Day 79

40 min jog with the dog this morning.
On the way out, I saw a little dog ahead on one of those flexi leashes. Fortunately, at this point on the path, there are actually two paths, the rec path and a parallel dirt path a few meters apart; the dirt path is lower and the rec path is kind of on a low ridge, if that makes sense. The little dog's owner seemed to be letting her dog pull out lead nilly-willy on the rec path, so we switched to the dirt path.

Once the little dog (sort of looked like a corgi) saw my dog coming up, it started pulling back. The owner did not look where her dog was, just kept on walking, even though her dog had stretched its thin black lead across the path to get at us. I wasn't worried about it getting to us, but I was worried about other people on the path getting tripped. I was going to call her attention to it, but I decided to wait and give her the benefit of the doubt. Her dog started barking at us and then she looked--a cyclist came up just then and had to brake because of the leash stretched across the path. So she apologized to the cyclist--at this point, we were running by all this on the lower path--her dog was going nuts pulling ahead to get to us, and the woman was so occupied by her apology that she didn't see another cyclist on the other side who also had to stop to avoid getting tripped up. She apologized to that one too. Finally, she decided to collect her dog, but it had pulled too far ahead of her and she started yelling at it. So I called out something to the effect that it's hard to control dogs with that type of leash. So she yelled at me something like "I wasn't yelling at you, it's my dog" and I yelled back "I know, I just wanted to point out that it's much easier to control your dog with this kind of leash" and I held up my dog's thick red woven lead.

She didn't seem too receptive so I ran on. Got some smiles from a couple of other runners who had moved to the lower path with us while this yard sale was going on. There were a fair number of people using the path and she let her dog interfere with us all.

Honestly, I wasn't trying to be a butt. People don't realize that when they put their dog on a flexi-leash, it gets used to the pressure on its collar and thus it gets used to pulling. This makes it the one in charge. So it learns to pull, to ignore its owner to a point; good luck teaching that dog to walk properly. Yes, you can hold it in place somewhat, but it's not going to learn its place. I am trying to recall if I've seen a single dog heeling properly on a flexi-leash....can't think of one though I've seen dozens (hundreds?) on those leashes. Substitute the flexi-leash for an ordinary woven/rope leash and a halti or choke or prong collar, and the dog will figure out that pulling puts undesirable pressure on its muzzle and/or neck. Unless it's absolutely thick, it will learn to stop pulling.

Admittedly, what irked me most about this morning's encounter was realizing that I'd gone out of my way to avoid this dog, as did others, and the owner probably didn't consider this. Yes, the interruption of the cyclists was a more serious matter (what if they hadn't seen the leash?) but too often I find myself having to stop, to move my dog, to react to someone else's dogto take a different route, or otherwise change my plans on the fly because of poorly-handled dogs. It's not fair.

I don't think I deserved the bad karma today: had to call the gas company later on because I smelled something eggy. Turned out to be a clogged valve and something else that was loose.

edit: I've since seen that dog several times and she is doing better. A couple of times she has been loose on the lower path and came up to see my dog when we've been walking home but now that we know her, and she's calm about it too and hasn't interrupted our run, I don't mind. Which made me realize that maybe I don't care about loose dogs, just strange loose dogs. At any rate, I haven't seen this dog stretching a flexi-leash across the path again--I think she has a proper leash now but the owner unclips her sometimes for more range. Not the most ideal thing, but better than before, plus I've seen the dog pretty much every time I've run around that time, so at least she's getting out regularly. That makes me really happy, actually!