Off-Leash Etiquette And Dealing With Ignorant Dog Owners

Hello, Jesse here with another blog. This week’s blog is about off-leash dogs. Now, I know I’ve been outspoken on off-leash dogs recently and my problem is not the fact that the dogs are off-leash. My problem is with them not being formally trained with a reliable level of obedience or the owner not being respectful of those sharing the environment with them. Let me give you an example

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, we were at Oz Park having our usual Verbal Instruction sessions at the park and a woman was walking with her Yorkie off-leash on the park paths. Her Yorkie was running around everywhere with no boundaries. There was a family having a picnic and her Yorkie ran right up to them jumping up on everyone. A man within the group asked that she call her dog because it was disturbing their picnic and the woman just shrugged and said, “it’s a park” and continued to walk without acknowledging her dog.

This is the type of behavior or dog-ownership I have qualms with. It’s a park, not a dog park. I walked my dogs everyday off-leash when I lived in the South Loop, but I was mindful and respectful of those around me and they were always under command unless I found a nice open space to allow them to run and sniff around. This is off-leash etiquette. Having full control of them, not being intrusive to others and their space at the park, and being courteous. Maddie put together a quick video to demonstrate Off-Leash Etiquette.

During one of our Pack Walks through Lakeview East Recently, we came across a man walking his dog off-leash on the sidewalk. Now, he did place his dog in a Heel, but there were a number of reactive dogs on the walk that day and I told him to put his dog on a leash. He decided to just continue to walk by us and I placed myself between him and our dogs to act as a buffer. His dog’s obedience actually wasn’t as good as he thought it was because when I went to step between the dog left his leg to greet me. Had I not been there, the dog may have gone up to the wrong dog and caused an issue.

This is why I teach my clients to speak up and put their safety and their dog’s safety first. Not worrying about what the other dog owner may think. Had I been in that man’s shoes, I would have either leashed up my dog or stepped aside giving plenty of distance to allow them to move forward with worrying. You can see the video below.