[cascadeclimber]

I was bitten by a dog on Sunday. I was coming down a trail that is currently narrow and icy. The person with the dog, which was in the moment on a leash but that I'd seen FAR off the trail unleashed earlier, brushed by me and as they did the dog growled and bit me in the back of my calf. Fortunately I was wearing pants and, though I didn't know it at the time, the bite didn't break my skin. I do have a nice bruise and I could feel it the rest of the way down. I think this is a case of a leashed dog that was NOT in control. It was also a herding breed and I'm guess it was herding its owner and didn't like how close we got. I also think it was irresponsible and selfish to take a dog like that up a narrow, icy, crowded trail. Both the leash and the dog are trip hazards and this dog, at least, was clearly threatened by the close proximity to other people. I had words with the owner, but didn't stop. In the moment I didn't see anything constructive coming out of it...just another nonsense conversation with someone professing the "friendliness" of their dog. I am going to call the DNR today and request that they do some actual enforcement of leash and sh##-pickup laws and report that I was bitten. All that said, what would you do in a situation like this? Also curious how many of you have been bitten (or threatened), since both my hiking buddy and I have both been on I-90 trails in the last year.

[HikerJohn]

Climber, that sucks... I'm a firm believer that if you HAVE to take your dog with you on a public trail, it is your responsibility to keep them under control-- not just leashed. If the dog was aggressive, the owner should have grabbed the dog by the collar and controlled it as you hiked by. BTW, congrats on not having broken skin-- once upon a time, while walking in the Philippines, a dog ran out from the bush and chomped down on my leg. I figured no issues, only to find out when I returned to my ship that I had two nice puncture wounds on my calf. Six hours of searching the area with a bunch of Philippine Marines resulted in a bunch of similar looking dogs that all came from the same gene pool, none of which had had rabies shots. So I got to enjoy 3 immediate shots of Rabies vaccine around the wounds, and 5 more weeks of injections to prevent me from foaming at the mouth (which some of my friends would say were potentially ineffective, as I still do that once in a while. Lesson learned: Time to check for punctures is right then...

[Bedivere]

Wow, don't know what to say about that, other than yet another case of "people are freakin' idiots." I've never been threatened much less bitten by a dog on- or off-leash while hiking. I don't hike I-90 trails very often though. The fact that this person wasn't aware of their dog's propensity to bite someone says an awful lot about their level of awareness. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do. My dogs *are* friendly and have never and would never bite someone in a situation like that. I wouldn't even want to own a dog that would react that way. That person is opening themselves up for some serious liability or at the very least putting their dog's life in danger.

[Randito]

[Foist]

I've never been bitten or threatened. I've actually never been bitten by a dog at all. But I've had some close calls with my kids, with dogs growling at them and taking an aggressive posture on trails with insufficient room to pass. A lot of dogs that are otherwise "friendly" are scared of or "not good with" kids. Trails often have kids. if you do not know for sure that your dog can handle being near a small child in close quarters, leave the dog at home.

[treeswarper]

Oh, joy, another dog hatin' thread. And yes, I've been bitten by a dog that was not mine, but chose not to post it anywhere on line. So time for damn good dog pictures.

[DIYSteve]

[Randito]

[grannyhiker]

If you are bitten, be sure to exchange contact info with the owner, ask him to contact you if the dog gets sick within the next ten days, and find out if the dog is up to date on rabies shots. Rabies is a preventable disease but is (except for 1 or 2 extraordinary cases) 100% fatal once you come down with it! It's most important to get this information even if you have to swallow your anger and be polite to the nasty and irresponsible owners. I've not been bitten by strange dogs (only by a nasty cocker spaniel my parents had when I was small), but a couple of my kids have. My late Hysson, while on leash, was attacked by an unleashed dog on the Eagle Creek trail in the Columbia Gorge, nearly sending both of us off the cliff. That was the sixth unleashed dog we met in 4 miles of hiking, and I will never hike that trail again!

[nordique]

After I was bitten by a loose dog on a trail, I played it safe and got a shot. Then I took a file to my hiking pole tips and am happy now to work my slalom kills on hiking trails when dogs come near (leashed or not). I like that yelp when I make contact #1. I seldom need to add contact #2. Next, I need to move up to adding the owner of the dog to my contact list. I think that counts as double points.

[moonspots]

[DigitalJanitor]

Dog owner/former dog musher chiming in here.... I'M SORRY, it's happened to many of us that weren't at all doing anything wrong, and pet owners are often even worse to deal with than the canine end of it. Most seem to have a reality distortion field that isn't even worth addressing. We were once skiing with our at the time very small daughter down at a park in Eburg when an older couple decided to turn their d**n yorkie loose- in spite of all the signs- whereupon the little craphead kept running over to our skis barking its head off and diving at the backs of our boots. We just stayed close to Buglet and tried to just quietly move on, but finally the little turd actually nailed me over the top of the boot and got me in the back of the leg. Whereupon I yelled and took a swing at the dog with my pole. Whereupon the utterly worthless owners who had been calling and laughing said "don't hit my dog!" Whereupon yours truly had a brief explosion at the owners, telling them 1. the dog HAD bit me, hadn't broken the skin but the teeth had gone right through winter pants and a heavy pair of socks and 2. if they didn't like the way I was training their dog not to bite me they could feel free to use any method they liked, but if *I* had to train it I'd use whatever method I felt like. And it WOULD learn to knock it off. They suddenly managed to get their dog gathered up and left. My husband said they got off lucky, he hadn't realized until I started yelling that the dog had actually bit me.

[cascadeclimber]

Appreciate the thoughts. For the record, I don't hate dogs. I actually like them just fine. When I am in people's homes for personal or work (which is often) reasons, I accept that I am the visitor and interacting with the dog is part of the gig. I go with the flow and almost always enjoy it. What I have fatigued of, greatly, is what some others mentioned: The narcissism that goes along with the people who think, for whatever reason, that the impact their pet has on other people on trails is not relevant. The "He's so much happier and safer and well-adjusted (etc.) off leash." and/or "I'll just pick up the poop on the way down." stuff. In this particular instance, the trail is extremely narrow, steep, and icy. There is just no way to get along it without very close proximity to others; stepping to the side is not an option where the incident occurred. A dog that can't deal with that or has any history of not dealing with it should be left at home or taken elsewhere to hike. "I want to do this hike and even though it's not a good idea with my dog I can't leave it at home so I'm bringing it anyway...because he needs fresh air." is an inconsiderate rationalization. I've now been bitten and my buddy has been bitten. I'd bet my next paycheck that both of the dog owners would swear to the niceness of their pet, and yet both bit someone. Nip/bite/broken skin/bruise, I don't see how the extent of the damage is particularly significant, save for rabies shots. So I am firmly in the position of having to evaluate the potential threat of almost every dog I see on a trail (I can think of one that I see weekly that is always off leash, never more than three feet from its owner, never growls or behaves aggressively...and I am 100% okay with it). And with the amount of time I spend training on the I-90 hikes it's a LOT of dogs. IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Yours isn't the first or fifth or even tenth I've seen today, and having to repeatedly decide if I need to protect myself (as mentioned above) or say something to an irresponsible owner over and over and over, well, it significantly detracts from why I'm doing what I'm doing. Imagine running into 10 or 20 people in masks carrying guns every time you went hiking... That's perhaps a bit exaggerated, but it's directionally accurate: The enjoyment of what I'm doing is repeatedly interrupted by potential threats to my safety. Then add in 10-20 piles of crap that the armed masked men dropped trow and left on the trail. Add into that a frequent (though thankfully not on this thread) chorus of "If you know there are going to be threatening people on those trails you should go to other trails" comments. Sadly, I did finally give up on Mailbox, Teneriffe, and Si last summer. Battling for a parking spot only to hike on overrun, stinking, DNR/WTA futzed trails just got to be too much. Appreciate that I should have stopped and gotten info. That occurred to me about 20 minutes later. I think in the moment I was so angry that I was afraid of how I might behave if I stopped. Lastly, if you're hiking with your dog on-leash and someone says, "I appreciate you very much for using a leash", that's probably me. Likewise, if I see your dog running wild two minutes before I see you, you won't get eye contact or anything else from me: I'm endeavoring to invest positive energy in respectful people rather than negative energy in disrespectful people. Thank you again for your thoughts.

[cascadeclimber]

[Roly Poly]

Nordique, can you clarify? Sounds like you have fashioned your ski poles to have a sharp tip for stabbing dogs that come close to you, even if they are on a 6 foot leash? I remember running into your group and my hiking partner had a leashed dog. We got off the trail and were about 10 feet from the trail so your group could pass. Wanting to make sure that you were the last, we asked if there were any more people coming down and you scowled at me and replied that there was one more and that "he hates dogs". It all felt very unnecessarily negative as we were being super polite and my friend had his super calm dog on a leash at least 10 feet off the trail. If we had been on the trail, would you have stabbed the dog? Just trying to learn for the next situation we might see you in. :-)