Travel Health and Fitness - Dogs while out running

Not ncessarily a travel issue, but what do you guys do to protect yourself against dogs off the leash/lead? I have had a few incidents over the years with all sorts of dogs and, although I am not frightened of dogs and mostly like them (not all the owners though), I do find it annoying that owners think that it is ok for their dog to chase you until you either boot it, or grab it and hand it back to them. I usually shout out to them to say "you might want to put it on a lead" but some just don't even bother.

Not ncessarily a travel issue, but what do you guys do to protect yourself against dogs off the leash/lead? I have had a few incidents over the years with all sorts of dogs and, although I am not frightened of dogs and mostly like them (not all the owners though), I do find it annoying that owners think that it is ok for their dog to chase you until you either boot it, or grab it and hand it back to them. I usually shout out to them to say "you might want to put it on a lead" but some just don't even bother.

I usually keep my distance if possible however last week I had a run in with a dog and owner three houses from my own driveway

I was running and just about to finish my run. I live on a cul-de-sac and the roads while are wide enough for two cars, its not the biggest road around

I saw a guy walking his dog (appeared to be a smaller sized Beagle or at least of that family) toward me. there were cars parked on the street and a SUV heading toward me all at the same time.

I was running on the same side as the dog walker. As I noticed the SUV coming toward me, I moved closer to the edge but there was only so much room as there were cars parked and the dog walker. Initially I was just going around the dog walker say ~8 feet away'ish but when the SUV came I had to move back in closer to the edge and dog walker. As I passed the dog walker at what i'm guessing was 2-3' from them as they were between me and the curb, the dog jumped up on my leg and took what I thought was a playful nip and cut my sweats and scratched my skin but didn't break the skin.

the SUV passed a couple of seconds after the dog jumped on me. So by the time I stopped, figured out what just happened and turned around toward the dog walker (the SUV at this point stopped a couple feet ahead of the dog walker. I looked at the guy who just looked at me. After waiting a moment to see what he would say - he said nothing - I yelled loud - "KEEP CONTROL OF YOUR D*MN DOG"

While I expected him to say something back immediately, the first voice I heard was "My dog did not jump on you" from the SUV

Evidently the dog walker and the SUV were related. How I do not know. they were coming from the closed end of the street and I had never seen them or the SUV before.

I yelled back, OH YES HE DID and pointed to my calf. At this point the dog walker says, my dog did not bite you. one more yes he did from me and the SUV drove off and the guy said, have a nice day and kept walking.

a neighbor saw it and said that I should call animal control. I probably should have but didn't as the dog IMHO was playing not being mean.

Now I'll be making eye contact with all dogs/walkers as I pass them just to be more aware of my surroundings.

I normally stay away from dogs but this just was one of those things where the timing of everything worked such that this instance was able to occur.

I'm kind of torn on this issue, as I see it from 2 different sides.

Before I had a dog, I would just try to avoid going near them. Most of my running is along a canal near my house, and most of the dog walkers/runners are good with having their dogs on a leash. I do remember one time about 2 years ago (maybe more), coming upon a runner and his dog (unleashed). They were a good 10+ feet apart, I was coming from the other direction. I pretty much had no choice but to run between them, which of course caused the dog to run toward me and bark. No contact, but it was definitely close. The whole time the guy was saying, "she's a good dog."

Fast forward to last year, when we decided to get a dog of our own. I run with her 2-3 times a week, always with her on a leash. The thing that gets me the most are other runners/walkers with dogs that are unleashed. They'll sometimes run right up and pester my dog. When we stop at parks for water (and a pit stop for me), we've had some close run-ins, even though the city has leash laws for parks. Thankfully my dog just tries to get away, while protecting me.
The next thing that bothers me are people who definitely see + hear us running, yet fail to give any space. A couple weeks ago I was running down a narrow stretch along the canal and a couple had their bikes laying along the canal path while they fed the ducks. Now I knew what would happen, so I wrapped the leash another time around my wrist and moved as far to the side as I could. But there's only so much I could do...my dog goes crazy when she sees ducks. Even when we were 10-20 feet away, this couple just looked at us blankly.
Another time, again along a narrow part of the trail, there were 3 (rather large) people walking along in the same direction. My dog's tags clink rather loudly, yet the 3 didn't make way for us (or even me for that matter). So as we approached, my dog proceeded to lick the calf of the guy on the end. He was a bit startled, then gave us a little passing room.
Lastly, my dog likes to run in a pack. It is rather annoying to me, and I'm sure other runners don't appreciate it. When she sees someone ahead of us, she'll pick up the pace to try to catch up with them. Then she won't want to pass, but run with them. I'll say, "sorry, she likes to run with a group," or something, and eventually manage to get past them. Most people will laugh/smile.

Now my dog doesn't bite, so at least we don't have any issues there.

I guess the whole moral is...give space when you can. Accept that a dog (however well-trained and well-mannered) is indeed an animal, and who knows how it will react under any situation. And if you are the dog walker/runner, use a leash, and do what you can to control it.

Try to give space when you can, but also avoid direct eye contact as some dogs will take that as a challenge/do the alpha dog thing.

I was on a river cruise in Russia a few years back. Moored in Moscow and I went off the ship to go for a walk early morning about 6am. Went as far as I could go in one direction, and turned around to head back to the ship. A large dog came out of nowhere, then another & then another. I was afraid I was going to be dinner for these unleashed, probably feral dogs! I stopped completely, looked at the ground, and then started walking very, very, very slowly past them, trying to keep an eye on their location from the corner of my eye without looking at them directly. Had chills up my spine even once I was by them, thinking they could attack me from behind. Plus no one really knew I had gotten off the ship or which direction I had gone, so not like a lot of help was nearby.

A friend of mine was on a biz trip somewhere, went running in a neighborhood near his hotel. A dog jumped the fence, came up behind him, and bit him in the calf. He had to get rabies shots.

When I lived at the beach in LA, I used to walk my neighbor's dog and if my sister visited, her dogs. Always on leash. Always under control. It drove me absolutely crazy when people would have their dogs off the leash and their dogs were running towards me. One time one jumped on my neighbor's dog & started biting him. He's pretty mild-mannered, but he didn't take too kindly to being attacked & snarled/bit back. I'm stuck in the middle. Did manage to get my neighbor's dog away from the other, but I was ready to kill the other dog's owner myself who did nothing but stand by screaming. Another time someone had their dog off the leash when I was walking my sister's golden retriever puppy. The owner said don't worry, xx is friendly. xx attacked the puppy!, who luckily went into subservient mode/hit the ground, but was crying/whimpering. I nearly ripped the guy's head off when he ran up to get his dog. In both cases I told the owners that if I ever saw their dogs off the leash again, I'd file charges with the police. I was super pissed.

Cheers.

I'm a big proponent of dogs not being off-leash, except on the owner's property, or in designated dog parks/dog recreation areas.

Having had a dog killed after being hit by a car once, I don't see why anyone would want their dog off-leash anywhere they could be in danger.