To restrain or not to restrain? The leash long question that we should all know the answer to
- Chenelle
- Nov 25, 2019
- 3 min read
Hey Southern Highland dog owners, and the pooch owners in Goulburn as well, I have some important stuff to chat about when it comes to keeping your pups safe.
Not everyone likes to hear it, not everyone likes to do it, but as a person in a position where I can reach a large audience, I feel a responsibility to share my insight and knowledge with you all on why it’s so important to - keep your dog on a leash at all times when out in public.
Now, don’t feel attacked, I’m not saying your dog is not a good dog and needs to be restrained! That’s definitely not what this is about. This is about keeping our precious pooches safe, there are so many reasons why it’s spoken about time and time again to keep even the most well trained dogs under your control, and I’m going to go over a few of them with you guys.
No matter how docile, sweet, well trained, old, or slow a dog is, they all have their own brains and are capable of making decisions and reacting to situations, as soon as you have your dog off leash, you are no longer in control of their actions, unless your dog did 5 years at police dog training school and had won 7 championships for recall demonstrations (I’m kidding, but seriously ...). Your dog can decide if it wants to chase a cat, approach another dog to say hello, step out on to the road, eat something off the ground it shouldn’t, and each of those scenarios pose a problem to both your dog, any dog it comes in to contact with, and even other civilians.
Your dog might be super friendly, loves to socialise, say hello to other dogs and hooman companions, sniff butts at the dog park and is generally submissive in personality. They may have a very inquisitive nature, which is absolutely fine! But what if a dog they try to approach to say hello to, due to being offleash, is not overly friendly ? Or doesn’t like to socialise ? They don’t like their personal space being invaded... not only is your pet in danger of being hurt, but you have no control over the situation. And not only may your dog get hurt (or worse), but they can also develop social anxiety, become fearful when going out, develop aggression towards other dogs as a survival instinct, and all this can take a long time and a lot of work to fix.
If your dog is curious by nature and loves to dart off in search of the source of a new and exciting smell or sound, there is nothing stopping your pup stepping out into traffic, and potentially getting injured or causing an accident. Without a leash or harness there’s nothing to help your dog in these situations, especially if recall is poor. Recall is when you can call your dogs name, and they come right back first go, and sit at your feet. Let’s be honest... how many of your dogs when out in public, at the park, at the beach, etc, come back first call when there is so much exciting stuff around to be discovered ?
Keeping dogs on a leash also protects our local wildlife, especially if you’re like myself and love to take dogs hiking in local bushland and rainforest. Canines have natural predatory instincts, yes, even your chubby pug who only gets up when he hears dinner getting ready (haha) and when in the right mood can, and will, chase and kill or injure small animals.
I will also provide a link to the NSW gov page which explains the laws and repercussions regarding dogs being restrained in public places
At the end of the day, we all want our animals to be safe, happy, and relaxed, they will not hate you for keeping them on a lead, and if you really really want them to have a good free run, feel free to message us to chat about safe places to do so.
Until next week,
Chenelle
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