Ask an Expert : Leash Laws for Hunting Dogs

One of our members recently asked if hunting dogs are allowed to be off-leash in the Wilderness! Great question! Here's the interesting answer from one of our USFS Rangers: 

Dogs may be off leash if they are being utilized for a hunting roll in both the Eagles Nest and Holy Cross Wilderness areas.

The following is prohibited under the Code of Federal Regulation as well as the White River Special order: “Possessing a dog, except for working stock dogs or dogs used for legal hunting purposes, which is not under physical control of a leash 6 feet or less in length.” 36 CFR § 261.58(s) WRNF-2025-05

Per Colorado Parks and Wildlife: “Dogs are allowed to hunt small game, waterfowl and furbearers, but only to pursue, bring to bay, retrieve, flush or point. It is illegal to use dogs to hunt cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares and tree squirrels on land where any regular deer, elk, pronghorn or moose season is in progress.”

There is also a separate section on hunting mountain lions with dogs from CPW, which can be found at this link.

A “hunting roll” is considered to be during the active hunt.  In other words, unless you’re legally hunting with your dog (and following all the state’s hunting rules), you should treat wilderness trails as leash-required zones. Thank you to the USFS for providing us with this information!  

What questions do you have? We’ll try to find an expert to answer them, be it about Wilderness, Geology, Nature, etc! Email us at howdy@wild4eswa.org with the subject line “Ask An Expert.”