Dr. Miriam Carone / Pawsitive Coach, IMDT, MBBS, GPST
Picture: Raymond in our friends' garden.
I want to start by saying that if you let your dog off leash, I am not here to criticise you but only to explain my considerations and answer some of the questions that people ask me when they notice that my dog is always on leash in public, or when I advise my clients to keep their dogs on leash.
Most people recognise that off-leash exercise is beneficial to ‘blow off some steam’, particularly in large dogs with high exercise needs, and I completely agree that running around in a green field makes dogs happy and helps them release some energy.
However, another big part of what dogs enjoy when they are off leash is the freedom of sniffing around without any hurry, and/or of running away from their perceived threats without being guided towards or away from them by their owner, both things that often happen when they are on leash (and that can lead to leash reactivity).
Being the guardian of a small dog, a sausage dog (Dachshund) called Raymond to be precise, this is easier for me. Raymond is quite a low energy dog who is very content with short bursts of play and short walks as his physical exercise.
This is supplemented with mental enrichment activities such as lots of sniffing, snuffle mats, puzzle toys, scattered feeds and stuffed Kong’s and lots of fun training and play every day (see my separate post on Enrichment).
On our walks, I don’t use my phone or do anything else than focus on Raymond, I bring his food and reward him frequently for checking in with me, walking nicely and when he goes potty outside.
One of the main things I am working with Raymond on is scavenging when on food walks. If my focus is not on him at all times, and he finds food on the floor, he will eat it. This can be really dangerous at times and that’s why I want him really close to me where I can quickly intervene if he does find something dangerous such as a chicken bone or chocolate (both have happened before).
I also use outside distractions as an opportunity to train his focus and fine-tune his skills. Ray loves being close to me on our walks, and he hardly ever even tries to go further away from me than the leash permits. I have a longer leash (3m) for when we go to big parks where he can run around, and even then, he tends to stay quite close to me.
Having your dog off leash is a great sign of trust in him, and I do trust my dog quite a lot, but there are a couple caveats to this.
Firstly, pretty much no animal in the world is completely, reliably, 100% predictable. So, your dog might have excellent recall 99% of the time, but that means that out of 100 walks, he might bolt once. If you walk you dog 3 times per day that means on average, he could bolt almost once every month. If bolting puts his life at risk of being run over by a bike or worse a car, being stolen, or having a traumatic experience, do you really want to risk that every month?
Even a dog who normally has 100% recall (which is extremely rare), could still bolt if his circumstances changed, for example, pretty much any medical condition can affect behaviour and therefore could make him less responsive to you. If something really startled him, for example, a completely new experience such as wild animals, thunder, gunshots or even a balloon popping, this could cause any dog with an otherwise great recall to bolt unexpectedly.
Hormonal changes that puppies go through and senile changes that older dogs go through can also cause a sudden change in behaviour, for example, puppies with newfound confidence may stop staying so close to you (this typically happens after a few months of joining the family), so you may have thought they were perfectly fine to be off-leash, but actually, they were just initially scared to leave you and now they are not, so they will.
I could go on for ages about the many reasons why a seemingly perfectly trained dog could bolt and risk their lives, the point is, the risk is significant and for me, it is not worth it.
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, unfortunately, just like when you are driving a car, it is not just about trusting the driver but about the other drivers and the environment, too.
So while I trust my dog, I do not necessarily trust every single person, dog, vehicle or animal in the world to respect my dog and not hurt him.
Here are 7 key reasons I do not let my dog off-leash:
1. Dog theft.
Dog theft has been on the rise worldwide, in fact, the UK has just (finally) introduced a law to make pet abduction punishable with prison. This has NOT only been happening with small dogs or purebreds, there have been Staffie crosses being stolen, sadly, likely for use in dog fights. Keeping your dog on the leash does not guarantee that it will not be stolen, but it does make it a lot less likely.
2. Children.
A child (or even an adult) that hasn’t learnt how to treat a dog with respect may approach my dog in a startling way and (hopefully unintentionally) hurt him or scare him, which could create a negative association with children in general (dogs don't generalise most concepts very well, except for fear). This may make him fear all children in future and develop aggressive tendencies towards them, which is obviously not something I want. If I am close to him, I can intervene.
3. Vehicles.
Anyone on a bike or roller blades or any vehicle in fact may not see your dog and come extremely close to him and make him scared of all vehicles or worse, injure him. These tragic incidents are far too common even in dogs who have 'great recall' or 'know not to go on the streets' according to their owners.
4. Other dogs approaching my dog.
An unfriendly dog may approach my dog and scare him, again this can cause him to develop fear and aggression towards other dogs. A leash cannot completely prevent this, but again, if I am close to him, I can intervene (how is a different story, see my post about dog fights).
5. My dog approaching a fearful dog.
Many dogs are fearful of other dogs and that may well be one of the reasons they are being kept on a leash by their owners. If your off-leash dog (let’s call him Bob) approaches a dog who is scared of dogs (let’s call him Joe), then Joe is stuck because he cannot escape from Bob, and his only option is to growl, lunge, bark at Bob and maybe bite him. This can traumatise Bob, making him scared of dogs, and that’s how Bob becomes the new Joe and the cycle continues.
6. Public liability.
If your dog is off-leash when something happens (e.g. a dog fight or any harm to anyone really), you will have no control over the situation and you will be legally liable (this can include penalty fines, and sadly can result in euthanasia for the dog involved).
The law states that if you allow your dog (or a dog you are temporarily responsible for) to be ‘dangerously out of control’, you are liable to pay fines, and the dog can be seized.
Many parks also have a ‘no off-leash' sign which is easy to miss but is legally enforceable. The public liability aspect is a crucial one to consider.
7. Respect for others.
Even if your dog is friendly, there are many people and children who are scared of dogs and do not want your dog to run up to them. Having your dog on a leash is both safer and more respectful of the rest of the world.
"But what about exercise?", I hear you ask.
I realise that if you have a bigger dog, running around in the park might feel like more of a necessity than it does for Raymond. However, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Firstly, physical exercise (running around in a park) does not replace the need for mental enrichment and in excess, it can actually end up causing chronic stress, both emotional stress and physical stress on the dog’s joints, so it should still be done in moderation rather than let the dog completely exhaust himself every day.
Also, if you think about it, you can buy training leads that are incredibly long and give them the freedom to run as far from you as you would ever want them to be.
Consider this: do you ever really want your dog to be completely out of sight and reach? Unless you are in an enormous field, isn’t 30m far enough for your dog to be from you?
15m lines are on sale on Amazon for just over £10 (https://amzn.to/3GvAZ9D), and 30m ones for just under £15 (https://amzn.to/3z4MuTP).
Long lines are also great for recall practice, and you can play games including fetch and ball and enrichment activities with your dog on a long leash to give him some exercise.
Yes, having dogs on a long leash also comes with a couple of side effects: the first is tangles. Yes, they can be very annoying and awkward, but I would rather deal with 100000 tangles than have my dog hurt or stolen.
The other issue is the risk of injury if the leash gets caught on something or someone. So yes, you still have to pay attention to your dog, but really, you should always pay at least some attention to your dog (and ideally a lot).
The main thing to be aware of is the risk of choking if you have a really long leash that gets caught on something while the dog is wearing a collar. That’s why I recommend harnesses for all dogs, but that’s a separate discussion.
The risk of strangulation with a collar is still very much there, and in fact is higher, if the dog is completely off-leash, as the collar can get caught in a tree and you could be so far away as not to notice until it is too late.
The bottom line:
- Use a harness and a long leash. - Pay attention to your dog and use public places as an opportunity to work on focus and engagement, enrichment, games and bonding. - Give your dog plenty of mental enrichment activities both at home and outdoors (see my post on enrichment). - ONLY let your dog off-leash in completely enclosed fields, ideally private ones e.g. a garden, and ideally without other dogs to avoid overstimulating them. - If there are other dogs in this enclosed field, ONLY let your dog play with them if you know your dog is confident with other dogs and after checking with the other dogs’ owners that theirs are too. Ideally, they should meet on a leash first. Also, have your dog take frequent breaks from play to avoid overstimulation. This is really important.
If you found this page because your dog has leash reactivity issues or recall problems (whether on or off-leash), get in touch with me by filling out this form.
Dr. Miriam Carone / Pawsitive Coach, IMDT, MBBS, GPST
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