Hi, Not sure this is in the right place. We went out to the oval yesterday evening, which is fenced and dogs run around off lead. There is never more than a couple of dogs at anyone time. We arrived and we normally let Vanilla settle a bit before I let her off the lead, no exception. However at the same time another couple arrived at the far end with 2 little dogs (sorry no idea what kind). One was off lead the other on a long retractable lead. Would you let your dog off lead or leave on lead? All they did was walk around the edge. We let her off as the off lead dog approached and they played. She went and said hello to the on lead dog, once done she came back after we called her. But they all wanted to play. But we ended up feeling that we had to put Vanilla back on her lead, which we thought was a bit unfair given that one was off lead and constantly came over. She was good so we used it as a training opportunity instead. Thanks for any advise
I don't like my dogs running up to other dogs that are on lead, because I don't know why they're on their leads - are they aggressive, are they nervous, are they recovering from injury? - so, if I don't think I can keep my dog with me, I won't let them off. Like you, I'd have just used it as a training opportunity.
Even if I know the other dog is friendly I do not allow playing while on lead, my own dog or the other dog. Any lead but if the retractable is long, that's worse. I know of a dog who got two bad breaks in the same leg from getting tangled and then stopped abruptly. Freaky one off maybe but it just looks dangerous.
Thanks for this. At least it was a good training session. I always have a release cue that we use, so she never runs without me giving this. She is always back on lead if we see any dogs that are on lead. Gives me chance to train other things.
