[nagdu] Running without a fenced yard

Mon Jan 19 18:49:32 UTC 2015

Danielle,

Good grief! When we first moved here, we thought kids were opening our 
gate, so we padlocked it. Then we thought kids had come around and 
opened our other gate, so we padlocked that one! Only as my husband was 
huffing around muttering about those bleep kids while he looked for 
chain and padlock, I noticed his pup was happily outside the open gate. 
So it was our bleep kid opening the gate. /lol/ We still have the one 
gate where kids walk by padlocked, since we don't really use it, and we 
have the other gates rigged so Zay, the breakout artist, can't open 
them. She still hopes! /lol/ It's scary, though, even though our dogs 
are the type to stay close and come home after brief adventures, so we 
don't have to search. Unless it's my family that leaves a gate open and 
lets Zay loose to go a wandering, then notice and go chasing her. I 
think I have them trained, and I hover about the gate now when we come 
back from group walks to be sure. I do not understand why some people 
find it so hard to grasp that if you run after the dog waving your arms 
and shouting, the dog will run away from you. D'oh!

I think one does have to be aware of the risks and the neighborhood and 
weigh carefully before deciding whether or when or how often to let the 
dogs run loose even in a fenced private yard. It can also depend on the 
dog or dogs. I feel pretty comfortable here with the dogs in the yard, 
where we work on recall frequently, and I'm usually hanging with them 
and playing with them to keep them busy away from the fence. This spring 
is going to be a bit iffier until I get Loki fixed. I want to wait until 
he's at least a year old, unless he gets too obnoxious. So far, so good, 
which is nice because he has so much energy to work out by running and 
jumping and playing ball. /smile/ If he starts trying to get out and go 
looking for love, then I will have some decisions to make based on a 
different set of risk factors than I'm used to.

Glad your dog always came home safe! I can't imagine how scary that must 
have been. /shudder/

Tami

On 01/19/2015 09:36 AM, Danielle Antoine via nagdu wrote:
> Wow well I'm gonna chime in here. So I didn't allow my working pups to
> run off leash. But I learned the hard way that even a fenced yard is
> NO Guarantee because the neighborhood kids would I assume is was kids
> anyway would come and open the gate and let my first dog out. About
> three times this was done, I would let him run to the bak of our
> property to relieve and then call him back after a time. 1. the smell
> was horrendous during the summer and 2. After he was recovered by us
> one day I had to resort to leaving him out all day and go to work
> because the van had arrived and the police had to be called by me to
> help search for him. He was always recovered unharmed but I would
> never ever do this again. I never heard it but supposedly occasionally
> Seeing Eye will read a letter from a graduate who didn't have a happy
> ending with his dog running free. Now seeing both of my dogs were
> retired to my parents country property I didn't have much say about
> them being restrained or not. I am done retiring dogs to my mom's care
> though. Truthfully, I was done after the first but I will always
> insist on keeping future dogs or the school taking them back if I
> don't have relaiable and suitable folks to take them.
>
> Danielle
> P.S. Where do you get a FlexiLeash from?
>
>
> On 1/19/15, Debby Phillips via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Hi Tracy, I am glad you like the flexi leash. It did not work that well for
>> me. I was always getting tangled up. Lol. I think it was a matter of klutz
>> on my part.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Jan 19, 2015, at 7:01 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> There was a lot of discussion about dogs running free recently.  I didn't
>>> see any mention of the Flexi-leash, so I'll mention it.  When I lived in
>>> an
>>> apartment, I let my dog do some running on the Flexi-leash in a nearby
>>> un-fenced area.  It's not quite the same as running loose, but the dog
>>> can
>>> still enjoy herself at a distance while being under control.
>>> I still use the Flexi with Krokus in my fenced yard.  He is more
>>> interested
>>> in eating sticks and leaves than running around, and I want to have
>>> control
>>> over where he goes and how long he hangs out in one place.
>>> The Flexi isn't cheap, but it should last for years.
>>> Tracy
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Debby Phillips
>>> via nagdu
>>> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 6:30 PM
>>> To: Nimer Jaber; NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide
>>> Dog
>>> Users; buddy at brannan.name; nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] guide dog and parents issue
>>>
>>> I hate to tell you this, but there are dogs who probably never get to run
>>> and play freely.  And they are fine.  They get enough work with guiding
>>> to
>>> get exercise.  Sure, in an ideal world, it would be great for dogs to get
>>> to
>>> run and play off leash.  But it just DOESN'T happen always.  My first dog
>>> didn't get those opportunities, I lived in an apartment, no fenced yard,
>>> and
>>> so she did not get those opportunities.  My third dog rarely got those
>>> opportunities either, same reason.  By then I was a little looser with
>>> what
>>> my dogs could and couldn't do, but still I had no fenced yard, so only
>>> when
>>> I went to visit my parents who did have a fenced yard was she able to run
>>> and play.  Now that I'm married and a home owner things are different.
>>> But
>>> truly dogs survive and do quite well, whether they get to run off-leash
>>> or
>>> not.  I think that what you just wrote could be dangerous.  It might lead
>>> to
>>> someone with a brand new dog to let that dog be off leash in an unsafe
>>> place, thinking that they are allowing the dog freedom.
>>>
>>> Do I think it's great that dogs can be off-leash? Yes, but is it
>>> a necessity? No.    Peace,    Debby and Neena
>>>
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>>
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>
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