Many dog owners let their dogs run around without a leash on their own private property.

Going to a dog park or taking the dogs for a walk on public property would be a different story.

In today’s story, a man parks his car on private property to take chains off his tires, but when he sees the owner’s dogs are off leash, he asks the owner to put them on a leash.

The owner isn’t sure if he made the right decision.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

AITA for not leashing my dogs on MY property to accommodate someone who was trespassing?

I live in a fairly remote area that attracts a lot of tourists due to a nearby popular hiking trail.

My place has 4 units.

Two are Airbnb type rentals and two are permanent residences.

Mine is one of the permanent ones.

We have a lot of problems with tourists using our parking for turning around, looking up directions, or just trying to park and leave their cars while they go hike.

There is a large parking area for tourists by the trailhead.

Our parking area is a large, open area.

This is private property and there are signs posted.

He and one of the residents both have dogs.

I have 3 friendly dogs and the other permanent resident has 2.

We very rarely leash any of them. We just let the out and supervise their running and playing.

I will leash them if one of the Airbnb guests has an issue with dogs.

So I go to let my dogs out this afternoon and there is someone out in our parking area, messing with his snow chains.

He has a kid (around 9-10 years old) with him.

He approaches the tourist.

Me (M): Are you visiting someone here?

I get no response, so I ask again.

Still no response. So I start playing frisbee with one of my dogs.

Tourist (T): Can you please leash your dogs? We are afraid.

He refuses to leash his dogs.

M: Are you visiting someone here?

T: No, I’m just stopped to take the chains off.

M: Then, no, I’m not leashing my dogs.

T: We are afraid of dogs.

M: This is MY home. My dogs are on my private property.

This is how the conversation ended…

Tourist gives me a dirty look but doesn’t say anything.

He finishes taking his snow chains off and is getting ready to leave.

T (with a rude tone): I’m sorry I asked you to leash your dogs. We’re just allergic and afraid.

M: You are on private property and are trespassing.

My dogs have a right to be here, on their property.

Maybe you should have thought about that before saying something.

He didn’t say anything else and left a few minutes later.

He wonders if he should’ve leashed his dogs.

I posted about the incident on my Facebook and someone said I was rude for not accommodating.

I think I’m in the right because it’s my property and this guy had no right to be here and was trespassing.

So, users of Reddit, AITA?

It sounds like the tourist wasn’t there very long.

He was on private property, so he really should’ve stopped somewhere else, especially if the dogs bothered him.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

Here’s the perspective of someone who hates dogs…

This reader puts the story in perspective…

The tourist was the one in the wrong.

This reader is worried about the safety of the dogs.

He did nothing wrong.

I like the idea of putting up a fence to protect the dogs.

But he definitely wasn’t wrong.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.