My husband was jogging early in the morning recently and a dog charged at him in the Miramar area. The owner said, “Oh he is friendly” but when an animal is coming at you, it is a scary feeling. The woman smiled and just stood there until the dog got finished sniffing my husband who had to stop running to avoid being chased. This is ridiculous!

This has also happened to me while being on the trail walking, running, and biking with my 6 year old who is actually afraid of large dogs and has been chased and jumped all over. He has also witnessed me being jumped all over and knocked down by an unleashed mastiff a few years ago. (And I had to endure the “Oh he is normally a friendly dog” line while it deposited mud all over my clothes and white straw purse, which I had to fight and threaten legal action to get reimbursed for, BTW.)

My point here is this…aren’t dogs supposed to be on a leash? What if they are not? Is it legal for me to carry pepper spray or a heavy metal object to use in self-defense? What are the leash laws? Can I do a citizen’s arrest if someone has a charging unleashed dog? If it is illegal and I call the police - will they laugh or come?

I am so tired of these moments of fear on the trail. I don’t care if your dog is “normally nice” or is “just a puppy” or if “he only wants to play” - please keep it on a leash. Not everyone wants to pet it or be licked by your gross dog.

When I was a kid, our dog never left the house unless it was for a vet visit.

Thanks for listening.

-GraceAnn

I agree with you Grace, I to have been chased, nipped and mauled by ‘friendly’ dogs while trail running in and around Montara and on Montara beach. Don’t get me wrong I like dogs, I just think that if the owner cannot control their animal (ie: it will not heel on command) then it should be leashed. It is particually irritating to be jumped upon when you are running as it breaks your stride. I would like to say thank you to all the owners who do control their dogs and set a good example for the others. :-)

Usually I roll my eyes a little when people complain about dogs—but maybe I’m becoming a convert.

Tonight I took my kids and their bikes down to Farallone View at 5 pm. While I’m across the field fixing the chain of one bike my nine year old is at the other end—and here comes a guy with his kids and his dog.

Next thing you know poochie is jumping all over my nine-year-old and knocks her off the bike—nice bruise on the inside of her leg and I had to straighten out the handle bars. And of course, even across the field I could here the words, “I’m sorry, he’s usually a friendly dog.”

By the time I had fixed the chain and had been joined by my nine-year-old I had calmed down and decided, what the heck, kids fall off bikes all the time. The dog was just being friendly and didn’t mean to knock her off, right?

So as we come up on the owner, kids and dog on the way out, little yappy runs up to us and starts jumping all over me and the kids—actually jumping on us. I pushed the dog away when he tried to jump on me, gave the dog a few loud commands and strong hand gestures but no reaction.

Where was the owner? Why just fifteen feet away, back to us, oblivious, gabbing on his cell phone. Impressive cell-phone reception given the location. Most unimpressive dog control.

He called to the dog after I yelled over to him to get Spot under control. Spot is lucky he didn’t get a hard kick.

—Darin

This has been a problem for years in Montara.  We love dogs.  Have two of our own.  Our big guy an 80+ lb Akita is wonderful with children and not so good with other dogs.  When we would walk him, we kept him on a tight leash, and when he was younger, with a muzzle (the humane type developed by the SPCA)  to keep him from hurting another animals.  Consistantly, some well meaning owner with agressive dogs would be out walking, off-leash, and their “friendly” pet would run up an attack our dog.  To protect ours we’d have to step between the dogs, trying to ward off Mr. Friendly all the time trying to protect our dog and young children as well.  Invariable the owner never apologized, and became angry that we tried to ward off their dog. In some ways, I don’t even mind if the dog is off leash as long as it is in verbal control by the owner.  Eventually we had to take him without the kids, and during off-hours to avoid the majority of traffic.  I personally quit taking him (Barry became chief dog-walker) because it was just too stressful for me.

I agree that dogs need to be in control at all times. If the dog can’t be controlled verbally it has to be on a leash.

This is for the safety of people, other dogs and the off-leash dog.

I have two large dogs, and have been ‘rushed’ too many times by ‘friendly’ dogs.

One of them was a small toy terrier, the owner laughed and said how harmless it was while I was trying to keep my dog from killing it, while on leash. Very upsetting.