A dog question for you

I was having a discussion with an older, American, lady the other day. We were talking about cattle dogs. They are quite fashionable here in the States. People think they will be good family dogs. (But they are not - they are bred to run all day, they will herd anything - ducks, chooks, children - and tend to look to one pack leader.)

She considered it cruel to have such a dog on a "running line" - a leash that allowed them to run around the back yard but did not allow them to jump the fence or otherwise escape a yard. Under no circumstances was it acceptable to put the dog on a running line.

She thought it much better that the dog be confined in a cage whilst its owners were out.

Quite obviously I think it is cruel to have a very active dog confined for 8-10 hours a day. As long as the dog has access to water, shelter and entertainment (and there are no mountain lions/etc) I can't see the problem with the running line. Free roaming of the yard is better but if the dog is an escape artiste.... (Some of these dogs love jumping fences and will go in search of something to herd if they are not entertained enough at home.)

You may be able to tell that I don't think that active dogs in apartments are a good idea either. AFAIK most apartment dogs are kept in cages when their pack leaders are out.

What do you think?

The other think I abominate is the docking of dogs' tails. Some dogs in Oz have docked tails (eg corgis, Jack Russells and some other short haired terriers are allowed stumps as are dobermans and other pointer dogs) though the practice is on the way out. Here - all sorts of dogs have docked tails. The other day I saw a cattle dog with a tail docked as short as a corgi's - there was no tail left! It wasn't the first one that I had seen docked so short. How do dogs tell tales if they have no tail? Taking off a dog's tail is like making us mute - the dog cannot talk properly. You can tell a lot about a dog's mood by how it is holding its tail. People carry on about how horrid it is to neuter a male dog - how can he take his greatest pleasure? (or what men think is his greatest pleasure cos they sorta envy the dog's flexibility) - but think nothing of docking the tail to "improve the dog's aesthetics" and to make sure it can't sweep the cups and dustables off the coffee table. It seems to be a very odd double standard.

OK, off my hobbyhorse now. You might get some local pics again soon! I have plenty to share.

PS If you hadn't already worked it out, I am a cat person.