crossing anything iffy, like the road or railroad tracks) and "go swim" [] (allows me to stay on the top of the trail at the bridge while he runs down the hill through the weeds to go play in the creek on his own before running back up to me).
 
Luke typically spends about 95% of his time off leash.  We only use it when required in public situations.  I live in a small town and we don't run into people on the walking/bike trail very often.

To all of you with dogs with SOLID recalls who don't wish to go up and greet others, does that include other dogs??

Are you all 100% sure of how to read your dogs and what their intents are?

I don't mean to offend anyone by asking this, but off leash dogs scare the CRAP out of me. Not for me, but for my dog.
It takes not even two seconds, NOT EVEN, regardless of if you are there with a leash or not, for an off leash dog to run up and greet an on leash dog, and for the on leash dog to react and bite/attack your off leash dog.

So...I hope all of you with dogs with SOLID recalls, are 100% positive that you know your dog, as a dog and not as a seemingly, well intended dog that loves other people and other dogs. Because, regardless, if my dog were to meet any one of your off leash dogs and your dogs ran up to her, my dog would react. And it doesn't even have to be my dog, specifically because I'm sure the chances of us meeting are slim to none, but I'm 100% POSITIVE my dog is not the only dog reactive dog. And just as I am 100% positive that my dog is not the only existing dog reactive dog, I hope that you all with dogs with 100% SOLID recalls, are that much more positive that your dogs have solid recalls.

And would any of you walking your dogs off leash be offended if your dog ran up to a dog reactive dog and the dog reactive dog attacked yours?

Neiko stops and waits for me when he sees another dog on the trail (and he'll come when I call him). I don't allow him to run up to dogs (or people) on the trail because I am aware that many dogs are leash reactive or even if they aren't reactive can get reactive if they see a dog running at them.

I honestly don't mean to offend by my questions. But off leash dogs throw me into a panic when I'm walking Ella. But, I have noticed that most off leash dogs, if they're not dog aggressive themselves, will see how Ella is reacting to them and run the other way before even getting near her. But some dogs are completely clueless and once when my boyfriend was biking with Ella a dog charged out of his house at her. He ran around the bike to the side Ella was on, and Ella bapped him with her paw and at that very moment the owner came out and called his dog back home. My boyfriend got lucky that the owner came out and called his dog away from Ella. Actually, the owner of that dog got lucky.

I agree, Becca.  Personally, I am hesistant to condone ANY dog off-leash in an area where there may be other dogs.  I just spent a week dog-sitting a huge Alaskan Malamute that has developed leash reactivity/dog aggression.  It's insanely hard to control a 95 lb sled dog lunging at full force.  I always had her on a short, strong leash (Ella's Lead!!) and kept her walking right at heel (which she does fine on her own).  I successfully kept her from eating two mini-Dachshunds that were leashed, thank God, but then on the last day I noticed a Golden Retriever off-leash ahead.  The Golden and owner were completely unaware of our presence.  The Golden was being allowed to wander way behind and way in front and the owner never once called the dog back or even glanced to see where he was.  The whole time, my dog is getting more and more worked up, b/c she can smell this dog and see it every once in a while.  I hung back and kept having to stop b/c this woman was walking so slow, not paying any attention to her dog.  Luckily, we were less than 1/4 mile from the path that went to my dog's backyard so as soon as we got close, I quickly ducked her onto the path and marched her forward, so there was no incident. 

Anyway, the point is, if you're going to allow your dog off-leash, even on a woodsy trail, PLEASE at the very least keep tabs on your dog ALL the time, not just when it darts off to run over to people.  IMO, it's off-leash owners responsibility to be on the lookout for other dogs and people, and not wait until the dog runs off to call it back.  It doesn't matter that the dog has a good recall and is called back before meeting the other dog.  The dog aggressive dog on the leash is already worked up and escalated to the KILL stage, just seeing/smelling/sensing another dog on the loose, zig-zagging up ahead.  I keep my dogs on short leads and will bet a million dollars they are wearing collars they cannot back out of or pull out of.  I keep the dogs I walk either at heel or within a step ahead or behind me.  It's not MY responsibility to keep tabs on other off-leash dogs and keep having to stop or walk in circles to avoid them.

Seeing how Luke does not fancy himself a dog, he does not seem to have any desire to run up and interact with other dogs.  His typical reaction if we see another dog is to stop, stand and get a mohawk.  Any time we see a dog in the distance he tends to attach himself to my side until he figures out what/who it is, giving me ample time to attach his leash.
 
I cannot recall any time that Luke has ever run up to another dog uninvited while off leash.  I can name many times, however, when an off leash dog has come running up to us (with Luke on leash) and I agree with you that this is a very uncomfortable situation.  Those are dogs who should not be off leash and/or their owner should be shot....