Please always walk your dog on a leash!

Hi all pet owners - those who walk your dogs on a leash and those who don’t…

This incident is an eye-opener for the latter category.

I take my two dogs for a long and brisk walk in the early morning (5.40 a.m. to 6.30 a.m.) from Santacruz East to Vile Parle East near the airport. I had my doubts as to why a dog if taught “heel without leash” had to be taken for walks on a leash. I had even met one dog owner who told me that I was being cruel to my dog by taking him out on a leash. But my conscience said it’s not cruelty - but on the contrary, it was for the safety of my dogs.

Last week on our return home from our walk, we came across two ladies walking their small “pom” without a leash on the pavement parallel to highway (the same way we too use every day). As was natural, Tommy and Blacky wanted to sniff this new dog they were seeing for the first time. So they went near the dog. Blacky stayed calm, Tommy as usual showed his dominance, which the pom did not quite like, and barked too. I pulled Tommy away and we went our way, and the pom and his owners the other way.

Next day we met again, but this time only the older lady was there, with the dog walking behind her leaving quite a gap between them, without a leash. Again Tommy pulled me towards that dog in order to sniff him. This time however the pom reacted, and out of fear or some impulse I did not quite understand, ran directly on to the highway.

So many cars and trucks were moving at high speed, I thought that the dog would be crushed for sure, and started praying… I started calling for him to come back. He ran fast between the rushing cars, up to the road divider, and again ran back towards the pavement. We heaved a sigh of relief that he had come back safely. Still he did not go to his owner - she had to run towards him and she finally forcibly grabbed him and picked him up. She was sweating…just about any unpleasant thing could have happened!

All this could have been easily avoided if the dog had just been on a leash !!!

I request all dog-owners reading this to please keep your dogs on a leash - if you really love your dog, why take risks with his life?

Manik Godbole
Mumbai