Since my husband retired and we moved fulltime to our home in a retirement community in Florida something has been on my mind about dogs I see here. It confuses me in the sense that I don’t really understand why it bothers me and if there is a “right” or a “wrong” but it makes me think.
The rules require that every dog must be kept on a leash. We have really nice dog parks which are divided for small and big dogs. Everyone must pick-up their dog’s poop. I see people riding around in their golf carts with their dogs. Big and small, there is no doubt they love their pooches.
But I somehow think it is sad for the dogs to always be confined and leashed. We have yards of course. But we aren’t allowed to have fences. We bought a house for my inlaws with an underground fence but they don’t want to put the shock collar on their dog. I’ve tried to help train her so she can at least be free to run in the yard, but for some reason they are afraid she run through the fence and not come back.
Is is cruel to keep dogs on leashes and never give them a chance to be dogs? My last dog was an Australian shepherd. My property was vast. I trained him to know his perimeters and he had acres to roam and (almost) never left our property.
I want a dog so bad it hurts. I know I want a little dog this time and it must by hypoallergenic, but is it cruel to not have a place bigger than a dog park to let a dog roam and run and well, be a dog?