Hi! As a proud owner of a very well behaved 1,5-year old lab, Ema, I was wondering about your thoughts on walking our dogs with no leash. In Portugal, where I live, the use of leash is compulsory by law. Nevertheless... I always get her off the leash in parks or areas away from busy streets as she is quite responsive to my commands and not at all reactive. I love watching her running, sniffing and greeting people/dogs, if I let her. She is enthusiastic about meeting other dogs, but I usually monitor that. What do you think? Is it "wrong" to set our dog free or not?
I only ever walk my dog off the lead. It’s legal here in Northern England and she is trained (we worked really hard) so everyone can enjoy her being free.
I usually use a leash in our neighborhood, but there are some open fields around where I normally let them off, even if it is technically not legal. We also have lots of areas where leashes are not required, but we let them off even in leash areas, as long as there aren't going to bother folks or their animals. It is pretty much impossible to really exercise a Lab on leash unless you have all day and can go pretty fast.
We have lots of off leash areas in my suburb- because our local council is quite dog friendly. All parks are off lead parks except for bushland.That said, we don't let our dog off lead everywhere we can because he does tend to get overexcited and silly (he is 9 months old) so we judge based on how crowded the area is with dogs vs people. We have also finally bought Total Recall. Now to get a whistle! Laws vary from council area to council area here, which is confusing!
Hi @flor Would your dog return to you immediately if she suddenly saw a rabbit running away from her? If not, then I wouldn't have my dog off lead in any area where my dog could cross a road.
My walks are almost entirely off-lead - I'm in the UK where it is legal (obviously I put her on lead if we're on a road or pavement.)
