Nina, I agree that a long line is a valuable training aid for some dogs when training a reliable recall, unfortunately they do limit the places where the dog goes, we have various woods near us that are popular with dog walkers, but would be impossible on a line, lots of dogs like to swim, I would think letting them swim with a line on could cause a problem.

i do agree that untrained dogs should not be loose in public areas, but I think my definition of a trained dog is different from yours, a trained dog will return to its owner if it is spooked, because it has been trained to do so.

We really hammer home the point to all our clients that unless they can recall their dog and have control at distance ie a distance down no matter what the distraction, they do not have a trained dog, and therefore the dog should not be off lead.