I’m going to sound like an absolute hypocrite as someone who posts 99.9% off-leash dog photos (including off-leash terrier photos), but I really wish Dog Internet (mostly Dog Instagram™️) as a whole would move away from being off-leash as an achievement for dogs, a goal, a milestone, etc. because I really don’t think the average pet owner is knowledgeable/equipped/responsible enough for it to be as popular a concept as it is.
No amount of training disclaimers in the captions or fun graphic info posts makes a dent in the prevalence of dogs ~living their best lives~ off leash in nature (
usually somewhere they shouldn’t be off leash in the first place) on the social media feed. And as much as you would love to think that common sense would prevale and someone will look at an image and go ‘wouldn’t that be nice, better train it then!’, well… the bar is subterranean when it comes to minimum standards of dog training in the pet world.People think I’m a hard-ass for my standard pre-release-the-hounds environment checks. Stuff like ‘are there cows?’ ‘is there wildlife?’ ‘how close is the road?’ ‘are there vehicles about?’ ‘how dense is the scrub?’. And that I’m too strict for always wanting to know where the dogs are, and recalling them when they get out of a certain range. All of which I consider standard prerequisites to letting any of my high-prey-drive working breed dogs loose to sniff around. This goes double for the terriers. The idea that people just… let their dogs loose? is completely wild to me.
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Everyone else talked about outdoor cats, it’s time for me to talk about offleash dogs
Reasons not to have your dog offleash at a public park:
1) roads (this one is self-explanatory)
2) it makes the park inaccessible to like, entire swathes of the population. If you have experience with police dogs or guard dogs in your neighborhood, or you’re a new immigrant from somewhere with a large population of feral dogs, it sucks ass going to the park and having someone’s massive lab bound up to you!
3) If, for example, you are in a protected wetland area plastered with friendly signs asking you to please leash your dog to avoid causing an ecological impact, having your dog offleash might cause an ecological impact! “Oh no, my dog is well-behaved, they would never bother the wildlife” wrong! your dog is in the pond trying to eat the endangered Blandings’ turtles!
4) Non-zero chance of a jokerified park guide (me) just clipping your dog to a leash and stealing them
5) “Oh but my dog is friendly!” If your unleashed “friendly” dog runs up to my leashed UNFRIENDLY dog, and my dog bites yours, guess who’s getting the blame despite doing everything right?
6) Many parks can have poison baits or traps in them for invasive species control that your dog can accidentally come across and be harmed by if allowed to roam freely
7) most councils or local governments (especially in Australia) have laws about which areas count as on or off-leash areas (especially because of reasons 3 and 6) and you can and will get fined hefty amounts for doing the wrong thing
8) there are off-leash spaces designated by councils that you can go to instead where you are allowed to let your dog run free. Just look them up and go there if it’s such a big deal for you
9) Your dog is at risk of physical injury if it runs up to, say, a parent with a baby or toddler. Punting a strange dog that runs up isn’t out of the question, nor is instinctively shooting it if you’re someplace with lax gun laws.
10) If it’s a place also frequented by horses, your dog could get its skull caved in with a kick from a 800lb+ animal that was either startled or plain doesn’t like dogs.
11) Dogs are known for eating shit but it’s not good for them and also makes them smell, especially if they also roll in it. And god forbid they come across human poo.
12) Venomous animals can bite your dog or your dog may eat a poisonous animal. A bear/cougar/croc/whatever may also find themself face to face with a snack. Birds of prey may also see a meal if you have a small dog.
13) Ticks and spear grass! If a dog isn’t leashed, you can’t keep them away from long grass.
14) They’ll get lost.
15) They’ll growl/nip/bite someone who will try to get your dog put down.
16) If your dog damages/kills protected or endangered flora or fauna, that’s potentially a very steep fine in your future.
17) You’ll miss when your dog shits thus can’t pick it up.
18) Bloat can kill dogs quickly (and painfully) if you don’t get them to a vet ASAP and one of the biggest triggers is drinking something they shouldn’t E.G. pond water or water with algae.