dog encounter - Top of Skyline

[blast_off]

just a friendly heads-up about a dog encounter I had last night on the top of Skyline, on the Yellow trail heading down to the lake.

I approached a gentleman with a large grey-blue pitbull (really nice looking dog!). At about 25 yards off, the dog laid down. I got a little closer and asked, "Okay with bikes?" To which the owner said, "Yes yes, come on by". The dog was still laying down, and seemed to be uninterested in me until I was perpendicular with them on the trail. There was a good 8ft gap between us as we were on the doubletrack on yellow trail. The dog growled and lunged, and the owner was having a hard time holding him back. At that point I dismounted and continued walking down the trail.

I looked back and the owner was jerking the leash and saying, "whats wrong with you?!" to the dog.

I'm usually a safe judge of dogs. I feel I can usually tell which ones you can ride past, and which ones get scared of the bike and need you to be walking past to feel comfortable. This one appeared at ease and submissive. So heads up for a big grey pitbull that lays down as you approach.

 

[Beachbike]

Yeah.., I'm pretty sure the whole dogs on the trail thing is a bad idea. Much like horses, off bike, give 'em a wide berth, let the owner walk 'em past you on a short and tight leash.

 

[rlb]

Most dogs I see on the trail are fine. Part of being a good dog owner is knowing your dog. If the dog cant handle the extra stimuli of being out there then you need to do a lot of training until he/she can. Then bring them out onto the trail.

My dog does not like my bike at all. She growls, barks at it, and charges it as I wheel it through the basement. She also does that to the lawnmower, vacuum, or any other moving thing she doesn't understand. It bums me out, but that's why I leave her at home when I hike.

 

[gtluke]

get a dog bread for fighting, take it hiking. sounds like a solid plan.

 

[Zaskar]

Interesting topic as I was bit by a dog Saturday morning while on the bike…. I was not at Ramapo.

Turned onto a fire road and could see a woman with two unleashed dogs about 100 yards away, no biggie as this is a common sight. As I get closer say 20 yards away, I slow up and one of the dogs (border collie) crouches down right next to the woman and I say “good morning, dog’s ok?” She doesn’t respond and the now second dog (pit looking mutt) is right in front of me, which I’m thinking this isn't good. Then the first dog runs up and bites me on my calf and runs off into the woods. "WTF your dog just bit me" and she just looks at me. I say it again and she says “did he break the skin?”

At this point the dogs have run ahead and she just walks off after them. No apologies, no concern that her dog just bit someone, I ask her for her name and number and she doesn’t reply…..I’m fuming mad…..so I decide it’s best to ride away, I get to the parking lot where there is one car so I get the plate number. Ride home, get the bite cleaned up and decided to drive back up to the lot to see if I can catch/confirm that was her car. Sure enough she’s loading the dogs into the car and she’s shocked to see me again. Get her name and number and find out they are NOT her dogs but her daughters from out of state. She then say that it was MY fault because I didn’t give her time to get them leashed, I was CHARGING her and the dogs were protecting her….WTF REALLY!

Report it to the police (only to get the dog's history) and they tell me the dog would be quarantined at the house for 10 days. They also recommend I get a tetanus shot which I do and the DR also put me on and antibiotic for 10 days. My guess here is the woman had NO clue how to handle dogs especially ones that weren’t hers and she had no business having them off leash in a public place.

 

[HiSpeed48]

Thanks for the heads-up, I ride there a lot.

 

[Tonggi]

get a dog bread for fighting, take it hiking. sounds like a solid plan.

Sorry man but that's an incredibly ignorant comment. Huge generalization of a breed of one dog. I have two small dogs but look forward to rescuing one in the future.

 

[gtluke]

it's not ignorant, i'm not saying you shouldn't own a pit bull but that dog was very specifically created to fight other dogs. It's in their DNA.
Some dogs were bread to be pets, some dogs were bread to go to war.
Don't be mad that your golden retriever is a shitty attack dog. And don't be mad that your pit bull ripped the head off another dog at the dog park.
Dogs were created for very specific rolls, don't be ignorant of that.

 

[acw]

get a dog bread for fighting, take it hiking. sounds like a solid plan.

In Zaskar's story, Lassie bit him...

 

[Panhead]

it's not ignorant, i'm not saying you shouldn't own a pit bull but that dog was very specifically created to fight other dogs. It's in their DNA.
Some dogs were bread to be pets, some dogs were bread to go to war.
Don't be mad that your golden retriever is a shitty attack dog. And don't be mad that your pit bull ripped the head off another dog at the dog park.
Dogs were created for very specific rolls, don't be ignorant of that.

I guess that's why my neighbor's Lab wants to rip anything that moves apart yet ny Pit - Shepherd wants nothing to do with anybody or any other dog?

Like people it's all about how they are raised. My dog was trail running since he was 16 weeks old off leash, the only time he is on leash is when we go on popular trails where other house dogs are.

 

[gtluke]

yeah you can train around it for sure panhead.
most people are shitty dog owners.
well, most people who take their untrained dog off leash and let it bite people are shitty dog owners.
I think my point is that if you don't want to, or can't train your dog properly and you still get a dog anyway, breed selection is pretty important.

 

[acw]

well said

 

[Panhead]

Most dog owners are shitty owners. Dogs that live in a house and only see the outside at the end of a leash most of the time don't know how to behave or react when they are in the wild.

 

[Dusty the Whale]

Most dog owners are shitty owners. Dogs that live in a house and only see the outside at the end of a leash most of the time don't know how to behave or react when they are in the wild.

If I let my beagle off the leash thats the last time I'll see my beagle.


He had a seizure over the summer and developed weird behaviors since then... Vet says he's fine but now He barks his ass off at ppl with their hoods up and stopped getting along with other dogs. Almost like he doesn't want to play or be bothered by them anymore. We are also discussing if we should get the local pro to coach us soon. The main Reason is we need other dogs that are in a nonidiot state of mind for this all to work... we can't train him without them (dogs) and nevermind the other human factor that goes along with it. A simple (insert command) won't work well when OHF is pulling their dog and yelling + they DGAF if we are training our dog...Too much stimulation

 

[gtluke]

Training a Beagle to walk off leash is probably 10 times harder than training your pit bull not to eat other dogs

 

[Dusty the Whale]

Training a Beagle to walk off leash is probably 10 times harder than training your pit bull not to eat other dogs

we aren't gonna train him off leash. He needs to get back to where he was before the Seizzzzz.

 

[wonderturtle]

Like people it's all about how they are raised.

This is not true for dogs or people.

Most parents will tell you that the needle points more to nature (that kids are largely what they are from day one... We don't form their personalities as parents...they are what they are... We're just nibbling at the edges, keeping them safe, teaching them right from wrong, etc. but they are what they are). This explains why siblings can be VERY different from one another.

I don't know the relative balance of nature v nurture in dogs. But the breeding is important. ON AVERAGE a yellow lab is going to be less prone to violence than a pit bull (a dog historically breed for violence!!). On average. Examples of mean labs or docile pit bulls doesn't make this breeding history go away.

Imho any pit bull owner (even an owner of a docile pit bull) who doesn't acknowledge the breeding history of the pit bull (and therefore have their potential for violence in the back of their mind) is an irresponsible pit bull owner

 

[Tonggi]

it's not ignorant, i'm not saying you shouldn't own a pit bull but that dog was very specifically created to fight other dogs. It's in their DNA.
Some dogs were bread to be pets, some dogs were bread to go to war.
Don't be mad that your golden retriever is a shitty attack dog. And don't be mad that your pit bull ripped the head off another dog at the dog park.
Dogs were created for very specific rolls, don't be ignorant of that.

I agree some dogs are bred for a reason. The pit bull was called the nanny dog before they were stamped as aggressive fighting dogs because of a few bad apples. Knowledge is power. Hopefully you can change your outlook/opinion of this breed.

 

[gtluke]

Right, they named it a PIT BULL because it was a great babysitter. It was created for fighting. that was it's intended breeding goal. The best dog possible for fighting other dogs.
I've never met a pitbull that i didn't like. They are really sweet and are fantastic with people. However, we live in a world where there are other people and who have other dogs. And we live in a world where way too many pitbulls are mistreated and dangerous.

 

[Panhead]

This is not true for dogs or people.

Most parents will tell you that the needle points more to nature (that kids are largely what they are from day one... We don't form their personalities as parents...they are what they are... We're just nibbling at the edges, keeping them safe, teaching them right from wrong, etc. but they are what they are). This explains why siblings can be VERY different from one another.

I don't know the relative balance of nature v nurture in dogs. But the breeding is important. ON AVERAGE a yellow lab is going to be less prone to violence than a pit bull (a dog historically breed for violence!!). On average. Examples of mean labs or docile pit bulls doesn't make this breeding history go away.

Imho any pit bull owner (even an owner of a docile pit bull) who doesn't acknowledge the breeding history of the pit bull (and therefore have their potential for violence in the back of their mind) is an irresponsible pit bull owner

Yes, some dogs are more prone to agressiveness, small dogs are also included in the violent group. More people are bit by Labs than by Pits. Is that because there are more Labs, because people don't treat them with the same respect as a Pit or Shepherd, maybe the dogs natural instinct takes over when you run away? I once rescued an Akita, Japanese fighting dog because I thought it could be rehabilitated, everytime I tried to walk away from him he tried to bite me so I knew he was to far gone.

As far as nature vs nurture, nurture is the clear winner. Nature is a hard teacher, just look at areas where there is no home structure compared to areas where a solid home is offered. Chadwick park in Newark during the summer is a prime example of a non existent home structure, they're also the same group that made the Pit popular back in the 90's.

You have good and bad types in every group that ever existed. Kid touching priests, crooked cops, don't think I ever heard of a good politician though.

Good luck with the Beagle, Dustin. We had an Eskimo Spitz that had seziures. Not a fun scene.