Dog leash law; Do you have one where you live?  

Those people were risking the llife of that dog and to me, that is irresponsible. At this time I don't have a dog, but a cat, (actually it's my daughters, I would rather have a dog). If I did have a dog, that dog would be on a leash or dog run for the many reason you said, getting hit by a car, running away, biting someone or fighing with another dog. Or, considering where I live, another important thing to remember is skunks.. I made that mistake only one time, one evening before bed,I was just letting my dog out for a quick break and there was a skunk right there, needless to say, the dog spent the night outside...

There is a leash law in my province. The only place you can have them off is in designated leash free areas. I don't trust my dogs enough to be off. I think they are well trained, but, I can't say for sure that if they saw a squirrel or a rabbit, they might not bolt into traffic. Not only that, there are people who are nervous about dogs, and it's not fair for them if your dog is loose. It's irresponsible to let them loose in my opinion.

This is always an on-going debate here and there is a law that says that u have to keep your dog in aleash in public places, however not many people follow it and there are many people that just ignore it. For me - beeing scared of dogs it is a bif problem coz they can usually sense my fear and therefor I attract them somehow. i do not know how many times I have been greeted by dogs uin the middle of the road and I just freeze. I HATE it when the owner then says...
_ No need to be scared hun, he/she is sooooo nice, he just wants to say hi..
Well I actually dont care and I do not want them near me..

Dont get me wrong,. I love dogs and one day I will probably have one of my own. I do not have a problem with dogs that I know and trust.

There is around here and one for the droppings too. We don't normally go out in the yard with sheltie. He is mostly an indoor dog and though he minds me pretty good, I don't trust him and keep an eye on him in the off hand chance we go out to the garden briefly. We don't want the ticket or hassle if he were to misbehave.
Dog licenses are going up also around here. They need to pay for their new animal shelter.

hm. This got me curious. I grew up with dogs. We had my parents dog put to sleep last year though so I haven't had a dog in a year. But I also never lived in a neighborhood as to where we ever needed to worry about having our dog on a leash as they had our backyard to run around in with no one around to mind.

So I looked up that site but it had nothing about maryland. So I looked up another site. Apparently the state of Maryland does not have a leash law.

Now, as far as "worth the risk" etc. Again, I currently don't have a dog, but I think it's definitely a trust in the dog and your relationship with your dog. The dog I grew up with was a big furry Airdale. When my dad was out in the yard he'd let her roam around outside of the fenced in area with him in the way back yard. She knew better then to leave his sight. She knew better than to go around the front of the house. She knew better than to run up to a stranger (though we didn't really have neighbors so it wasn't often there was a stranger around). So I'd say if I had a dog like her, then yes. I would trust her to walk with me without a leash because she wouldn't take the chance of hurting someone else or running out in front of a vehicle.
The dog we got after she passed was a greyhound. Greyhound are race dogs and FAST dogs. They are sight hounds. They are not to be trusted without leashes because they could see something and BOLT and you'll never catch up to that thing. Now, my dog was a good dog that when she did get out without her leash she wouldn't go anywhere and she'd come back when you called her. Still I wouldn't trust her to not run out in traffic.

So I think it really depends on your relationship and trust in your dogs. and obviously you don't trust your dogs to be off a leash so you wouldn't risk it. But some dogs are dogs that can be trusted, some dogs you can have the relationship with and I would allow it if I had that type of relationship with my dog.

luckily i just have a cat so I don't have to worry :)

We do have a leash law here, and i used to be the dog officer, so i know off hand that no one really obeys it.Sometimes it ends up quite tragically.People don't like to "restrict" their dogs mobility,well, then we shouldn't have a human population, because that's what "domesticates" animals.Our need for pets.If they want to keep them safe, they should learn to comply.

Here in Rockford you have to have your dog on leash at all times unless they are fenced in. If your dog gets caught without a leash I think its like a $50 fine or something like that.

Hi,

I do not have a dog, but I did quite often when I was growing up. When I lived on the farm it was not really an issue, I let my dog run free all the time. However, when I moved to the city my dog always was leashed. The only time I took him off the leash when we were out was if we went to a leash free park. It is simply the law where I am from.

cheers,

I live in the country. We don't have many laws. We can pretty much do what we want. In the city, there are laws.

As far as I am aware there are no laws for keeping your dog on the lead here in the uk unless you own one of the so called Dangerous Dogs which are supposed to be kept muzzled and leashed in public! I wish there were stricter laws as I am fed up seeing dogs with young boys out of control walking along our street and it is quite worrying as one dog in particular runs all over our garden - which is walled , it jumps in - and I worry that one day my kids will be there and goodness knows what would happen! The story you tell though the people were not only risking their dogs life but the lives of innocent motorists who may have had an accident because of this dog! xxx