I was running on public roads, but dogs don’t really care about that. And I don’t blame the dogs, they are just doing what dogs do. So anyway — on the way there I was chased and barked at (as usual) by the same old dog who does the same thing to me every time. I just totally ignore him and keep on running. But this time, on the way back, he took courage from the fact that there were now suddenly 5 dogs who appeared out of nowhere it seemed.
I just kept running, but I had to stop when they surrounded me. They were all barking and very aggressive, taking courage from each other. I tried every trick in the book from dog trainers and elsewhere. I spoke to them friendly like. When one darted in aggressively, I put up my hand, palm down over their heads and said NO! I spoke to them firmly saying things like “Go Home” and “Bad Dog!” I was beginning to think I would have to call someone on my cell phone before I had to really defend myself against one or all of them. Believe me, I don’t want to hurt a dog or any animal. But because I am no match for a dog, let alone 5 dogs on a rampage, I would have no choice but to defend myself with extreme prejudice. That means I would have to seriously injure, possibly even kill any dog who pressed in too close. That would be a tragedy because as I said, it is not the dog’s fault, but the owners who could never imagine cute little fluffy killing a person.
Eventually after about 15 minutes of a Mexican standoff, a couple of cars drove by and so the pack broke up. The dog who stayed, though, was the dog who as I said earlier, always bothers me because he lives right there. So I had to keep walking backwards because this dog was that aggressive, I didn’t dare turn my back on him. After I was about 100 meters past this dogs house, I saw the owner pull into her driveway and the dog ran off to greet her. I immediately ran back and I voiced my complaint to her in no uncertain terms. She said she was very sorry. Yeah, right.
Anyway, after I cooled off a bit, I thought that rather than having to seriously injure or kill an aggressive dog, I should probably look into pepper spray or something like it. I don’t know anything about these products though. But at least it would spare the dog.
Anyway, obviously I lost my time keeping because of this incident so there is no time for today. The other problem I had was that the coils on my Yaktraxs seem worn out because they don’t have much grip left on real hard ice. I’ll probably replace them next winter even though they look fine. They are too dull after 417 or so km.
Do you not have animal control where you live? I would lodge a complaint.
I intend to present a case to the County of Parkland. Basically I intend to suggest they do something very specific: Physically go to every home in that area and post a warning on the door or hand it to the person that basically says they are responsible if their dog runs loose and either get himself killed (by me, in self defence) or injured, or if the dog injures or kills someone.
If they won’t physically do that, I will scream long and loud until they do.