Running Loose

[pdub]

I'm off of work, and be advised I'll be flooding BangShift with BS until Monday, when I go into solitary confinement. A week of work duty. Trying to get ahead.

A guy came into my office yesterday and was looking at a big photo I have in a frame, a bunch of us here on a work team from years ago. He said, "I know everybody but THAT guy."

So I told him, THAT guy is retired. He was an engineer, doing CAD drawings for our hardcopy procedures.

HE trains seeing eye dogs, mostly German Shepherds, service dogs for blind folks. It takes a year for each one. Then he turns it over to the user and starts again. What a neat thing, somebody has to do it.

And then the talk turned to dogs in general. How to treat and train dogs. So I digressed into my peeve about a dog tied to a tree, and how cruel that is.

The guy said something I'd never considered, though it still doesn't change my stance against a dog tied to a tree. He said, (In the sense of, if I was a dog) "I'd rather be tied to a tree than running loose. If you're running loose you will get run over."

[studemax]

And if you stay in bed all day the house might fall on you.
We were meant to live, not just exist.

[Deaf Bob]

Got new laws here in OR, Illegal to tie dogs to trees or anything for more than 6 hours a stretch.. Even more so if they have no water..

[68scott385]

Got new laws here in OR, Illegal to tie dogs to trees or anything for more than 6 hours a stretch.. Even more so if they have no water..

We've got something like that here. Can't have a leash to a tree or a clothes line so the dog can go several feet laterally and a few feet to either side, has to be tied to one of those cork screw gismos. Doesn't make sense to me. I guess you'd better be ready to invest in a good fence system if you have a dog.

[GFogg]

We are born to run free. I don't think dogs get the same freedom. Dogs don't have good sense. I know some of you guys equate your dogs with haveing the same station in life as we do. When I lived in OK a woman wrote a letter to the paper about how she was driving down a street in a pretty run down part of our town when she saw a dog that was running around cold and wet. She zipped into a Church's Chicken and bought a couple of pieces to feed the dog. I thought there are always a few down and out souls walking along that street or hanging out trying to stay dry, why didn't she feed one of them. The food would have beed much appreciated by that poor guy and it would have been a much more nobel gesture to feed a human. We're humans we have greater rights given to us by God then dogs enjoy.

[Deaf Bob]

My wife treats the dogs better than she treats me..

[Barry Donovan]

And if you stay in bed all day the house might fall on you.
We were meant to live, not just exist.

there is a night to the day.. you could be the one holding it up while everyone else is sleeping.

Enjoy that nap in the sun.


The dog to a tree, it's prejudice, or assuming dogs are stupid. Most are... when one returns to have a litter of half wolves and listens to your commands without words... Don't ever doubt that queen again.

[JOES66FURY]

I like dogs better than people so I treat them better...It is illegal to tie up an dog here in Tucson. It is also illegal for the dog to ride in the bed of a pickup. However, it is okay for your kids to ride back there LOL!

[Deaf Bob]

In OR, they must be restrained so they cannot jump out of the pick up bed while moving..

[pdub]

I like dogs better than people so I treat them better...It is illegal to tie up an dog here in Tucson. It is also illegal for the dog to ride in the bed of a pickup. However, it is okay for your kids to ride back there LOL!

That's just NUTS! A typical case of American blind justice. WOW. And those of us in the deep South are considered backward....well, there ya go. And if you told somebody in Tennessee the dog can't ride in the back of the truck, you'd get shot. The dog "belongs" back there, tongue waggling in the wind. And the dog will patiently sit right there in the bed of the truck for an hour, watching people come and go, while the owner is inside the WalMart. How do you train a dog to do that?

I dunno, it must come natural to some dogs.

[tedly]

Had Patch tied to a leash for at least 6 hours today. The choice was that or putting him in his kennel while I had the shop opened up for the first time in almost 6 months. He got to lay in the sun, had water close by, had a comfy bed to lay on, and I was never more than 20 feet from him. There's a fenced in area on the side of the shop, but he's a Houdini. He'll get out of anything if you don't watch him constantly. He once broke out of his kennel while in a car and jumped out the window before Kathy could get her Jeep pulled over. He's absolutely fearless and damn near indestructible despite being 11 years old and almost blind since birth. There isn't a doubt in my mind that I could trust him to stick by me if he was off a leash. Until a rabbit or a squirrel came by, then he'd be off like a shot. Since I love the hyper bastard, along with our other dogs, I gotta do what I can to keep him safe. It's not a matter of training, it's a matter of who he is and his intrinsic nature. He tries so damn hard to be good and do what you want him too, he's just not wired for it for more than a few minutes.

I realize you guys are talking about someone that leaves a dog tied up 24/7 and doesn't care for them properly. I'm right there with you on that. People like that have no business caring for an animal. Just remember things aren't always so simple. Sometimes you gotta choose between the lesser of 2 evils. I hate having to constantly keep him on a leash anytime we go outside or constantly watch him in a fenced yard. What's the alternative though?

[Deaf Bob]

My pits are on leash when out the front door, even if just to go to the car.. They love everybody and wanna go say "Hi" 75-85 lbs knock people down real fast .. They have a fenced yard, and are never there alone.. It's not that I don't trust them..it's the F'n idiots that open chained and latched gates to get in...

[realsteelfreak]

Many moons ago when living in Mooresville NC I was taking my son to football practice and while going down the street I noticed a pup running to the street barking at cars the little girl the owner just laughing at it every time. As I approached I was going the 35 speed limit and moved to the yellow line, sad to say in about 2 seconds later the pup was dead the girl crying, probably about 8-9 years old. Probably wished the dog was tied somewhere, inhumane as y'all make it seem. Love ya mean it.