Come rain or shine, one of the best parts of the day for our dogs is that walk where you both get to go outside together and they sniff out the route as if they have never walked before. The excitement a dog gets from the new stimulation; it may be the same streets and fields we walk but each time it feels like a new experience to them.
Whether or not to walk your dog without a lead is an emotive subject and various on our own experiences.
If an off-lead dog runs up to a dog on the lead it can cause so many issues it’s almost irrelevant whether the dog off-lead is fine or not as the dog it approaches may not. A dog can be on a lead for all types of reasons and to have a dog running up to it can cause distress, upset, anger, excess pulling to name a few.
Then you have dogs running up to people; most of the time it won’t be an issue (unless a person is scared or allergic; my eldest used to be that scared of dogs running up to her she would jump in the road to get away from one) but with dog theft on the increase it would be unwise to allow this.
And then you have the risk of your dog coming in to contact with livestock or wildlife. Even the most friendly and obedient dogs can look scary to farm animals. And during certain times of the years, livestock will be protective of any newborns so will not welcome any furry visitors walking by.
We all love our dogs and would never dream of putting them, or others in harms way. I personally would love nothing more than to walk with my dogs freely however I know my limitations. I’m lucky to have a fabulous dog field facility local to me where both of my dogs get to run free for 50 minutes, it’s a godsend to burn off some energy for my two as I cannot trust them without leads on a walk due to their love of chasing squirrels that appears to make them deaf on sight of one.