Irresponsible Dog Owners are Almost Making Me a Michael Vick Fan!

While I am sure this is a trolling attempt I will bite.

I could frankly careless how well trained your dog is, how close he keeps to you or how kind hearted he is put the dog on a leash. Now this is coming from a guy who loves dogs, has always lived with dogs and has trained dogs for show competition so I am not exaclty some crazy scared out of his mind loon.

I have had so many runs interrupted by careless owners such as yourself who walk/run with their dogs off lead that it makes my head spin. The most recent was a run I began in an area which is very strict about not letting dogs walk off lead, I was just starting when a SUV pulls up and along with some kids a ugly looking labrador cross jumps out the back I start my run and sure enough the dogs blocks me, I wait the 30 seconds for the owners to get a grip on this dog as they assure me "OH he is friendly he id really nice ... " whatever, I don't care if this is the reincarnation of Mother Theresa get him out of my way please and keep him on a leash... well sure enough in my last 10 minutes of the run I get startled by this movement coming out of the water. Guess who it is? the "friendly" dog with his owners no where in sight. He puts every hair on his back up, drops his head low and stairs me down while emmitting a low growl. Now, I am sure this dog is very nice, never shown any sign of aggression might even be well trained but in that situation he was aggressive and fixing for a fight. I have absolutely no control over what he does next, I stop and tell him to stop using some profanities and of course his owners rush over and tell me he is friendly... I control my temper and tell them "He very well might be friendly, but right now please grab him because he is growling and is about to bite me" and they do it..

Now the thing is this story demonstrates that when a dog is in a situation like that, no matter the breed or the training they are going to act in their own best interest. Without a leash you have no say in what the dog does. If your on trails the dog is in a unsual situation, they are used to being indoors or in your back yard they are keyed into proctection mode from the get go, and on top of that I am wearing sunglasses and moving quickly this can be intmidating.

All in all keep the dog on leash because I shouldn't have to put up with whatever your dog does. I don't own him, I don't know him and I have the right not to be hassled by him. If for no other reason do it so that he will not get put down because he reacts poorly to a situation.

It's not my responsibility to determine if a dog is going to bite or not -- everywhere I run, trails/roads, it is NOT legal for a dog to be loose anywhere around me. If a dog gets close enough to kick, I boot it. Hard. If the idiot owner gets indignant, let them. Perhaps next time they will obey the law and leash/tie/train their dog to stay out of where it is not supposed to be.

I've twice been told a dog doesn't bite by the owner after the mutt has already drawn blood.

Jefe in the CO wrote:

I am frustrated as well...

and why there are leash laws, blah, blah, blah... Fortunately for me, by the time they've taken another swig from their fuel belts, we're long gone.

and an even smaller percentage are likely to bite. Treating all of them the same is both illogical and pussyfied…

Ok. So, would you be ok if I shot your dog? If leash laws don't apply to you then why should I have to obey animal cruelty laws? Under your version of society, we get to pick which laws we want to obey. Sounds good. I can drive great when I am drunk. I would also like to hit on some teen age girls. Maybe I can start dumping my garbage in the river. What fun I will have.

And how are you supposed to know which dogs will bite? Does the dog hand you a busniess card that identifies him as being likely to bite? When I got bit, the dogs ran up to me, barked once and started biting. It took less than two seconds. I am supposed to be able to figure out how I am supposed to treat this dog in two seconds?

Face the facts. You are an irresponsible pet owner. Your dog relies on you for its safety 100% and people in your community expect you to be responsible for you animal 100%. No one should have to risk a dog bite and no pet should risk getting lost or hit by a car because you think people should just man up and let you do whatever you want.

You nailed it! Obey the law, leash the dog, and let people run in peace.

One time I was out lunning and this big dog ran out of his house and lan after me.

I yelled "go away dog!" but he kept on lunning after me. So finarry we got to the woods and I pulled out my switch knife and stabbed it. Then I took my t-shirt and wrapped it up and took it home with me.

That night we had yummy Babeque dog for dinna. Yummy yummy doggy teriyaki.

haha, YO wrote:

broadstreetbob wrote:

Of course, by that point I've already broken stride and compromised my workout.

Now I agree with wanting the dogs kept on leashes but jesus, do you realize how big a tool you sound like here? You compromised your workout? Give me a break.

KnowItAll wrote:

It's a goddamn public park, why should it be unreasonable to expect to be able to go there and just do a workout without interruption caused by others?

I know, which is why I said I agree with wanting to keep dogs on leashes. I just don't understand how a dog running up to you "compromises" a workout. At most you have to slow down a little, your workout is not ruined. You can be interrupted by a lot more than dogs at a public park. Falling tree limbs, people with ipods, meteors, squirrels, etc.

broadstreetbob wrote:

Here's the problem. If your running at a good pace for a long distance on a regular basis, you can encounter a lot of dogs that you've never seen before and that you know nothing about. So how are you supposed to know which are tame like your dog and which one is going to try taking a bite out of your rear? Is it "pussified" if your dog bites me while I'm minding my own business, running in a public park where he is supposed to be on a leash and, in response, I brain him with a rock?

No not at all, if my dog takes a bite out of your rear you have every right to defend yourself or retaliate.

What is pussified is to assume that Fifi the mutt is as much of a threat as Fido the pit-bull and kicking her in response to an imaginary threat.

We've all run a lot and encountered many strange dogs. I've been "attacked" by a pit-bull (a false alarm I wrote about here a couple years ago) and bit by an Irish Setter (those guys are sneaky fast). Of course all that being said if you haven't developed some kind of clue as to the threat level of a dog then you're about as smart as my mortal enemy the Irish Setter.

If a dog has a bandana on and is catching Frisbees then I’d say lower your mojo to defcon level 5. If the dog has a spiked collar, a scar across his face and weighs more than you do – get the hell out of there.

Of the times I've been truly in fear of a dog attack or attacked it was while running through the dog's neighborhood. Never once have I encountered a problem with a dog in public spaces like parks or trails. Except the time that a golden retriever leveled me in Seattle - but that was more my fault - I thought that I could out run him and he was keen to prove otherwise.

What a bundle of contradictions!

You say to ignore the tame looking dogs and be wary of the mean ones but to support your case you cite a false alarm from a mean looking dog and actual physical altercations with tame looking dogs.

Every threat is imaginary until it becomes real (by virtue of teeth in your legs). I don't see how you are in a position to determine what the perceptions of others with respect to their physical safety is.

As for expecting non-dog owners to near-instantly recognize the threat level presented by a dog? How good would you be at telling apart an edible from a poisonous plant in the Amazon jungle if you aren't a biologist and don't live in the jungle?

Spoken like a true Irish Setter...

If I'm doing 3x3 miles and a dog runs after me in the second mile of the second repeat and I have to stop and wait for the owner to get it otherwise it'll keep chasing after me then that fucks my workout.

haha, YO wrote:

KnowItAll wrote:

It's a goddamn public park, why should it be unreasonable to expect to be able to go there and just do a workout without interruption caused by others?

I know, which is why I said I agree with wanting to keep dogs on leashes. I just don't understand how a dog running up to you "compromises" a workout. At most you have to slow down a little, your workout is not ruined. You can be interrupted by a lot more than dogs at a public park. Falling tree limbs, people with ipods, meteors, squirrels, etc.

I don't agree Jefe. A dog with a bandana catching frisbee is probably some kind of herding dog. Now I generally don't fear that Aussies shepherds are going to rip my throat out but, you know what they do like to do? Herd you by nipping your damn heels. A couple of those live down the street from me. Very annoying.

I also run in parks and have had run ins with very friendly dogs. Sometimes too friendly. I don't want to trip over a dog and pull or tear something because the owner can't or won't control them. It is just selfish of the owners not to control their dogs.

Unlike some other posters though, I do realize that some dogs will run or walk along with their owner and never give a damn about who passes. Maybe your dog is like that but 90% of them are not. Most owners can't tell the diffrence.

haha, YO wrote:

KnowItAll wrote:

It's a goddamn public park, why should it be unreasonable to expect to be able to go there and just do a workout without interruption caused by others?

I know, which is why I said I agree with wanting to keep dogs on leashes. I just don't understand how a dog running up to you "compromises" a workout. At most you have to slow down a little, your workout is not ruined. You can be interrupted by a lot more than dogs at a public park. Falling tree limbs, people with ipods, meteors, squirrels, etc.

Let me be clear. Running at 5 to 6 min pace; dog blocks trail and takes defensive posture signaling that it may attack if I proceed; I come to complete stop trying to avoid attack; wait 15-30 seconds for lazy ignorant dog owner to get control of dog; finally resume running. I go to large public parks with miles of trails so that I won't have to stop for traffic, etc. But some dog owners think laws don't apply to them. You bet I get pissed.

KnowItAll wrote:

It's a goddamn public park, why should it be unreasonable to expect to be able to go there and just do a workout without interruption caused by others?

As you say, it is a PUBLIC park. That means a park for everyone. This means that others may interrupt you. This is what public property is. Private property is the property that you can run on with the expectation that no one will disturb you.

As the other poster said, I agree that the dog should be kept on a leash, but going through life with the expectation that no one else should ever impede on anything you are doing in any way is just kind of silly.

So it's just fine and dandy if I go around kicking over grills and chasing after little kids to scare them? that expectation you think is so ridiculous is what the concept of courtesy is all about. Where has it gone in our society, are we getting less civilized?

You are all such huge tools. Shut the f*** up and run.

I can relate to both sides of the issue. First, I never let my dog off leash when it's required. However, most/all trails in my area don't require leashes, so when I run with my dog on a leash and encounter another dog (or dogs) off leash, it usually creates more problems than when both dogs are off leash. Here in Colorado (particularly in mountain towns), it's useless to think that you can convince every dog owner to leash their dogs when using trails that don't require it. Dogs off leash are just part of the culture in the mountains. Good or bad, that's just reality. So what does the dog-owners-keep-them-on-a-leash-at-all-times crowd think I should do?

I was cycling with a group of 6 people when a border collie in a suburban neighborhood ran at us, bit a girl on her achillies and causing her to crash breaking her collar bone and srapping her up in several places. She need stiches for the bite too. The owner said his dog has never done anything like before. His dog was eight years old. Don't give me this crap that because your dog has never done anything that he never will. The guy ended having to pay all the girl's medical bills plus some.

cycler wrote:

The guy ended having to pay all the girl's medical bills plus some.

"Plus some," that's the American way, right? I'm guessing an apology and paying the med bills wasn't enough?