Funny enough that's the second time I've heard someone mention that in a week. Any chance you were hiking around Falls Village/Iron Bridge last Friday?Originally Posted by pheldozer
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Had that pad been mine it would have been a "teachable" moment.
one of them paid, some of them would just laugh about it and pretty much a fist fight would break out after that but a couple did appoligize. If your dog gets on some ones gear atleast have enough respect for your fellow hiker and appoligize for your dogs actions
Angus is a beautiful dog and I'm sure very charming but no offense the owner told me her dog was extremely friendly and well behaved and never had this happen before. So how does some innocent hiker know whether they are safe...perhaps just by leashing it til hiker is out of sight at least. I know this owner is getting some hefty medical bills from this experience.
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I think the problem here is the lack of responsible dog owners on & off the trail. Namaste, I think ur reason for putting up this thread is to let non-responsible dog owners know what happened to you and what can happen to them if they don't control their dogs. Your solution to the prob. makes sense. Leash your dog, is a reasonable response to the problem you had...sucks so much!!Responsible dog owners don't like to see that proclaimed as a broad solution & non-responsible dog owners either take note or don't care & get ticked off. You can bet this dog owner will do whatever it takes to control her dog from now on...
RED-DOG... you had a string of bad luck with non-responsible dog owners!! That's sucks 2!!
Thank you, he's a wonderful companion. For a year old he's becoming a good trail citizen. You're right you don't know if the approaching mutt is friendly, Angus & I share that feeling. This is how we hike, without exception; We're on the trail alone & Angus is off lead. He's usually in front of me snooping unless he's found some fresh deer, bear, turkey, ect., poop. We never lose visual contact, except momentarily as we crest a rise. So, someone is coming toward us on the trail; he knows before they ever come into view. He runs back to me & heels I put him on his leash. When he heels I know someone is coming & he's not just coming back for a treat. He's on his leash not because I don't trust him, we want to be courteous to the on coming hikers. Perhaps one or more of them are frightened of dogs. We step off the trail & he lays down, (Border Collie trait), until they pass. As soon as they pass, I let him off his leash. He doesn't care to follow them, he has no interest in their hike, food or gear. He does not bark or poop on the trail. In fact he goes further off the trail then most people to do his business, evidenced by all the TP blossoms we see. I should'nt feel as though I have to explain or defend our presence on any trail. If you think Angus is too good to be true and this is just another WB exaggeration of events, call me on it. I see you're my neighbor, you may already know me. Over the years I've put on many outtings for groups in NEPA. We hike 4-8 miles everyday, and adjust miles and pace to our guests comfort level. We only hike with women when my wife comes along, I like being accountable. Think about it as your leg heels & PM me if interested. We would welcome your company anytime...... "OK Angus, I know, I don't need to defend or explain our presence on here or on the trail, I promise I won't do it again, I know you're embarrassed, I'm sorry".
Homeless unleashed dogs carrying guns drinking untreated water using poles.
"You're a nearsighted, bitter old fool."
Yea I have seen them... So let me get this straight If you don't see a leash and and there is a bandana on a demure dog... the fault is still with the owner? Folks in the woods I use a wireless leash... I am a responsible owner. Rugby knows some thirty + commands. As we go down a trail he is out in front and knows Left and Right and Down better than you non dog owners. ... won't even sniff another dogs but unless I say so....
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
It sounds like Thirsty and Angus would be a pleasure to hike and be around. I've spoken badly about dogs before and it's a shame because I like some dogs as I like some people. It would be a tragedy if folks couldn't take their dogs to the woods with them as that is where dogs are actually better acclimated than humans and do less damage. The problem is that irresponsible people keep taking unpredictable dogs out and people keep getting bit and having complaints. Eventually dogs will be banned from trails. Angus should be and show outrage at these people who are going to ruin it for others...
I can only comment that I met thru-dog Yoyo fifteen minutes before her owner. How am I supposed to figure out if she was friendly?
yoyo didn't bite you...
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
[QUOTE=Sandy of PA;1340447]I can only comment that I met thru-dog Yoyo fifteen minutes before her owner. How am I supposed to figure out if she was friendly?[/QUOTE
That would be my question and after this experience I'm not sure how I would react. The two dogs that jumped all over me on the AT in Maryland were within feet of the owner and his very young child so I wasn't nervous. This situation was different. Not seeing the owner for 15 minutes I might think it's a stray and be a bit nervous.
Thirsty, I'm familiar with the border collie breed....my friend uses one on her sheep farm in Maine. Yes, extremely obedient and never jumps on people. I live in Bushkill Twp down the street from the trail leading up to the Leroy Smith shelter just before Wind Gap. I will be on the trail again shortly but I will PM about your hiking group. My doctor today informed me that the largest puncture of 5 not 4 like I thought is oozing (sorry for graphics) and she flushed it and gave me stronger antibiotics. I'm starting to feel bitter again.
FWIW the person who owned the dog happened to be a really interesting person who shared a lot of similar interests and hiking experiences. During the 2 mile HIKE back to the car I got to wishing I hadn't met her in this way. My husband felt the same way and we parted amicably.
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Yes...exactly.I think the problem here is the lack of responsible dog owners on & off the trail. Namaste, I think ur reason for putting up this thread is to let non-responsible dog owners know what happened to you and what can happen to them if they don't control their dogs. Your solution to the prob. makes sense. Leash your dog, is a reasonable response to the problem you had...sucks so much!!
.
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This is very funny vamelungeon!!!
Thirsty, I'm really impressed with your dog training skills. We have 1 cairn Terrier that is trained like that. The other one is a rescue and we cannot trust him at all around other people or other dogs. He is always on a leash and we have to pick him up so he won't decide to take a bite out of someone passing by... Bless his heart, he has come along way since we got him but he was really mistreated as a pup.(he was full of hook worm and was almost dead) It's hard for him to trust again.
Namaste- it is the battle of the irresponsible dog owners vs the responsible ones. Like Capt Nat said, if the irresponsible ones "WIN", everyone else looses, in a sense. But it may come to that....
At least the dog owner you had to deal with was compassionate, I'm sure she feels bad it happened... that's really GREAT.
Namaste, I do agree with you in this point. I usually hike with one of two dogs, both of which are "bombproof" when it comes to hiking, they go everywhere with their owners, have been socialized in almost every situation and both myself and my friend that owns the other dog know how to show the correct body language to let the dogs know that other hikers are never a threat. Even with all of this training, we still leash our dogs when passing other hikers. We understand that even though it is not necessary for our dogs to be leashed, that doesn't mean that strangers should take it on faith that our dogs are well behaved. We also understand that putting other hikers at ease around our dogs is one of the most important steps to prevent dog bans from being enacted on hiking trails.
For what it's worth, last year my girlfriend was ripped off her bike by a "friendly" dog while riding down a quet public street. This ended with the owner voluntarily choosing to put the dog down (we later learned it was the dog's second unprovoked attack) and with my girlfriend spending several days boarding in the hospital while on IV antibiotics. So please believe me when I say that while I hike with unleashed dogs when appropriate, I have no delusions about what can happen, we have put in hundereds of hours towards training, socialization, and hiking on quieter local trails before letting them onto the A.T. (the A.T. Is NOT the place to test out a dog that isn't used to hiking). Even with all this, we only let them off leash when we are confident that they are under control and in an area where doing so is safe.
Again I wish you a speedy recovery and am very sorry that this happened to you.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
.........smoking cigarettes, spittin' sunflower seeds, burnin' pop tart wrappers..............
"Hiking is as close to God as you can get without going to Church." - BobbyJo Sargent aka milkman Sometimes it's nice to take a long walk in THE FOG.
And broadcasting coffee grinds instead of burying them!
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
I've been fortunate in never having been bit by a dog on the trail, but have been charged by a bunch of them. I personally believe they have no place on the trail. One of the things I've learned over the years is not to greet the owners of a dog as you would normal people. The dog doesn't understand "hi" or "hello", it only understands you are maybe yelling at his owners and in his mind thinks you are about to attack and so bites you in retaliation. Not sure if I'm correct on this, but it's about as good an explanation as I can come up with.
I'm bemused by the various comments from people who say the whole problem can be averted by the potential victim greeting the dog with hands palms up...or maybe a closed fist.
How about if your dog doesn't come within at least six feet of me unless I have invited it, and you have given the dog permission?
Any dog which feels the need to come closer than that and acts threatening towards me will feel the sharp end of my hiking poles. Or, in Montana, will get a taste of bear spray.
Also, I feel no compunction about letting people know that their dog is not welcome to step on my stuff. Or run around being friendly while I'm sitting on the ground with a stove and pot of hot water going.
I certainly haven't kept accurate enough statistics to say that most dog owners are responsible, or that they aren't. I've met some awesome dogs while out hiking, but the bad ones do stick in the mind.
There was the one whose owner decided to sleep in while letting the dog let him out of the tent early in the morning. The dog ran over and peed on my tent. This was a well-trained S&R dog. Morale of the story, from my point of view is that the dog should never be out of the owner's sight.
There was the one that rolled in a pile of human excrement then came happily running back to jump into the shelter. Fortunately we could smell that one coming.
A number of incidents in which I walked up to a water source to find a dog standing in it drinking or playing.
As Namaste says--the whole situation can be averted by keeping the dog on a short leash. Those one in a thousand owners who have voice or hand signal command over the dog so you can dispense with the leash know who you are.
For those who aren't clear on what that means...having voice control does NOT mean that you stand there whining "Come here, Fido!" While the dog runs around doing whatever it wants.
One thought that hasn't been mentioned here: there are a lot of other dogs on the trail whom your dog might meet who aren't all that friendly. I've had dogs come running up to us, oblivious of the fact that my dog is scared of other large male dogs and tends to react badly to dogs who approach too directly. The dog whose owner was 15 minutes ahead of his owner would likely have gotten either bitten or beaten off by my hiking stick. What happens when two loose dogs meet? You don't know. On the AT in 2010, we ran into a man training a pack of boar hunting dogs. Half were off leash, and about half were pitbull mixes. Do you really want your dog running up to the pack when you're not there to protect him?
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