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dvbl
Guest
Unfortunately, some people need to be periodically reminded about this. Please, for the enjoyment of other hikers, and the safety of your dog, please keep your dog under control on the trails. REAL control. Not make-believe control. If your dog doesn't listen to your commands, then use a leash. If you don't want to use a leash, that's fine...leave the dog home. We all know people like this. They need to be reminded.
I'm neither a dog-lover nor a dog-hater. I care about dogs the same way I care about pigeons, cats, or chipmunks. They're just animals out in the world. As long as they don't bother me, I don't bother them.
The reason I bring up this topic is that yesterday, for the first time in my life, I almost killed a dog. Here's the story:
Incident #1: Mt Eisenhower, coming down Edmands Path, wife about 20 feet into woods taking care of business while I stand sentry. (No, not TMI. Important detail that we were nowhere near the trail and nowhere near the dog's owner). From about 100 feet down the trail a black lab comes running up the trail. I tell wife someone's coming, etc. Dog is heading toward me then see's my wife and turns into woods toward her. She starts walking out of woods and dog stands his ground and barks at her. So I head into woods and get between the dog and my wife. Dog is not backing away and is barking aggressively. At this point he's very close to getting a Leki tracheotomy. Finally owner comes up trail (she didn't rush, by the way), yells to the dog, it doesn't listen, she yells again, it doesn't listen again, she comes into the woods, grabs dog's collar and pulls dog away with her. Doesn't say a word. I say nothing. My wife looks at me and says, "Nice of her to apologize, huh?" Nice indeed.
Incident #2: Fast forward about a half hour. Much further down Edmands Path, walking at a nice lazy pace. Wife is 10 or so feet behind me and calls to me. I turn around to see the same black lab about 5 feet from my wife. Owner, true to form, is about 100 feet up the trail. I step back up the trail to get between wife and dog. Dog starts aggressively barking again and making slight lunges, staying about 5 feet away. Owner yells to it, it doesn't listen. (Is this all starting to sound familiar? At no point in either incident did either my wife or I approach this dog or its owner. But in both cases it came at us from a long way away and snarled and barked aggressively and repeatedly.) At this point I've had enough of this sh**. I pick up a softball size rock, wind up, and hold it. I'm telling myself to aim at its front paws so either the throw or the ricochet will hit it and/or scare it away. But the dog comes even closer, close enough that I'm almost able to smash it in the head without even releasing the rock, but I don't. Finally, the owner catches up, grabs the collar, and drags it away again. When I see that she is again going to say nothing, I decided to speak up. I say, "You shouldn't have that dog the trail. Someday it's gonna get hurt by someone with alot less patience than me." I watch her drag the dog past us and also past two young guys who had stopped and turned to watch the goings on. One of them was looking at me with a look that I couldn't figure out: surprise, fear, anger, sadness? I couldn't tell. I gave him a faint smile as if to say 'sorry you had to see that'. When everyone had walked away, I threw the rock down hard into the woods and stayed pissed off for the next couple hours.
By some odd chance if the girl who owns that dog is reading this, let me tell you this: You came within an inch of losing your dog yesterday. It wouldn't have given me pleasure to do it, but nor would it have given me sadness. I will do whatever I have to do to protect my wife and myself. And if that means having to use a rock to turn your dogs skull into gravel, so be it. If you cannot control your dog, then put it on a leash or leave it home. As I told you yesterday, someday you're gonna come across someone who has less patience than I do and he's gonna ruin your day big time.
I'm neither a dog-lover nor a dog-hater. I care about dogs the same way I care about pigeons, cats, or chipmunks. They're just animals out in the world. As long as they don't bother me, I don't bother them.
The reason I bring up this topic is that yesterday, for the first time in my life, I almost killed a dog. Here's the story:
Incident #1: Mt Eisenhower, coming down Edmands Path, wife about 20 feet into woods taking care of business while I stand sentry. (No, not TMI. Important detail that we were nowhere near the trail and nowhere near the dog's owner). From about 100 feet down the trail a black lab comes running up the trail. I tell wife someone's coming, etc. Dog is heading toward me then see's my wife and turns into woods toward her. She starts walking out of woods and dog stands his ground and barks at her. So I head into woods and get between the dog and my wife. Dog is not backing away and is barking aggressively. At this point he's very close to getting a Leki tracheotomy. Finally owner comes up trail (she didn't rush, by the way), yells to the dog, it doesn't listen, she yells again, it doesn't listen again, she comes into the woods, grabs dog's collar and pulls dog away with her. Doesn't say a word. I say nothing. My wife looks at me and says, "Nice of her to apologize, huh?" Nice indeed.
Incident #2: Fast forward about a half hour. Much further down Edmands Path, walking at a nice lazy pace. Wife is 10 or so feet behind me and calls to me. I turn around to see the same black lab about 5 feet from my wife. Owner, true to form, is about 100 feet up the trail. I step back up the trail to get between wife and dog. Dog starts aggressively barking again and making slight lunges, staying about 5 feet away. Owner yells to it, it doesn't listen. (Is this all starting to sound familiar? At no point in either incident did either my wife or I approach this dog or its owner. But in both cases it came at us from a long way away and snarled and barked aggressively and repeatedly.) At this point I've had enough of this sh**. I pick up a softball size rock, wind up, and hold it. I'm telling myself to aim at its front paws so either the throw or the ricochet will hit it and/or scare it away. But the dog comes even closer, close enough that I'm almost able to smash it in the head without even releasing the rock, but I don't. Finally, the owner catches up, grabs the collar, and drags it away again. When I see that she is again going to say nothing, I decided to speak up. I say, "You shouldn't have that dog the trail. Someday it's gonna get hurt by someone with alot less patience than me." I watch her drag the dog past us and also past two young guys who had stopped and turned to watch the goings on. One of them was looking at me with a look that I couldn't figure out: surprise, fear, anger, sadness? I couldn't tell. I gave him a faint smile as if to say 'sorry you had to see that'. When everyone had walked away, I threw the rock down hard into the woods and stayed pissed off for the next couple hours.
By some odd chance if the girl who owns that dog is reading this, let me tell you this: You came within an inch of losing your dog yesterday. It wouldn't have given me pleasure to do it, but nor would it have given me sadness. I will do whatever I have to do to protect my wife and myself. And if that means having to use a rock to turn your dogs skull into gravel, so be it. If you cannot control your dog, then put it on a leash or leave it home. As I told you yesterday, someday you're gonna come across someone who has less patience than I do and he's gonna ruin your day big time.
