Imagine owning a very well trained dog that is trained to be off leash. What would you do if you were walking your dog without a leash and a neighbor complained?

In this story, one dog owner is in this exact situation, and he apologizes and double checks the local leash laws.

Let’s read all about it.

AITAH for training my dog off leash in the neighborhood?

Roughly 2 months ago, I got a fully trained GSP to be our new family dog, as well as to accompany me when I go pheasant/water fowl hunting.

Even though he is fully trained, this will be my first season hunting with a dog, so over the last month I have started to train him a bit by utilizing an e-collar on walks.

Over the last few weeks specifically, I have been taking him out first thing in the morning during the week so we can walk together, off the leash, so he can get familiar being with me while being both off the leash and with an e-collar on.

It sounds like the dog and dog owner are both considerate of others.

He is a very nice/sweet dog that has no issues with people, children or other dogs, and responds very well to me in public, especially when he has a collar on.

I have yet to have any issues out on these walks.

I always do this in the morning and never at night when it is busy, and whenever we see anyone, especially someone with a dog, I try to give them as much space as I can and always cross the street as soon as I see them.

This morning was different.

Fast forward to this morning, and I see a guy walking his dog approaching around the corner, so I quickly cross the street to give them space (my dog remaining by my side the entire time).

As we start to cross paths, I kindly wave and say hi, and he is immediately mad that I have my dog off the leash.

He states there is a law in the state about dogs being on a leash.

When I state that I wasnt aware of this law, which I wasnt and will own that part, he gets even angrier about it. “Are you kidding me?”.

OP tried to be kind.

I then tell him that while he may be right, I am not bothering anyone and neither is my dog and we simply are out early in the morning training.

I thank him for the information and try to be kind about it, but he continues to say he doesnt care and essentially stands there waiting for me to put mine on a leash.

At that point, I start to get annoyed and ask him if he is going to be a jerk about it and walk off with my dog off his leash.

He double checked about the leash law.

When I got home, I called the city/animal control to confirm, and they directly said while there is a leash law in place, as long as my dog remains in my control and stays by my side, that I am free to have him off a leash and train him in my neighborhood and that anyone who questions this, can check the code themself or call directly.

I will own not knowing about the leash law, but genuinely don’t feel I was in the wrong here considering we did more than enough to give dude his space.

Am I a jerk?

It sounds like animal control doesn’t have a problem with his dog being off a leash, so his neighbor has nothing to complain about.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks the dog should be on a leash.

Another person points out the potential consequences of not having his dog on a leash.

Here’s another vote for a leash.

But one person is on his side.

If the law is on his side, he’s doing nothing wrong.

If you liked this post, check out this story about a neighbor who refused to let a person in who was missing their cat.