I for one cannot drive out to the country to excersise dogs, my country park is 20 minutes walk each way as it is.

Other owners, especially older oens coudl not walk that far and use the small recreation grounds etc, which I now avoid as not being secure enough for mine.

Sadly, I know a lot of my clients will now avoid parks and common land where dogs are running free, including myself.

For every responsible dog owner their are 3 who are not, and it can and does cause chaos. As I said previously, the best trained dog in the world can be spooked by a car backfiring, bitch on heat etc. etc.

All of our German Shepherd Dogs, rarely venture far from our side, so a flexi lead still enabled them a good free run. As soon as another dog approached I could relax, secure in the knowledge that my dog was safe.

I have however, had occasion where a young Lab with a lovely temperament, came ambling over to Zak wanting to play. The owner was nowhere in sight!

As explained previously, Zak was fearful of other dogs due to being attacked when he was a pup, and went on the defensive. After much barking and my pulling Zak away from this dog, the owner finally appeared, shouting and screaming at me for frightening her dog!!

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How many threads are there on this subject?

If I took my dog out and didn't let him off lead for a run I would feel I had done him an injustice. If he didn't interact with other dogs on a walk I would also feel he'd missed out.

I'm begining to think that I'm lucky with the local places I can walk him as I don't find many problems with dogs out of control or anything like that. Most dogs seem to stick with their owners around here. And I've never witnessed a dog attack or fight.

At the park we take Milo to, almost every dog is off the lead and as people pass each other the dogs interact. It isn't unusual for 5-6 dogs from different owners to be playing together without any problems. To me this is an important thing for a dog. I don't believe that dogs can interact naturally on a lead.

At the woods Milo loves to run through the trees, he keeps himself to himself and stays away from people and other dogs most of the time. However if I see another dog on a lead I will recall him and put him on the lead just incase he does take an interest.

I know my dog and know I have control over him, however when I walk other peoples dogs they are kept on a flexi lead until I have assessed their recall and can trust them and even then they are kept on lead when other people are around. Some dogs I will always keep on a lead because they cannot be trusted to come back when called.

I don't think people should feel they have to keep certain breeds on a lead to protect them. I see many Rottweilers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and Akitas off lead playing happily, the owners don't get abuse and the dogs are loving have a free run. If your dog is friendly and under control it doesn't matter what breed it is.

My dog isn't brilliant with other dogs and I'd feel a lot safer knowing someone else's dog was ON its lead rather than end up chasing after my dog. My dog has been in "fights" before with other dogs who have been off their leads and my dog has always snapped first but because of that reason alone it was "my fault" according to the other owners...

But on the other hand shouldn't every dog have its free run somewhere safe?? If they organised maybe a dog walking track or a dog park that only dogs with good natures of course, were aloud to go into, then they needn't have this law.

Seems quite selfish, maybe they should tackle the problem of dog owners not being able to control their dogs properly first?

Plus, I take my dog to the children's play area sometimes during the spring and summer, it says not to but my dog only goes in there when he's done his business and I've put it in the bin. All the kids know him, all the kids love him and he doesn't cause any problems being the only dog in there I don't see the problem with that, just have a problem with some mindless owners, I believe all dog owners should be given written and practical exams before getting a dog because some just have no idea unfortunately.

And another thing, different dogs require different ammounts of exercise. My dog is a small terrier mix, about the size of a Westie, he's 14 yrs old and still acts like a puppy. He has one walk with me in the afternoon (around 4ish before his dinner) where we walk for up to 45 minutes, and my dad takes him out at night for about the same length of time. He has always had access to the garden when he needs to, but the upsetting thing was for us, was when we adopted him, he had no clue how to play with toys or have a tough and tumble with you, infact we got him some toys but he got scared by them and we thought not to push it with him. So, walking and running around was his playing, and you can't do that when he's on the lead so going somewhere open but safe from danger is the only option we've ever had for him.

Now he's only a little terrier and also getting on a bit, but then you have greyhounds and collies and all those dogs need crave an active life otherwise their health suffers, whereas soem dogs can go for an half an hour walk three times a day and that's all the exercise they could handle.

I'm done now

There will always be a lot of threads on this subject, because it is a topic people feel strongly about, there seems to be an equal number of pro's and anti's on this subject, and it makes a change from arguing about breeding !!

Its not arguing it's debating

Of course it is Alan, silly me, everyone on here is far too polite to argue. I was actually suprised how strongly people feel about dogs being allowed off lead, because the circles I mix in its the norm.

Same here, we used to go to a field where a group of us sat and talked while the dogs played with each other, for hours on nice summer days. We don't go there anymore as its become a bit of a swamp but still it seems to be the norm for dogs to be off the lead on parks and at the woods around here.

Well, this is music to my ears and well done local councils who are enforcing this law. It will keep both dogs and children safe.

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Does it really make you that happy that all dogs must be stuck on a lead and restricted to what they can do, where they can roam and how they interact with other dogs?