Between a Road and a Fenced Place: Avoiding Dog Attacks while Running
Let’s talk about dogs. There is nothing that raises my heart rate faster on a run than a dog that seems to be coming after me. In fact, I was not surprised while doing my research for this post that there have been cases of runners having heart attacks when confronted by dogs.
A couple days ago, I found myself between a road and a fenced place. I was running along at my “easy day” clip of ~7:45. Up ahead, I saw a man and his dog. As I usually do when approaching dogs on a run, I slowed my pace to make sure the owner saw me coming. The man looked at me, then back down at his dog. He didn’t seem too concerned about my approach. To my left was a busy street and, to my right, a fenced in lawn. I had little choice but to pass, and try to skirt them in the foot of green between the sidewalk and the fence.
The dog came at me. I jumped to my right, colliding with the fence, and my left foot slipped under the fence posts. Propelled forward by my momentum, I pulled my foot up and out. I ran the last mile home. My foot hurt, but I was glad I hadn’t been bit. The choice between 40 mph cars, a solid wood fence, and a Labrador was easy.
My foot is bruised and swollen. But, fortunately, I escaped the situation with no lasting damage.
Dogs feel threatened when people run at them and their owners. While it is not recommended that you run at or appear to be running at a dog, it is not necessarily the runner’s fault. If you are a dog owner, you must be responsible for detaining, training, and making sure your dog does not go after any human who does not pose an imminent threat. If you know your dog does not like people close to you, take him/her off the sidewalk and have him/her sit until the runner has passed. ASPCA recommends, “Err on the safe side. Be aware of common triggers of aggression, including pain, injury, or sickness, the approach of strangers or strange dogs…” (ASPCA 2014).
It is a runner’s responsibility to watch out for cars, dogs, bikes, etc. while s/he is on a run. HOWEVER, it is also the drivers’, dog owners’, cyclists’ jobs to watch out for runners. It is a symbiotic relationship of not being an idiot or a dillhole. Just as you are culpable if you hit a pedestrian with a car, so too are you culpable if your dog bites another person.
You are responsible for your dog. As the ASPCA emphasizes, “Responsible dog ownership of all breeds is the key to dog bite prevention. More effective legislation than BSL [breed-specific legislation] is legislation that holds pet guardians accountable for their dogs’ behavior by requiring them to pay for victims’ pain and suffering and to take corrective action, such as spay/neuter surgery and proper confinement and supervision of their dogs” (ASPCA 2014). You must be in complete control of your dog, or you may have to face some serious consequences.
It is in a runner’s best interest not to run toward/past a dog if s/he can avoid it. But, sometimes, the choice is between a car, a dog, and a fence, and you’ve been put in a position where you cannot avoid injury. Dog owners need to “be aware that even if your dog is leashed, if she’s allowed to lunge at runners passing by, she might startle them and cause them to trip and fall or veer into traffic” (ASPCA 2014). Or, in my case, run into a fence.
Please, runners and owners alike, be aware. We must watch out for each other so no one is put between a rock and a hard place, a road and a fenced place.
For more information on dog bite prevention, click here.
More info on sidewalk etiquette here.
And more info on runner injury prevention here!
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