I want to know what that cat is attacking in mid air....
I want to know what that cat is attacking in mid air....
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All the dog owners on Whiteblaze leash their dogs.
I've never seen a leashed dog on the trail.
The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.
What exactly is an Adventurer?
...first base
ah, as a dog lover I would like to say that I had an experience with a dog on the trail this week. I was out on a nice walk in the Delaware water gap park and a young lady came jogging down the trail with two large dogs, one had the look of a mastiff the other a collie mix, as she jogged I was not sure who was in charge the dogs or the young lady. I stepped to the edge of the nice large path to allow them room to get pass and not cut me off at the knees with the leash. They got to about 10 feet away and the lady said something and both dogs came right in line ahead of her taking up no more room than one person and did not even turn to look at me as they passed. It was an impressive display of dog control, let them run around free until close then boom the alpha has spoken and they responded. Saw one other dog on the trail it was unleashed, had a pack and red vest on and was just following at the heels of a hiker, never even looked at me was to interested in something that smelled on the side of the trail and keeping up with it's owner. Now the dog I met at the hotel was a different story, all wet/muddy and shaking and barking on the front porch what a delight. Most people control and take care of their pets the few that don't give them all a bad name.
No. First, it's not just a few bad owners. I've had literally dozens of bad encounters with dogs on trail, ranging from dogs slobbering all over me/putting their muddy paws on me to near attacks to one actual bite which left me a scar for life on my leg.
Second, you're minimizing how infuriating a bad dog experience can be. In a span of seconds, you go from having a beautiful, idyllic hike to coming around a corner to find large, vicious, off-leash dogs running at you barking and snapping and ready to bite. There's nothing like that to get your adrenaline pumping and stress level up--just exactly the opposite of what I want when I hike.
So you'll have to excuse me if I take zero comfort from the fact that most dogs are well-behaved. It's that minority that can ruin your hike or, if you're really unlucky, send you to the hospital (or for about 40 Americans a year, kill you). Dog people on this site seem to totally blinded about how aggravating, infuriating, and outright dangerous badly behaved dogs can be. Just because it's not a majority of dogs does not mean that you can dismiss it as a non-problem by presenting a rosy anecdote about well-behaved dogs.
Can somebody please start enforcing the rules for this forum? This is getting ridiculous and is why so few dog owners use this site.http://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthre...before-posting
Dog Forum: This is not a debate forum. Read before posting.
Notice
This forum was created for the purpose of discussing how to responsibly hike the trail with a dog. The purpose of the forum is not to debate the whole topic of dogs on the trail. If your aim is to do so, please go to The general forum or poll forum or something. Otherwise stay away from these threads.
That said, if you disagree with dogs on the trail, it is probably because of unaware or irresponsible owners. The purpose of this forum was to try to fix that. The hope is dog hikers can pass on to each other the things that make the rare, good trail dogs a good trail dog. If more trail dogs benefit from good owners, then maybe there will be less problems in the long run.
If a dog owner that plans to bring their dog to the trail comes here and learns all the informal rules; the health, safety, and first aid issues they must consider; the impact a hike can have on a dog, the impact a dog can have on a hike; the equipment and pack weight issues to consider; effects of secondary predation, disease, and other impacts of wildlife on the dog and the dog on the wildlife; and the overall impact of the dog hiker on other hikers and even other dogs - The hope is that a dog owner can participate in the forum and learn all the informal rules and how hard it can really be to hike with a pet responsibly, and then allow them to make a personal, informed decision to either not hike with a pet or to go on the trail armed with the skills, knowledge, and attitude to do it correctly.
All that said, this forum came about this way because it had to. Every time the topic of how to act responsibly, the thread deteriorated into another battle against dog lovers against the supposed "dog haters". So if you plan to post here, post advice about how to backpack responsibly with the pet as a response to the question or topic. Due to past experiences the threads will be monitored closely for failure to comply. Abusers will loose the ability to read or post on this forum.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
No, I never said leave the dogs home. The point is to encourage dog owners to 1) keep their dogs on leash at all times, 2) ensure that their dogs are well-behaved around hikers (not agressive or excessively "friendly"), and 3) understand that not all people on the trail are dog friendly even if your dog is the nicest in the world so you should give people some space. That's it. If every dog owner did that, I would never have a problem with seeing dogs on the trail. Others above were talking about leaving dogs at home, not me.
The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.