Since there have been many threads lately supporting anti-chaining or anti-tethering legislation, I decided to start a thread against these kinds of laws. I thought it would be great for us to post information and our personal experiences about why this legislation is a bad thing. That way, anybody doing a search on the topic can read this thread and find a lot of good information in one place.
Disclaimer: One more thing, Chazzers. I know we *love* to chit-chat, throw in some jokes and occassionally take things off-topic. But for the sake of keeping this thread as a reliable, credible source of information, let's keep it serious.
There are many reasons out there, but I'll start with the one relating to my personal experience: the infamous antics of Voodoo.
There's a reason Voodoo is called "The Chaos Demon." He's a very agile and strong dog, and from an early age, he found it easy to go over our fence whenever he felt so inclined. My husband and I spent hundreds of dollars raising the height of the fence and adding additional deterrants. It was no use. No matter how high we raised the fence, Voodoo just jumped higher. Even the 7-foot wooden gate we installed (we built it ourselves in an attempt to make it Voodoo-proof), was no barrier. And when we finally thought we had him contained, he proved us wrong in a spectacular fashion. He cannonballed straight THROUGH the wood, leaving a mass of splintered wood and a dog-shaped hole in the fence.
That's when we bought a tether, and it was a godsend. Don't get me wrong, Voodoo is primarily an indoor dog. But he does love to nap and play in the yard. On the tether, he can go outside and play to his heart's content, and we never have to worry about him leaping the fence and causing problems.
Some suggested that tethers are horrible devices, and we should allow Voodoo outside only on a leash. Why?? How much fun is it for a dog to be forever limited to a 6-foot length of rope? On his 25 foot tether, he can enjoy more than 1,962 square feet of running room. Plenty to jump, bounce, chase and do all the things that dogs like. Without the tether, we would have never been able to keep our dog.
Voodoo's case is not unique, either. There are so many escape artist dogs out there. Without tethers or tie-outs, responsible owners have no options to safely contain dogs like Voodoo: only a leash or a crate. And I don't see that as the best interest of the dog.
Disclaimer: One more thing, Chazzers. I know we *love* to chit-chat, throw in some jokes and occassionally take things off-topic. But for the sake of keeping this thread as a reliable, credible source of information, let's keep it serious.
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There are many reasons out there, but I'll start with the one relating to my personal experience: the infamous antics of Voodoo.
There's a reason Voodoo is called "The Chaos Demon." He's a very agile and strong dog, and from an early age, he found it easy to go over our fence whenever he felt so inclined. My husband and I spent hundreds of dollars raising the height of the fence and adding additional deterrants. It was no use. No matter how high we raised the fence, Voodoo just jumped higher. Even the 7-foot wooden gate we installed (we built it ourselves in an attempt to make it Voodoo-proof), was no barrier. And when we finally thought we had him contained, he proved us wrong in a spectacular fashion. He cannonballed straight THROUGH the wood, leaving a mass of splintered wood and a dog-shaped hole in the fence.
That's when we bought a tether, and it was a godsend. Don't get me wrong, Voodoo is primarily an indoor dog. But he does love to nap and play in the yard. On the tether, he can go outside and play to his heart's content, and we never have to worry about him leaping the fence and causing problems.
Some suggested that tethers are horrible devices, and we should allow Voodoo outside only on a leash. Why?? How much fun is it for a dog to be forever limited to a 6-foot length of rope? On his 25 foot tether, he can enjoy more than 1,962 square feet of running room. Plenty to jump, bounce, chase and do all the things that dogs like. Without the tether, we would have never been able to keep our dog.
Voodoo's case is not unique, either. There are so many escape artist dogs out there. Without tethers or tie-outs, responsible owners have no options to safely contain dogs like Voodoo: only a leash or a crate. And I don't see that as the best interest of the dog.