Why is it bad to tie my puppy outside?

Ok, I do NOT have a fenced yard (well, partial, but not all the way around). We will probably fence it in next year. Leo LOVES outside. When he needs to potty or just be outside with the kids, I put him on a dog run my husband built. He has a 30 foot tie out and can cover most of the yard. I NEVER leave him out alone for more then a few minutes. If he is sitting at the door to come in, he comes in and when he wants out, he goes out. Why is this a bad situation? I find it works out the best for his safety now that he is getting older (he likes to run around to the neighbors yards if we let him free too long (5 minutes)).

hmm...who said it was bad? Seems like a very safe situation to me. As long as he is attended, sounds great to me!

If he's supervised and it's not all day, I don't see a problem with it. You run into problems with dogs who are permantly on a chain. It can cause aggression and other behavioral problems.

I think what most people are thinking of when they say it's bad to tie your dog out is when the dog is tied on a short lead and unsupervised for long, extended amounts of time. What you are doing sounds just fine to me.

Good! I couldn't see anything wrong with it, but I have heard how "I would never let my puppy go to someones home if they didn't have a fenced in yard". Leo doesn't mind it at all, so I couldn't figure out what was so irresponsible about it!

Wow, Leo is getting big! He is so pretty.....maybe he'd think that is to girly, he's su handsome! Are you seeing more red in him yet?
As for your question, that doesnt sound like a bad thing. I hate seeing dogs tied up all the time. But what your doing doesnt sound bad at all. Sometimes you have to.

Yes, Leo is getting more red and lightening up quite a bit. I will try to take some new pictures. His face is still pretty much the same, but he is really losing a lot of the black on his back. I will tell him you said he was handsome! He loves it when we compliment him!! lol

Gracie's undercoat is cream. But the outside fur is a red. Her back has gotten really gotten dark. Around her tail and backend, and her head are still real light colored. I think the color she is now is the color she'll stay. Leo is getting better looking all the time!

What you are doing sounds fine to me. I bulit the coolest thing for my backyard! My backyard is 60 by 60 feet. So, I built 3 dog runs. I attached them together, and It has a tarp over the top if the weather is bad, there is a tarp over one half of it in case weather becomes really bad suddenly. What I do is I attached one big tunnel to the dog door, and the runs are attached to the tunnel, and I colour co-ordinated the locks and keys. So, I have something that looks like this:



-Laurr

Wow! That is pretty neat!!! I don't know if we could do something like that. Our yard is shaped really weird and with the swingset & trampoline (which Leo does NOT like to play on! lol) we don't have a lot of space. We have a little section at the very back were we could do something a little smaller. Thanks for the idea!!

That is not bad at all for him. Yes fences are ideal but just leaving him tied outside for a little bit is not harmful for him. I'm fortunate that my dogs don't need to be tied up they listen well outside. We are thinking about getting an electric fence for the yard, just incase, but since we rent we are afraid to put it in then have to take it out in five months when we move. YEAH we're moving, I'm SO excited!!! Anyway, that's not bad for him though.

Julie, where are you moving?

kitcatek, I think you're just fine. We just set up the same thing for Jean Luc - we live in a condo with no fenced yard, so we've set up a 25' run for him that accesses pretty much the whole back yard. We'll only use it for potty breaks, i.e. in the morning when I'm getting ready for work and he needs to go, and so on, otherwise he's in the house or will be running errands with us or out on a long hike or the like. It's only been a couple days but it's worked so far and he doesn't spend a lot of time out there, also never more than a few minutes alone. I don't see a problem with it. I agree that the problem is with dogs that are constantly tied up with not much room to move either. Poor things! You sound like you are taking good care of your baby!

i dont have a problem with tie outs - AS LONG AS the dog is supervised when out there at all times.

but i also feel that way about a yard. if the dogs are out, i think someone should be out watching them.

Sounds safe enough to me just remember those runs are good conducters of electricity. A friend of mines neighbor had her dog tied to a run during a storm. Lighting hit the tree and ran down the run down the chain and killed her dog.

Well, I don't really have to worry about lightning in Alaska. We don't get the kinds of storms people in the rest of the country get. Plus, winter is on it's way here. He won't be left outside too long, Chow or not!

I have the same setup for these dogs, 40' run 20' lead. Bummer is only one can go out at a time, Im still working on fencing so I can do a dog room attached to the fenced area. I grew up in Anchorage very little chance of lightning there, out here in the valley lightning is a worry.

lol sorry im sick and out of it did'nt even think to look up and see where you are from. My friend is from America anyways well she is from canada moved to america. Ok I'll stop now.

We live in Indiana and we're gonna stay out here. Haven't decided if we want to stay living by the expressway or not though. So we have a couple towns that we are looking into. It'll be SO nice not to have to rent anymore. I like this house but it's SO small that when the next baby comes we'll be tripping over ourselves.

a good, secure tie-out is better than a crappy fence any day.