Letting your dog disappear out of sight, and staying out of sight is it safe?
First up, I will start by noting that accidents happen and sometimes we can sometimes be caught off guard. But here’s something to think about. Is knowingly letting your dog disappear out of sight a safe thing? (I’m not talking about disappearing behind a bush for a few seconds or popping up in between trees as they dash through the woods..I mean you can’t see them, and have no accurate idea where they are, or what they’re doing).
Today, during an appointment, an off-lead dog approached us and stayed with us for a while. It didn’t look like it had anyone with it. I caught up with it whilst it ambled off, put a lead on it, and we gave the number on the collar a ring. No answer. A short while later we found the human it was with, who was quite a distance away.
I was able to approach that dog, attach a lead, and walk with it. It would have been very easy for a dog thief to do the same thing and the dog was so far away from it’s person that they wouldn’t have seen what was going on or been able to prevent it. My intentions were good in that I was worried about the dog, but we see all too often on social media that not everyone is that way inclined.
Off lead dogs will go behind trees to have a sniff and reappear a moment later, but if your dog is running off and going out of sight to the point where you don’t really know what they are doing, then they could:
Eat something that makes them severely ill
Get hurt by something on the floor, like sharp glass
Approach a reactive or nervous dog (these dogs have just as much of a right to an enjoyable walk as any other dog), or a dog that is on a lead for another reason (such as recovering from an injury or having joint pain)
Approach a person or child who is afraid of dogs, or doesn’t want an unknown dog near them
Walk in to a road
Be stolen
Be livestock worrying or chasing livestock (it only takes a dog moving near sheep in at a moderate speed to cause changes in their behaviour which could effect the health of a pregnant ewe, and the unborn lamb)
These are all reasons I keep my dog in view when we are on walks. As dog guardians, we do have to comply with the law around keeping them ‘under control’, and you have to be able to see them to do this. It is how we keep both our dog, other dogs, and other people safe from any physical or emotional harm.
If your dog doesn’t recall reliably, they might not be ready to be off lead in the environment they are in. Use long training lines attached to a body harness (not attached to a collar), practice practice practice, and slowly increase how distracting the area is for them. Secure paddocks can be a great way to start practicing off lead time.
Sally Lewis 2021
Know Your Dog 