To Hershey's Dog-Mom

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

If you're taking your adorable chocolate lab out for a stroll on the bike-path on a lovely Sunday afternoon, please protect your dog and other people using the path and keep him on a leash.

I witnessed an almost-accident at close range as the dog ambled from one side of the path to another, forcing a bicyclist to slam on his brakes and stop hard to avoid hitting him.

He doesn't know any better, he's just a dog, doing what dogs do. You, on the other hand, should.

Comments

[buckturgidsen.livejournal.com]

OP wrote: "Dogs on the bike path should be on-leash. If you don't agree, work to get the law changed. But by flaunting the law, you give other dog owners a bad name, and encourage other owners to ignore the law and let their dogs - possibly less well behaved than your own - off-leash."

Replace this paragraph with "Cars on the highway should never, ever be driven faster than 55 mph. If you don't agree, work to get the law changed. But by flaunting the law, you give other drivers a bad name, and encourage other drivers -- perhaps less skilled drivers -- to exceed the speed limit too."

You seem to agree with me that it's laughable to scold somebody just because they violated the speed limit. There would have to be more to the story -- that they were driving recklessly, they were driving 95, they were weaving in and out of cars like "Smokey and the Bandit", it was late at night, it was raining cats and dogs, they were in a school zone, etc. It's the circumstances that lead you to call them out: adding it all up, they weren't driving responsibly and it was unsafe (or a even just a nuisance). When it comes to speeding, it seems laughable in our society to say "driving above the speed limit is wrong because it's breaking the law". Maybe I'd tell that story to my toddlers, but the adult world isn't so black and white.

I would put leash laws in exactly the same category. Like speed limits, leash laws are blanket rules intended to promote safety and prevent nuisance behavior. And just as you can be a responsible driver who sometimes goes 60 in a 55 zone, you can be a responsible dog owner who sometimes allows your dog off-leash despite the posted leash law.

Don't get me wrong: I think all of us (myself included) have had bad experiences with dog owners on the bike path. Please don't misunderstand me as someone who is advocating for irresponsible behavior. There are all kinds of circumstances that merit leashing your dog and this thread has probably touched on them all. I keep my dog leashed a lot of the time for exactly these reasons, and would agree with you for calling people out for not being responsible dog owners. But I don't agree that it's as black-and-white as saying "my part as a responsible dog owner is to keep the dog on-leash" any more than I think that always driving under the speed limit is a necessary condition for being a responsible driver.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

if you're speeding, as far as the law is concerned (and your insurance company, should you get caught), you aren't a responsible driver.

The situation in the section by lexington park is a regular nuisance, around the time most people are getting out of work, when the path traffic is high.

There are dogs off leash, under zero control, who regularly run back and forth across the path - which is what dogs want to do, run.

The owners have been talked to about it, and have been overheard to say "I don't care how often they call animal control, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing."

That's beyond irresponsible, that's intentional culpability.

[buckturgidsen.livejournal.com]

Forget the insurance company. Do YOU personally consider me to be an irresponsible driver simply because I tell you that I sometimes intentionally drive over the posted speed limit? (Even by 1 mph?)

I think most people in our society would not only say no, but would consider the question ridiculous. And yet everyone in this thread seems to believe that keeping your dog on a leash in public places (even if nobody else is there) is one of the pillars of responsible dog ownership. And that allowing your dog off-leash on the bike path is automatically and unconditionally an irresponsible act.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do think you are irresponsible for it.

[buckturgidsen.livejournal.com]

Okay, point noted. You're obviously entitled to think that.

Out of curiosity, do you think I'm irresponsible for selectively driving over the speed limit, or for selectively walking the dog off-leash, or both? And if your answer is only for off-leash walking, then what makes walking a dog off-leash different from driving over the speed limit? For example, walking a well-behaved dog off-leash on a quiet, early morning where the bike path is totally deserted ... vs driving 2 miles over the speed limit on an open stretch of highway. Personally, I view these situations as being pretty equivalent.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

You are irresponsible for both.