I don’t run with my labrador retriever but we do a lot of walking in the woods. A compact 9mm semi-auto with hollow points (fits well in the back pocket) is all the peace of mind I need if and when some off leash dog ever tries to seriously attack me or my dog and can’t be called off.
I was running on a street once and a pit bull looked like he was going to be my undoing. Called off by the owners at the last minute. Didn’t have a gun with me but would have been sorely tempted to use it if I’d had it and if that dog had sunk it’s teeth into my leg. It came a couple hundred yards to run me down.
I suppose the same thing happens to me from time to time where an off leash dog runs with me a little bit (and sometimes I double back to make sure the critter doesn’t get too far from their handler). It doesn’t happen a whole lot - maybe just once or twice a month.
Not once has anyone ever complained about me running or suggested that I should run somewhere else. That’s the puzzling thing about your situation. It just seems so strange that people would do that. It doesn’t correlate with any experience I’ve had, and I find it bizarre.
On the bright side, you got to start a thread that inspired some responses. So, there’s that at least.
I suppose the same thing happens to me from time to time where an off leash dog runs with me a little bit (and sometimes I double back to make sure the critter doesn’t get too far from their handler). It doesn’t happen a whole lot - maybe just once or twice a month.
Not once has anyone ever complained about me running or suggested that I should run somewhere else. That’s the puzzling thing about your situation. It just seems so strange that people would do that. It doesn’t correlate with any experience I’ve had, and I find it bizarre.
On the bright side, you got to start a thread that inspired some responses. So, there’s that at least.
I agree it’s odd. I’ve been torn since reading the responses on whether I would turn around the next time this happens. I haven’t had it happen again… yet. Part of me thinks just keep running, but then again it’s a small town so I don’t want to give anyone a reason to dislike me, or other runners. I hate to enable bad behavior, especially when it’s adults behaving badly.
I don’t run with my labrador retriever but we do a lot of walking in the woods. A compact 9mm semi-auto with hollow points (fits well in the back pocket) is all the peace of mind I need if and when some off leash dog ever tries to seriously attack me or my dog and can’t be called off.
I was running on a street once and a pit bull looked like he was going to be my undoing. Called off by the owners at the last minute. Didn’t have a gun with me but would have been sorely tempted to use it if I’d had it and if that dog had sunk it’s teeth into my leg. It came a couple hundred yards to run me down.
There was a weekend group ride in my area that went out into suburbia a bit. If they were approached by an aggressive dog, one of the guys who was retired would go back during the week and try to find the owner and ask that they keep it leashed or fenced on those weekend mornings. One large dog was a particularly aggressive and almost took people down. When the guy found the owner, the owner told them to F off and stay off his street. Next time they rode the dog came running out and looked to be intent on attacking. Guy pulled out his gun and shot it. The guy loved dogs, but wasn’t about to risk it. Unsure what happened to the dog. They never heard about it.
I told that story while on a week long ride in the UK. They were stunned, but thought that was the most American story ever. The week I was there, they made me repeat that story so many times.
I remember a medium size dog that used to run alongside our group ride every weekend from a house on a rise. For years, it was never a problem. One day the dog went right into the pack. One guy t-boned the dog, and almost went down. He bounced between me and a friend, literally bouncing off us, and managed to stay up. The dog rolled into a ditch and then ran off. An old guy from a chair on the porch of the house on the rise waved. The next weekend the dog came flying at us again. For about 25 feet. Then he/she got to the end of the chain and did an incredible back flip.The old guy waved from the porch. We waved back. I remember that dog being around for over a decade. I guess it passed away at some point. Old guy hasn’t been on the porch in a long time.
Misguided niceness I guess, I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone. I’m a direct healthcare provider and I’m sure the minute I tick one of these folks off I will have to go out and see them.
I’ve taken the opportunity to explain leash laws to most of these people, but you’re right…im probably reinforcing their belief that the world revolves around their dogs.
I’m a general dentist in a small town, so I get where you are coming from. An older DDS in our building told me after retirement that the most difficult part of his career was holding his tongue, and not saying what he wanted, in an effort to not ruffle any feathers. The guys was a heart attack waiting to happen.
I understand your situation is different than mine, but IMHO, life is short. Don’t let people take advantage of your niceness. In my practice, I struggle with this, but during my third decade of practice, its getting easier. The a-holes are slowly weeding themselves out, if you know what I mean.
Good luck with that! We need more dentists like you! smiletogo.com.au
Welcome to my life. I’ve no idea what it is but I am simultaneously irrationally afraid of dogs, especially the small yappy ones, and seemingly the peter pan of small yappy dogs as every one of the fecking things chases me no matter what I do. Start at it, ignore it, stop running/riding, run faster/slower, wear bright colours, wear dark colours. No difference.
My ‘story’ is from 2004 when I used to do all my long runs on a footpath that had been created from a disused rail line in the peak district of the UK. Beautiful place, just by my house, and was essentially a 10km long out and back from a small village with nothing along the way other than a reservoir on one side and farmland on the other. So one day I’m running out and about half way there’s a woman with a mutt walking. This thing is off leash, bounding about even from as far as I can see (remember, it’s a disused railine so pretty flat / straight. Anyway as I get 200m away this dog just missiles towards me. I stop running, place hands crossed over my chest and look to the side - basically textbook advice of how to be non threatening. So The dog bounds up, barking away, running around me, jumping up. Completely ignoring the owner that isn’t making much effort to control it. Anyway she finally gets there and says he’s just a puppy that’s excitable. I explain I’m petrified. She says I shouldn’t worry as he wouldn’t hurt me. “Fine for you to say that, but I don’t know that do I?” “Well you shouldn’t run on this path then”. Noting I’d been running that course at that time every sunday for 6 months. Anyway, we have a clear disagreement and I just use that to motivate for the rest of the run. Anyway, an hour and a bit later, I’m running back and same woman is there. This time dog is 200m behind her. Now I do feel a bit guilty about this, but as I got 20m away from here, still running I put my arms above my head, started waving them, screaming 'aaarrrrrgggghhhh" as I ran up to her. Upon getting 2m from her I stopped, and gently said “don’t worry, I’d never harm you”, then just jogged off. never saw her or her mutt again.
It’s not the dogs that are at fault, it’s the owners. And just like drivers and cars when we’re cycling, you’re never going to change the mind of the dicks.
About 12 years ago I visited Albuquerque for a conference. I went for a run through downtown early on a Sunday morning; there was almost no one out, but a few cars were driving though. I turned a corner around a construction area and faced an unleashed pit bull, no owner in sight, about 50 meters away. I stopped. It accelerated towards me. I turned and ran into the street, hoping the few cars would be a deterrent. Dog didn’t seem to mind, and dodged them to stay with me.
A guy drove by in a pickup truck, moving slowly to watch the spectacle. I caught up and jumped into the back. I made my way to the cab, and realized the guy didn’t know I was in his truck. He was pretty surprised but congratulated me on the effort and drove me a few blocks away, when I hopped out and went straight back to the hotel.
Even while I was in the back of the truck, though, that dog kept chasing until the driver sped up.
Since then I’ve always run with a small can of pepper spray on my waist belt. I used it only once, years later running through a rural area of Vermont. A massive dog (don’t know what exactly) tore off its owner’s property and came at me as I ran by the farm. There was no one around. I stopped since I had no chance in a footrace, turned and aimed for the face and sprayed when it was about 10 meters away. It kept coming but purely from the momentum it had before the stream hit. Then it turned and trotted back to the farm.
my teenager had an unexpected encounter with a 75ish pound pit bull last weekend running in a nearby subdivision. All ended well, dog was just off his property by a block or two and other than uttering some growls and snuffs as he got close didn’t do anything. As soon as my son started off again though dog was “chasing” after him. This happened, start and stop like 10 times in 5 minutes covering a couple blocks.
Honestly as he and I reviewed it afterward we weren’t sure what the future solution is. You run it runs. You stop it stops. Rinse repeat. And the initial “encounter” happens so fast and out of the blue for the neighborhood. We didn’t come up with a lot of future solutions. Add to it that nothing actually “happened” and you are left with that feeling of what if you lashed out at a dog that truly wasn’t trying to harm you.
Later that day I bought him a pepper spray device from hardware store to carry in waist band. Which he is doing. But kind of like a homeowner with a gun, we are left with that “how much safer does this really make me” feeling. Frankly if this same 75 pound pit bull had approached as quietly and quickly from behind with the intent to do harm I’m not sure what pepper spray in waist band would accomplish.
Ok, so lately I’ve been chased by quite a few dogs while out running in town on the public sidewalks. Said dogs are usually small and not a threat, but the owners get particularly ill at me when their dogs run away from them, even though there is a leash law where I live.
If I notice the dog chasing me and not turning around, I will usually turn around so the dog follows me back to the owner, who then usually struggles to wrangle the dog up. On the most recent occasions, the owners have told me to run somewhere else or please stop running by their home, etc. I usually ignore them or try to explain to them about the leash law.
What would you do in this situation? The places to run in town are limited, so it’s hard to give up running by these homes. I don’t want to be a jerk as it’s a small town and I work in a business where I will probably have to deal with these people at some point. The local PD is pretty useless, they’ve seen me being chased by a larger dog and stopped to talk to the owner, but it did no good in the end. I’ve already stopped running by that property because they are larger dogs.
It’s really annoying to stop mid run and turn around to get a little dog to follow you back home just to get fussed at by the owner of the dog.
Maybe this goes in the cry like a biatch thread?
Any dog that follows you home is yours to keep. You may start to notice reward posters going up…give it a day or so, and return them for the reward. After a couple rounds, the owners catch on; or you get a new best friend to accompany you on runs…plus some cash to buy new shoes. It is a win win situation.
That first time you figure out there is a dog that will chase you it is a bit scary. If it was on a route i really liked and the dog was a little bit threatening as I picked up my pace, i would normally ride with a camelbak and have a water bottle with some tabasco mixed in to spray in their face. Might have taken 1-2 times but he stopped challenging the bike.
In reference to a situation where you won’t be injured:
If the humans never suffer consequences, the behavior won’t change. I would NEVER stop and return a person’s do to them just so they can be a piece of shit again, and treat me like shit when they’re the one in the wrong. So, advice in situations where the animal won’t really threaten you any harm…just keep moving. If the owner must chase, the stupid fuck should learn to use the leash.
In reference to a situation where you might be bitten/mauled:
Do what is necessary to avoid severe injury, then involve the police. There is no other right answer. Trying to handle it yourself either leads to more injury or issues with a piece of shit dog owner.
Same goes in general for bicycles. I don’t care one shit if a dog likes to just follow a bike out of their yard and poses zero threat. Dog gets hit by a care, owner’s fault. IF it’s going to bring a rider down/maul them…bear spray and cops involved. 100%.
We’ve had news stories local of off leash rotweilers nearly killing an advanced age greenway walker local to me. Don’t pity the animal that might kill you. It will recover from “sprays”, you can’t recover if it makes a snack of you. And the spray works on people also till you can run/cops arrive if they come after you. Your life is yours.
In general, dog culture in the US is out of freaking control. Both on the lazy/entitled trashy human side and the “take fluffy everywhere” crunchy granola side also. It’s gone way way way too far from when I was a kid in the 80’s 90’s. And we’re dog people. Love our little tzu.
I have planned on packing a small can of Wasp & Hornet spray, but never have. I’ve been told it’s effective at stopping dogs and often has a longer effective spray distance than typical dog sprays even if sprays only buy you some extra time/distance from the psycho. Dunno…
I’ve run for a couple of decades through subdivisions, trails, paths, cities, etc. even outside the country in Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras and only been chased a few times.
Once I realize I am being chased I stop and turn around either telling the dog to go home or waiting for the owner to catch up. Never had I had a bad experience with the owner as they are always apologetic.
The only time I had to lecture someone was a person running on the path with their dog while I was running leashed with mine. I’m glad their dog was not violent, because I would’ve done anything to defend my dog.
To me biking against dogs is scarier. About a decade ago I was thinking about a one-way bike about 130 miles so I decided to test the route by biking halfway and turning around. Near the turnaround I was deep into farm country and was chased by multiple farm dogs. It definitely encouraged me to do some interval training. On the way back I remembered the landmarks and made sure to be at peak speed hitting that section. Sure enough the same dog picks up chase. The dog finally broke off and I hear a new dog barking. I was unlucky to get a dog relay. Anyway I knew if I got touched I would surely go down and break something. The farmer would show up and then shoot me and put me out of my misery.
I train dogs for agility, love dogs, and I have zero dog fear.
Overall you are doing the right thing by trying to be nice and “return” the dog, but if it persists just run on. Sad that some dog owners are douches.
And for those saying “It’s just a mama protecting her nest” remember that peacocks are the MALES; the females are called peahens and are a lot less fabulous
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