I'm new to the AT, and this site. I started hiking because I got a dog. I was surprised to find the dog question so controversial. I never realized how many people had negative dog encounters on the trail. All of the complaints I read seemed like they would be non-issues if handlers used common sense - evidently it's not as common as I thought. The sticky at the top of the dog forum suggests posting here if you want to discuss the issue of dogs on the trail, but I didn't find a single poll with the word 'dog' in the title. I found the 'debates' I read seemed evenly split one way or the other, but I wanted to see a poll - so I made one.