Yesterday I saw another dog walker who was walking 5 dogs on a grassy field.
2 dogs were off lead, and the other 3 on lead. The dogs off lead were under perfect control, so this isn't my usual on lead rant that I'm getting far too comfortable always banging on about.
I watched the walker throwing balls for the 2 off lead dogs who obviously were having a great time. However, I noticed the other 3 were wanting to play aswell. But they couldn't. The 3 dogs were very excited but restricted to short fixed length leads.
I believe indirectly the dogs on the lead would feel punished by the removal of the opportunity to play chasing the ball. The dogs would be very confused at this too, as they would have no idea why they couldn't play therefore indirectly why they feel punished.
Again, I am a walker who is 100% against off lead walks unless dogs are under complete control. However, I think mixed walks (both off and off lead) might have hidden consequences for the actual pet owner. Maybe undoing some hard work between owner and dog, or maybe a small problem unnoticed evolving into larger very noticeable problem.
Either way the dogs on lead were obviously not having as good a time as the ones off.
Since we walk 2 dogs max on lead at any one time , at least each dog is treated equally. They have upto 5m freedom each on extendable leads to walk, sniff and explore.
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