Dog-lovers want Lake County to join the pack, ban daytime tethering

[The Straight Story]

Dog-lovers want Lake County to join the pack, ban daytime tethering

CLERMONT — Nancy McDavid flipped through photos of a neighborhood dog until she came to the one that showed "Chomper" chained-up and dead.

"This," she said, tapping her finger on the picture of the prone pit bull, "is why we need to stop tying up our animals."


Pushed by dog lovers like McDavid, 70, who thinks chaining contributed to Chomper's death, Lake is poised to become the latest Central Florida county to restrict tethering, a practice often decried as inhumane and potentially dangerous to dogs and people.

But Lake's proposal, presented in draft form to county commissioners last week, lacks the bite of ordinances in Orange and Seminole counties, which forbid chaining an animal without supervision during the heat of the day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-no-chain-dogs-20111122,0,740466.story

[dana_b]

1. that should be a law everywhere

imo. Poor dogs. I realize that everyone can't let their dog run around but either build a secure fence or maybe crate train them.

A friend told me that her niece was helping an acquaintance that asked her to check in on his dog while he went on a two week vacation. The dog was tethered outside on an 8 foot rope to a truck. A bowl and some dry dog food were on the back porch. She took the dog home and when he came back she told him that she was keeping his dog. He didn't seem too upset about it. Jerk.

[Xithras]

2. Crating a large dog for 8-10 hours a day is pretty cruel itself.

My dogs are tethered because it's the safest place for them. The county probably scrapes at least one untethered dog a month off my road. The ag truck drivers don't even bother slowing down or stopping when a dog wanders out in front of them. They just hit them and continue on like nothing happened.

People dump their dogs out here because they think "Benji will be happier in the country." Typically, those dogs meet their ends under the tires of an ag truck. The poor city dogs have no idea how to react to a fully loaded 18 wheeler blowing down a narrow country road at 60MPH. :(

[LeftyMom]

3. Tethering dogs is illegal in California.

Inside is the safest place for your dogs. If you want to leave them outside unattended, you need a fence.

[dana_b]

4. agreed.

a fence with some sort of shelter.

[Xithras]

5. Farm dogs.

You don't put farm dogs inside. Not if you want an inside to put them in anyway. Besides, putting farm dogs inside sort of defeats the purpose of having them. These are working dogs, not pets. As for a fence, if you have about ten grand to give me so that I can fence the front side of my property, I'll do it happily. For now, I have horse fences, which to a dog may as well be no fences at all.

FWIW, California law permits tethering, so long as it's to a running line and not a fixed object. My dogs are tethered to running lines and have plenty of room to move. Because hald their job is guarding the property, that freedom is pretty much required.

[LeftyMom]

6. Having a farm doesn't make leaving unsocialized dogs out in all weather less neglectful.

[Xithras]

7. Who said anything about unsocialized?

I'm not much of a dog person, but my kids and wife play with them all the time. They love people, and regularly get let off their tethers to run in our back field. They're also exceptionally well trained. They'd never touch a chicken or a goat, or even my daughters duck (she wanted a pet duck last spring...go figure), but let a coyote, or a fox, or a feral wander in, and you'll have WW3 on your hands. They "know" which animals belong, and which don't, and do a brilliant job of keeping the other animals safe.

As for shelter, I would hope that there isn't ANYONE on DU who would leave a dog unsheltered in all weather. While my dogs aren't allowed in my house, all three have comfortable doghouses with weather-flaps to keep them healthy and safe. When the weather gets too extreme, I move them into the garage. Luckily, living in California, that doesn't happen too often (my dogs have no idea what "snow" is).

This is the problem with "campaigners". There's a stereotype that suggests that all tethered dogs are left out in the sun, neglected, and unsocialized. In my experience, most dog owners, including dog owners who tether, take great care of their dogs. There's a minority of tethering dog owners who abuse and neglect their dogs, but there's also a minority of non-tethering dog owners that abuse and neglect their dogs. Still, the moment you say, "I tether", even if you do so to keep the dogs from being killed, too many unthinking people automatically assume that you're an abuser.

[LeftyMom]

16. If you can't bring them in the house without them wrecking shit, they're unsocialized.

[Xithras]

21. House training and socialization are not the same thing.

Socializing a dog means playing with it so that it likes humans, has enough interaction to keep its mental spirits up, etc. My dogs love people and are trained to do the jobs I own them for. They aren't pets or companion animals though, and they aren't trained for that. My kids play with them a lot, so they're very well adjusted around people, but I wouldn't recommend wearing any nice, clean shirts around them (you'll end up with doggie prints all over the place). They won't roll over if I tell them to, their wagging tails are like wrecking balls in my house, and they think the whole world is their playground, but they're excellent at keeping the animals away, and my lab is a great bird dog to boot.

They are fine, happy dogs.

[snooper2]

17. We had our dogs on a running line my whole life growing up..

Happy healthy farm dogs...

They had line to run and play in the creek or sleep in their custom homes I would build them.

Except for the Alaskan Malamute I had, he preffered to sleep in the snow lol

[hamsterjill]

8. Please tell me they have a doghouse, at least.

n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. Poster will demand that you buy him one.

Ref: reply 5.

Tethering dogs is abuse. A kennel can be constructed from many materials, including waste metal or wood fencing or even old pallets picked up for free from just about any loading dock area (which is how I built my first compost bin). The shell of an old car on blocks makes a great two-level dog house inside of such an enclosure.

It's easy to build a safe, secure dog kennel for the price of some nails or some ready-mix if you get off your lazy ass and get busy and stop making lame-ass excuses and demanding that others pay you to do it. Certainly, my farming and ranching relatives never had a problem doing do, FFS.

[hamsterjill]

11. Oh, I know.

There's always some excuse, isn't there? More than anything, it's simple laziness, just as you suggest.

[Xithras]

12. Or, you could turn off your hate, read #7, and gain a bit of understanding.

There's no point in having a kenneled farm dog. The dog is there to chase away ferals, coyotes, foxes, thieves, metal collectors, and door-to-door salesmen. It can't do that if it's in a cage.

Personally, I'd prefer to just let them run free, which is what most people with farm dogs do. Living where I live, that isn't an option.

The dogs are fine. They have shelter, plenty of human interaction, and regularly get to run off-tether.

[Gold Metal Flake]

15. Tethered dogs can't run off jack shit.

A dog is more comfortable in a kennel (home) than on a tether (trapped in the open). If you cared about dogs you would know that.

Keep making excuses. If other conclude that it's lazyness and cheapness at the root, you can go ahead and call it hate. Does not make it so.

[Xithras]

22. Ah.

Reading comprehension. Try it sometime. :eyes:

[LWolf]

14. My farm dog is inside.

She has a doggy door. There is a short fence around the house, and the gates are almost always open, unless there is a reason to restrict her into the smaller yard. The chickens free range, and she gets along fine with them. She doesn't bother the sheep or the horses. She's not really a "working" dog; she doesn't know how to herd things, although she sometimes helps me round up chickens if I need to lock them into their smaller yard and coop. She mostly just likes to "help" me to chores, and to go out on hikes and rides onto the public land outside our gate, untethered. I always carry a line I can attach her to if necessary, but it's never been necessary. On the infrequent times we run into actual people out there, she sits next to me, or to my horse, and watches.

The 6 acres is fenced; she wouldn't leave, anyway. She's territorial about the farm. If I'm home, she's where ever I am. If I'm not, she sticks at home and takes care of the place when I get back. When I get back, she's either at the front gate, or watching from the front window of the house, depending on the weather.

My fences have places that she can breach anytime she wants; she only does so if there is a compelling reason: a dog trots down the drive to visit, or, sometimes, I'm leaving home without her and she wants to ride along.

She'd have to go a long way from home to find a paved road. Since she's not a hound, and has no interest in chasing down game, leaving home has never been on her agenda.

The fences are for her, and the chickens,' protection from coyotes, and for the horses, more than to keep her in.

The horses are almost as good a coyote deterrent as the fences; they've been known to chase them down and stomp them.

[RobinA]

20. Horses?

Your horses have stomped coyotes?? Yikes, I don't think ours would do that, but then we don't have coyotes in the immediate area. Our dog would happily engage them. I'm not sure who would win, but the dog is heavier than a coyote. We have foxes that seem to steer clear of the dog, or vice versa, but there has never been an encounter and the fox is very much present. Very rarely it gets a chicken, but I think the presence of the dog curtails this. It could wipe out our flock rather quickly if it made up its mind. The dog knows the chickens are off limits and the worst she does is run into the middle of the flock and watch them scatter. This seems to be great dog fun.

[LWolf]

23. Coyotes...

the coyotes will win vs a dog. They don't take them on alone.

When I lived in the Mojave Desert, packs of coyotes used to try to lure the dogs out at night. Sturdy fences were essential.

Horses? It's my senior mare. She hates coyotes, and first began chasing them out of the pastures as a weanling 22 years ago. She has caught a couple, and delivered some sharp blows. They escaped, but tend not to come back to any pasture she's in.

About ten years ago, I rode out of a ranch with a friend, headed to the public land at the end of the several thousand acres of cattle range they kept. My friend had her dog along. We came around a bend, and there was a cow with a still-born calf, surrounded by a pack of coyotes who were waiting for her to abandon the calf.

A little ahead was a spring-fed pond; another pack waited there. We immediately headed the other way, hoping to avoid them for the sake of her dog. One coyote, chased away from the pack by the pond, followed us. She got down, put her dog on the saddle, and rode off with the dog laying across the saddle in front of her. My mare and I stayed behind to keep the coyote from following.

He was determined; so was the mare. She "cut" him off the trail for a bit, and when he didn't back off, she chased him for a full mile, in every direction he tried, until he gave up and kept going instead of trying to get around her.

It was all her doing.

My other horses are her daughters; they have learned from her.

[RebelOne]

18. A law was passed here in Cherokee County, GA, a couple of years ago.

Dogs cannot be tethered more than 2 hours a day. I was so happy about that because my neighbor kept her dog tied up outside 24/7. no matter what the weather. One night, it was storming outside and that little dog was terrified by the thunder and lightning. I finally banged on her door and told her to take him in. She reluctantly did. Then when our temperatures were 30 degrees and below, she would leave him outside. I became so disgusted that I called the county animal control and reported her. They cited her and the problem was solved, but lately, she has been tying him out all day and night. I think it is time to call animal control again.

[RobinA]

10. The Dog Police

are getting more and more intrusive. The dog can't run, but it can't be tied. If you want a dog you have to have a fence. Pretty soon very few people will even be able to have dogs and stay within the law. Does it ever occur to people that not everyone lives on a 1/4 acre that they can afford to fence? Or want to? Our dog, who lives inside and on 30 unfenced acres, will lie happily for hours tied under a tree and watch the world go by. Other times she is allowed to be free. She's even been known to chase a deer or two. Sometimes she comes home proudly bearing a gift for her family - a dead animal part she sniffed out. She's rid the property of ground hogs. She's had a pretty happy life doing what she likes to do, which does not include staying in all day or, god forbid, spending her life crated. And yes, there is some risk involved.

[RebelOne]

19. My dogs are inside all day long and never tied outside.

But I do take them out on a leash so they can savor the smells and sights of the outside world. I have a mini Pin and a Chihuahua, and they are not much bigger than house cats. I had a Rottweiler (that I had to send to doggy heaven last year) and she was perfectly content to be inside. I would take her out on a leash for a walk when I came home from work. I do not have a fenced-in yard because I live in a mobile home park and the owner does not allow fences.

[xchrom]

13. good! nt