Well, I personally do not like letting my dog go around whilst we're out the street or perhaps at the park, I just do not consider the idea of giving him some freedom as something really useful or defined as something good whatsoever, we never know when they can get mad and start biting people all around the place and probably start a chaos, remember they're dogs, they're not that smart when they get mad.

No I do not as my dog barks loudly and bothers other people until they pet him. I do not think it would be fair to other people if I let him off of the leash.

I never do the as my dog will take every opportunity he can find to roam the place. He would not hurt anyone (I think) but he will wander out of my eyesight and become a problem for me.

No, I don't. My dog is known to be cheeky and run off if he sees anything he fancies, such as half a hotdog dropped on the floor. I also feel it is safer to avoid any problems. He may end up licking someone who is afraid of dogs and it may start an argument or create a problem. I feel it's just much safer to leave him on leash.

No, I don't. My dog is known to be cheeky and run off if he sees anything he fancies, such as half a hot-dog dropped on the floor. I also feel it is safer to avoid any problems. He may end up licking someone who is afraid of dogs and it may start an argument or create a problem. I feel it's just much safer to leave him on leash.

I wouldn't, simply because dogs can be unpredictable at times. If someone else walked in the door and left it open for any extended length of time and your dog is loose, anything could happen. You could end up trying to chase your runaway dog down the street because he's chasing some pretty scent. No matter how well you think you know your dog, he could still take off if given the opportunity.

We rarely take her to public places, but when we do, we always take her leash. She usually only needs it to take a pit stop. Because she mostly stays in the car. And one of us will stay with her. The leash is for her protection. It's very different in the city and I wouldn't want her to get confused and run into traffic or something.

I live in a rural area in East Africa and people here don't take their dogs out in public places frequently except on the roads. Since rural areas are not congested, we let our dogs have their space to enjoy themselves as they sample the sorroundings reliving a bygone era when they were not domesticated. It seems to be quite a treat for them.

Even if your dog is well-behaved, you can't control the behavior of other dogs and other people. Therefore, for my dog's protection and safety, I tend to keep him leashed in public places at all time. I do let him off his leash at the dog park though. He was just barely big enough that he had to belong to the large dog-sized dog park and not the smaller-sized one, so most of the big dogs he's pretty scared of since he really is never around other dogs. However, we have found what hours at the park are the busiest and tend to go at times when no other dogs or very few dogs are there. He loves it and it makes me feel safer.

I walk Joe without leash because we are used to walk like that. I do this usually when we walk alone, just him and me. In any other case he goes roaming and wandering about. He is a retriever and although very obedient he can be a bit crazy in a good and naive way. when we are alone we have the best time and since we are city guys we know we need to stop and wait the traffic light and we have a great command, "behind me" or just "behind". I actually managed to teach him not to cross the line of my left hand so he is right there where I can see him and he never goes in front of me.

Well this depends. Are these parks or shopping mall parking lots? I would consider letting my dog off the leash at a park (and I for sure would do it at a dog park) if there weren't many people around and we were in a nice quiet area. Other places like a shopping mall lot or heck even on the street not a chance!

Personally, I think it depends on the dog. I had one dog that had been trained so well, the she would stay right next to you without a leash. It didn't matter that if people came buy or other dogs came a barked at her, she would just stay right next to me. But for most dogs, having them on a leash was always a must because dogs need boundaries. I don't think it's right to let dogs do as they please because you don't know if people are allergic or scared of dogs.

I agree, for me it's a common courtesy thing. It's like letting your kids run around inside a dine-in restaurant. Sure it's fine, their kids, but common courtesy people. I don't want to be eating and watching kids run around and screaming. It's annoying and that doesn't make me a child hater, it's just that parents and owners should have respect for the public.

I don't let my dogs off their leash unless we are in a place where I can legally do so. Even though I know my dogs won't be trouble, I still think about what other people will think when they see my dog is free to roam. Common Courtesy.

I have two small dogs and big garden, I hardly ever have to take them for a walk but when I do I always have them on a leash. One of my dogs is obedient and could easily walk around without a leash but the other one would probably run off. So that they won't get jealous of one another I keep them both on leashes.

Our dogs often stay near us when outside, but I still won't let them off the leash for their safety. You'll never know when something unfortunate would happen and it's best to be on the safe side than regretting it later