What do you do if you see a dog off leash?

Take a picture: Longmont animal control officer Diane Milford said pictures of the dog off leash and pictures of the owner's license plate are helpful to officers in writing a ticket

Call or email it in: Call animal control at 303-651-8500 or email a complaint to animalcontrol@longmontcolorado.gov

Consider bearing witness: While residents can log a complaint anonymously, Milford says having a witness willing to give their name helps officers in writing a ticket to people with off-leash dogs

Longmont animal control officer Diane Milford said if she is out of uniform, she often hears very rude reactions from people when she tells them about the city's leash law.

"Yes, the general public will have a tendency to disregard it. If you tell a person who is out walking their dog off leash that there is a leash law, most will either ignore you or have some choice words for you," Milford said.

Longmont resident Marrin Sampson said she had a dispute with a neighbor who walks his Akita off leash.

"I was walking three dogs and one is reactive to others and it's gotten to the point that I have to cross the street to avoid him if he's out with his dog off leash," Sampson said, adding that she has informed animal control and they gave the man a warning.

Milford said that dog owners letting their dogs off leash in the city is an ongoing problem, especially as Longmont grows in population.

In Longmont, the law says that any person with a dog off of their own property must be "under control of a competent person and restrained by a substantial chain or leash" that isn't longer than 25 feet. Slightly related, there's a similar law on the books for pot-bellied pigs.

Dogs can be off leash in one of the city's six dog parks or if they are part of Longmont's goose hazing program.

Milford said that when she's out of uniform and walking her own German Shepherd and Malinois dogs and she tells people about the leash law, many are very dismissive.

"Some dogs don't like to be approached by dogs off leash. You'll have a dog running up and the owner is yelling, 'Don't worry, he's friendly,'" Milford said. "That's not what it's about. It's about, 'OK, but my dog's not.' Some dogs get defensive if they're being run up on in a manner where they feel like they have to defend themselves. Just keep your dogs on a leash is what it comes down to."

Sampson, who walked her Border Collie, Liam, in Roosevelt Park on Thursday morning, said she is a stickler for the law.

"I was walking and this guy had a little fluffy thing — like a poodle mix — off leash and I picked my dog up because I didn't know what (my dog) would do. And the guy was coming over and saying that his is friendly but I didn't know how my dog was going to react," Sampson said.

Steve Hodge also reflected on the leash law Thursday morning as he walked his dog — a 17-year-old almost-blind dachshund named Zamboni — around Roosevelt Park.

Hodge said he walks Zamboni twice a day and his other dog twice a day, separately, and he hasn't been bothered by people walking their dogs off leash in Longmont.

"I'll see people sometimes, they're playing with their dog here and they'll let go off the leash or something, but it's never been a problem," Hodge said. "I've never run into a rude person here."

Milford said people give her all kinds of excuses when she confronts them about the leash law in uniform.

"Most people know that there is a leash law and they need to have their dog on a leash, but a lot of times people will say, 'I just moved here.' But, then you need to check on the legal requirements of having a dog and the leash law," Milford said. "But if someone's moving from another city, there's a good possibility that there was a leash law there. If they're moving from a rural area to the city, that could be new to them."

Hodge said he's known about the leash law a long time since he's had Zamboni (Zamby for short) for 14 of the dog's 17 years.

Sampson said she sees people who think that any fenced-in property such as a school yard is similar to a dog park — no leashes required.

Milford reiterated that anytime a dog is off a Longmont resident's property, it should be leashed and under the control of a person able to handle a dog.

"If they're on a leash but they can drag the owner down the street, then that's not under control. You can't have a 5- or 6-year-old walking a dog they can't control," Milford said.

Milford said she and the city's three other animal control officers would prefer if people just kept their dogs on a leash, but in some cases it takes a ticket and a fine to convince them. The fines are set by the municipal judge.

"We can hit them in their pocketbooks if need be," she said.

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci

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