In my opinion - Dogs on leads.

[Chippy_Tea]

5 live do this every day today's topic is dogs on leads.

Should dogs be kept on leads in all public areas?

 

[Rodcx500z]

100% yes

 

[JockyBrewer]

As a dog owner I’d probably be in favour.

 

[An Ankoù]

82.76% yes.

 

[The Baron]

Before you owners answer this includes park area football fields etc where I see many owners let them off their leads where they are a long way from the owners and not in control of them and if kids are playing they will naturally run after any balls the kids are playing with and then you hear that shout "it will not hurt you" whilst being 25 yards away
Sorry for the rant one of my personal hates

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I will follow that with my rant

A few people have already phoned in saying their dogs are friendly so they should be allowed to run free what these owners don't get is there are people like me who do not like dogs I was bitten a few years ago and now have a fear of dogs I don't want your little ball of hair running towards me jumping up and putting dirty paws on my clothes when I am out enjoying a walk if you want to let your dog run free find somewhere where you are not going to bother anyone.

On a positive note some owners phoned in and said you can now rent dog exercise areas by the half hour whee you can let your dog run free, a good business idea and it solves a problem not often discussed.

 

[The Baron]

A high majority of attacks especially on children are family pets(that one will not hurt you) no dog and I mean no dog is immune from attacks they are just like humans they have bad days and treating them like children can make them become jealous in fact some people prefer them to children.
They can be a integral family members but they are pets at the end of the day.

 

[Beermonster66]

My dog loves humans but is not so keen on other dogs so I keep him on the lead to A) stop him bothering people like Chippy Tea who may not welcome the attention and B) to prevent him getting into scraps with other dogs. The only time I would consider letting him off the leash is in a wide open space with no one else around.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I think it's not impossible to have different rules in towns and out in the country rather than having blanket bans at national level.

On a positive note some owners phoned in and said you can now rent dog exercise areas by the half hour whee you can let your dog run free, a good business idea and it solves a problem not often discussed.

There's not that many of them and they're not cheap.

As something I have experience of, I think the US has a better idea in that they recognise the fact that they restrict the rights of dogs and their owners by expecting dogs to be on lead in most public places, but in return for that every council is expected to provide an off-lead dog park for free. The best ones have two separate areas, one for small/timid dogs and one for the rest, and provide water fountains, poo bags and bins (in fact it's considered normal to provide poo bags for free in other areas, which means a much better rate of clearing up poo). I think it's not unreasonable tradeoff to have to make, providing facilities in return for a restriction of rights.

The other thing that I think the US is much better at is that they have a "driving test" for dogs called the Canine Good Citizen test, which tests the basics of being able to eg walk past people/dogs without jumping up etc. The Kennel Club here have something similar but it's less of a thing, whereas in the US you need to have passed the CGC to access certain parks and eg have the dog in rented accommodation. One difference is that the British one puts more weight on off-lead training as it's more needed here. But just generally I'd put more weight on training and less on the nanny state trying to ban stuff.