Law864

Hi all,

my wife, doggy and myself have been granted permanent residence for Canada.

we have decided on Calgary however one of our concerns is how much freedom our dog will have.

here in Scotland we do a lot of hiking and forest trails, our dog is off leash almost all of the time to run free and explore.

however from reviewing it seems most national parks etc in Canada require your dog to be on leash and dog parks are the norm.

can anyone share their experience of having a dog in Canada, can they get off leash, are they safe etc.

she is a member of our family and it needs to be right for the wee one as well as us.

thanks in advance

chris

R I C H

It’ll depend wholly where you live what sort of access you have to leash free roaming for dogs. I didn’t own a leash for my collies, but lived on acreage with direct access to Crown Land (in BC). The local beaches at river/lakes had either dog friendly areas or were rural enough to not have to worry about needing a leash.

Within local city limits there were dog parks and by-laws about dog ownership, but I’ve no idea about the specifics. You’ll have to google local by-laws based on your proposed destination.

From a safety perspective, coyotes and cougars were the 2 concerns. The dogs weren’t allowed out unsupervised in the dark, and during the day if they were wandering the property we’d keep an eye on them in case a pack of coyotes passed through. Deer can be aggressive too, and the dogs were discouraged from getting too close.

Former Lancastrian

Use this link

https://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/ABS/Page...uidelines.aspx or this one

https://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/ABS/Page...opic/Dogs.aspx

Almost Canadian

You will only be allowed to allow your dog to roam free in Calgary at the designated off leash parks. Similar rules apply in most other municipalities in Alberta. National Parks require all dogs to be on leash at all times.

We live on an acreage and our dogs are only on leash when on public land.

Law864

thanks for the guidance, intrigued by the idea of acreage, having a nice area of land where my dog can be securely fenced in but free to roam would be ideal. The city sounds like we will be limited to dog parks which she won’t enjoy, she needs to be running through forests etc. Thanks again

Law864

thanks, the acreage sounds ideal, my concern really is that on any forest trails etc she will need to be kept on leash which she won’t enjoy. Will need to look at land available, thanks again

Lychee

National Parks (managed federally under the "Parks Canada" moniker) make up such a tiny part of the land in Canada, and the most popular national parks in the Rockies nearest Calgary such as Banff, Yoho, Glacier, Mount Revelstoke, and Jasper are kept as managed wilderness and wildlife conservation areas, where the movement of people and pets are strictly managed as to not ruin the pristine nature of the landscape nor harass the wildlife, which off-leash dogs have a tendency to do. The leash regulations are mainly, from my understanding, a safety precaution against predators. You don't want to have your dogs off-leash where bears roam or you may be in for a nasty surprise. Those parks (Banff and Jasper) are also the most heavily visited, receiving millions of international visitors per year. The leash restrictions are very likely also a part of the visitor management of those parks. You're likely to get more freedom with your dogs in lesser-visited less-managed wilderness areas. But again, be bear-aware in those forests: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mtn/ou...s-bears-people

Lychee

Out of curiosity, I looked at the Alberta Parks website and see that the regulations are the same: https://www.albertaparks.ca/media/50...n_the_park.pdf

While there are only a handful of national parks in Alberta, there are 450 provincial parks in the province (parks managed under the "Alberta Parks" moniker). But it looks like being on-leash is a requirement for all of them, for similar reasons - wildlife conservation + predator safety.

Photoplex

We have plenty of black, brown, and grizzly bears, as well mountain lions, coyotes, wolves, moose, and rattlesnakes. Keeping your animal on a leash is not only for wildlife conservation, it's to protect the well being of you and your animal. Every year dogs go missing from Calgary yards, snatched up by packs of coyotes etc.

This isn't Scotland.

Law864

thanks for the reply and fully understand. Try to gain better insight into the risks of owning a dog in a Calgary as it is 100% not Scotland. Did not realise there was rattlesnakes as well so thanks for this. Lots to think about

scilly

Most places also require you to poop-and-scoop ..... whether that is on city streets or out in the open.

"Acreage" can have a different meaning here. It usually doesn't mean only 1 or 2 acres.

We owned 20 acres in a wilderness area surround by Crown land. It would absolutely impossible to safely fence that amount of land to keep dogs in and wild animals (bear, cougar, coyote, etc) out Even 2 acres would be EXTREMELY expensive.

Crown land is available for logging ........ logging companies put in bids for plots on Crown land, if they get it, they move in and log. Your dog would not be safe.

We also found that we had people who would get onto our land to hunt deer in the fall when we weren't there ........... we would find the spent bullet cases around. We also found some spent bullet cases on the road outside our property one time indicating that someone had taken a pot shot into our property.

Just as matter of safety I never walked further than our farm gate without telling my husband where I was going, and how far ............... we had bear, deer, moose, coyote, cougar and bobcat in the area, and any or all of them could attack.

Photoplex

The rattlesnakes are more to the west of Calgary, around the badlands, and to the south. We even have Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders too. But the point remains valid, that Canada has a lot of beautiful but dangerous fauna. A dog running around wild in the national and provincial parks would be a serious liability.