quote:

Chapel Hill residents may not tie their dogs outside with any type of chain or runner.
.... When the law becomes fully enforceable on June 23, 2010, Chapel Hill residents will become subject to fines or even criminal charges.

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
As a side dog trainer, I loathe this. Just as much as I loathe people just leaving the dog in the backyard to bark incessantly. My k9's are supervised 100% of the time. Either with me or supervised outside. If it's to the point of leaving it unattended and chained up I don't know why you have it in the first place.

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Originally posted by 46and2:
Dogs are pack animals, social creatures, much like humans.

Generally speaking - all most dogs want is just to be with their pack, their people, their family.

About the "worst" (non-violent) thing you can do to most dogs is keep them *just* out of reach of the pack / family, like (a) kept outside always, or worse... (b) keeping them tied up outside.

For brief periods, sure, I suppose there's no harm, especially on a beautiful day in an unfenced yard, to do their business or lounge about.

My general opinion, however, is that if you (the universal) aren't going to fully welcome the dog into the lives of the owner, and let it live (overwhelmingly) inside, then they probably shouldn't have a dog.

Some people don't want a friend or family member, they want an accessory or lawn ornament.

Fuck those people.

Anyway, sometimes is fine, for limited periods, under indirect supervision. Otuerwise I find it leaning toward cruel and unnecessary and generally antithetical to having a dog in the first place.

(Queue a few who talk about their outside dogs who love it.)

Edge cases, those.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Dogs are pack animals, social creatures, much like humans.

Generally speaking - all most dogs want is just to be with their pack, their people, their family.

About the "worst" (non-violent) thing you can do to most dogs is keep them *just* out of reach of the pack / family, like (a) kept outside always, or worse... (b) keeping them tied up outside.

For brief periods, sure, I suppose there's no harm, especially on a beautiful day in an unfenced yard, to do their business or lounge about.

My general opinion, however, is that if you (the universal) aren't going to fully welcome the dog into the lives of the owner, and let it live (overwhelmingly) inside, then they probably shouldn't have a dog.

Some people don't want a friend or family member, they want an accessory or lawn ornament.

Fuck those people.

Anyway, sometimes is fine, for limited periods, under indirect supervision. Otuerwise I find it leaning toward cruel and unnecessary and generally antithetical to having a dog in the first place.

(Queue a few who talk about their outside dogs who love it.)

Edge cases, those.

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Originally posted by flashguy:
Jeff, my father (God rest his soul) would seriously disagree with you. He wanted a hunting dog, not a family friend. He did occasionally play with the dog in the yard, but most of the time it stayed in its enclosure--well fed, watered, and housed. That was not considered ill treatment back then, and I don't think it is now. YMMV And I don't think you'd want to give him a FU.

flashguy

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Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
30-40 + years ago, all dog owners, at least the ones my family knew in the various places we lived, tied up their dogs outside...that was the norm. In fact, our dogs never came inside, inside was for our cat.

As a young boy, one of the scariest sound I ever heard, was being woken in the middle of the night to the fire station siren blaring from the center of our a little rural town a few miles away...the siren was scary enough, but what really got to me were all the neighborhood dogs tied up outside howling together.

Our family dog was also my Dad's bird dog and hunting partner, and, living in an area that saw triple digit Summer heat and long sub-freezing temps with snow on the ground from early Fall to mid Spring, my Dad decided that our dog (and later, my dog came along) needed better accommodations. Our dog was an escape artist so we built a pen with 6' fencing. Then built a big dog house, used left over insulation to insulate, ran a dedicated extension cord from our barn to the doghouse and left a shop lamp on inside the dog house that put out good heat, and the door was covered with burlap. Hell, when I could fit, I used to crawl into the dog house with our dog.

One of my many chores was to make the long walk taking food and water to our dogs every day, hot or cold, often in the dark.

Our dogs were important to us, and were loved and well cared for, but it was unthinkable to have a dog living in a house back then, and I still shake my head when I see how many people have elevated pets to the point where they ride in cars on their laps or take them into stores or public places, and don't get me started on pets flying in passenger cabins.

Our dogs spent time outside the pen, playing in the back yard and hunting. One of our dogs used to love pulling a sled through our neighborhood with my sister and I on the back. We used to take them on frequent walks through the neighborhood.

There is nothing wrong with a well cared for dog being either tied up or penned in outside, as long as they aren't constantly barking, and as long as the owners (no, I'm not going to call pet owners "pet parents"), interact with them on a regular basis.

There are many dogs that I would rather spend time with rather than some people...but they are dogs, animals... not people.