From 2006 to 2010 I worked at two doggie day cares, and the only time in my life that I haven’t had a dog was in college. Sufficed to say I’ve had plenty of experience walking all kinds of dogs. From perfectly trained, outrageously hyper, terrified of everything, or lazy as sin, you name it I’ve walked it. In all my dog walking days, no matter what dog is being walked there’s one rule I always follow (besides cleaning up after your pet, that’s just common curtesy.), keep the dog on a leash! It really has less to do with the dog I’m walking and more to do with the other dogs we might see and what’s going on around us. For the most part I know what the reaction is going to be at the end of the leash I’m holding, what I don’t know is what the random dog running loose towards me is going to do.
It’s rare to see dogs being walked off leash in cities in America, but in Amsterdam...not so much...9 out 10 dogs being walked are off leash. It’s crazy! The first day we got Rooney I took him for a walk in Oosterpark (now our lovely morning routine) and immediately upon walking into the park we were rushed by a french bulldog. I had only had Rooney for forty-five minutes and had no idea how he was going to react to a pushy frenchie jumping in his face! Thankfully Rooney doesn’t have a mean bone in his body and was overjoyed to have a playmate, but I hate to think of what could have happened. I think there is the thought here of the only reason to walk your dog on a leash is if they are uncontrollable, however I’ve had many aggressive off leash dogs charge at us only to be caught and restrained by their owners at the last minute. I even had a woman walking her older Golden Retriever off leash grab her dog as we approached, when we passed her without any problem she gave me a strange look. When I told her that Rooney wasn’t aggressive at all, the look on her face was pure shock. As if my dog, because he’s an Amstaff on a leash, automatically should want to rip your Golden to shreds? Chock this one up to another culture difference.
Trust is a huge factor in any dog-owner relationship and the work it takes to be able to trust your dog to walk with you off leash is something that takes years to accomplish and not something I would ever recommend to do in a busy city like Amsterdam. I’ve had two dogs I’ve trusted enough to walk off leash, and with one that was heavily influenced by the fact that we lived in the country and the other is literally the calmest animal I’ve ever seen...he’s like a stuffed animal sometimes...and we live in the suburbs. Even with the two of them if we were on a walk in the city they would have leashes on for the sheer unpredictability of the city.
In a place like Amsterdam, constantly busy with bicycles whizzing by and taxis gunning it through the traffic weaving in between the car and tram lanes, you never know what is going to happen. That is why it’s so important to leash your dog. It’s for their and your safety. There are leash laws in Amsterdam, but they like the curbing law are rarely enforced. I wish I could start a campaign to enforce the leash laws and make people understand why it’s so important (add it to the to do list!). For now I’ll endure the weird looks I get for having Rooney on a leash and look forward to the day when we move back to America with a dog trained to ignore everything! On the plus side, Amsterdam may be the most dog friendly place I’ve ever lived and you really can take your dog everywhere, which is paradise for a dog lover like me...and pretty darn lucky for Roo too!
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