I really hate tying/chaining dogs out, especially those from a potentially aggressive breed. (Note that I understand the necessity for it, lacking a good fence, but I don't like it)
It essentially reinforces their territorial instincts, and if a child or another dog "invades" their (limited, by necessity of the chain length) territory, bad things can happen.
When I bred Akitas, I actually had it in the puppy contract that they couldn't be chained, tied or staked. That ended up saving my butt once when a couple of morons ignored the clause, kept their nice young dog on a chain most of the time (fortunately, they sent me pictures along with notes about how much they liked the dog, how beautiful/well behaved, etc he was... and the dog was chained in every pic). Sadly, he got loose one afternoon, and killed a neighbor's cat and mauled at least one dog. They wanted to sue ME (God knows what grounds... I suspect they were looking at lawsuits themselves).
Anyway, I know that we're really fortunate to have a half-mile-square area for our dogs to roam around on safely. We did install the invisible fence, and it's worked fantastically well. It's installed along about 1000 feet of our road frontage. The dogs have figured out that they can get around it if they cross two lower fields, jump a creek and go around the pond... but the only time they try that is if we're working the fields beyond the limit, and they want to be where we are.
The cool thing is, we pulled their collars off for the winter, and it hasn't made any difference... they act as if they will get "corrected" if they go anywhere near the 50 foot from the road "boundary". I'd planned on putting the collars back on for a week or so, but now the fence isn't working... we probably damaged the wires during haying. But so far, it hasn't even occurred to them that they aren't getting shocked if they go too close to the road... not that they're trying.
This is partly the difference in breeds, too- the English Shepherd and Border Collies we have tend to be homebodies, haven't been bred for aggression (although I've seen a line of English Shepherds with extreme aggression issues in the genes) and in general desire to be with their human pack, whatever we're doing and wherever we are. My son has a Catahoula hound who figured out fairly early that he could "break through" the invisible fence, and for a moment of pain, be free to roam. Catahoulas are another "hard" breed.
They also likely wouldn't work well on hounds (either sight or scent hounds... either way, when their "trigger" is alerted, they're GONE... and they don't pay attention to shocks, their humans calling, or things like traffic) or some of the breeds with very strong prey drive (Akita's, "pit bulls", some terriers)
But if anyone is going to tie a dog, they need to be aware that the area the dog can reach on the tie is "their territory" (much like their bed and food dishes in the house) and they may aggressively protect it from a stranger- animal or human.
Summerthyme
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Summerthyme
