Grapevine resident urges council to clarify leash code to allow electronic leashes

During the citizens’ comments period, resident Robert Sprock told the council he had been cited by animal control officers for walking a dog on an electronic leash and asked the council to consider amending the city code to recognize electronic remote-control leashes.

“My name is Robert Sprock,” he told the council. Sprock described adopting a border collie and training her to the remote-control leash and said previous encounters with officers had been resolved when he produced the remote. He said his most recent encounter led him to request a citation to settle the matter in court and that he had drafted an ordinance to clarify the code.

Sprock urged the council to “catch the city of Grapevine up with a topic as mundane as technology advances in the area of animal control” and offered to demonstrate the electronic leash for staff. No council action was taken during the meeting; the comments were made under the citizens' comments rules and the council did not discuss or direct staff publicly on the record during that item.