Who let the dogs out?!?

This incident happened last night around 10 after 7 pm. I was out for a stroll on the trail alongside Claiborne pkwy and right where the trail ends (Dry Ridge Terrace) i started hearing dogs barking. I stopped and looked into the woods and saw what looked like a rottweiler. Shocked by my discovery, i started walking away from the scene only to be stopped by another dog that appeared out of nowhere. I think it was a pitbull...good size.. it started charging at me and i had no choice but to run...i even ran across the pkwy. it seems comical looking back but at that time, i was running for my life. when the owner finally came out and called the dog in i was still running in the median. The whole ordeal must have only lasted 10 seconds but it seemed like eternity. When i heard the owner voice i yelled "keep your dogs on leash!!" expecting to hear some words of apology..instead he yelled back saying "he knocked the door open you idiot" and went into the unit. So distressed by his reaction, i called the animal control and they told me they would pay him a visit this afternoon.
Thank god it was me who got jumped not a woman or a kid. I am anxiously waiting for a call back from the animal control.

 

holy crap, my heart would still be pounding a day later! Please let us know the outcome, I often run on the path at night.

 

I'm so glad you were able to see where the dogs came from and where they belonged (as opposed to just coming across strange, unleashed dogs in the woods). Hopefully animal control can scare some sense into them. Glad you weren't hurt!

 

You may also want to lodge a complaint with the manager of the apartments. I know they allow dogs, but two that size???

 

Dog owners always say ..he / she is harmless when you question why they are not on a leash ... THEY are to you ...but not to me / stranger !

Some common sense would go a long way when using public walking path around Broadlands ..

 

Snoopy, I'm curious, what do you mean here? are you talking about common sense of dog owners who live near public paths and their responsibility NOT to endanger people using the paths?

 

I doubt if they will do anything though. When I called them last night they told me that they only respond to "emergencies" on Sundays. She told me since i wasn't bitten it didn't constitute an "emergency". geee that's like saying "attempted murder" doesn't mean anything. Anyways i am posting this message to make other people aware. yes i am going to send a message to the property manager if their bylaws allow such threatening species to reside in the units. Thank you all for your concern.

 

I don't want to get into a threatening species debate, but any loose dog can represent a threat. i think the bigger issue is that this pet owner needs to ensure his doors are secure. the dog came to him when called, right? so clearly it's trained.

still- your situation scares the bejesus after me- i worry when i am walking my 17 lb. JTR that a loose dog may try to attack him. i saw a big brown dog loose on the trail once, and so we turned an went back the way we came. the dog was calm, only followed us a little ways, then went about it's biz, but it could have easily approached us in a threatening manner and received a boot to the skull if it tried to bite me or mine.

i'm really glad you weren't hurt, I'm glad the owner's dog was well trained enough to return to its master. i hope he secures his doors a little better for the safety of his own dog and those of us innocently walking along, and i hope he realizes calling you an idiot was totally uncalled for.

 

it's very frightening! i'm glad you are okay.

something similar happened to me the other night on chicacoan (close to where it intersects with waxpool) - although with dogs much smaller in size! i was walking my dog when FOUR yorkie type dogs charged us from a house across the street. the owner was outside with them, but none of the dogs were obedient. one wasn't friendly and was growling and snipping at my dog. honestly my dog isn't always the friendliest - so this could have been a really bad situation. the owner didn't even try to come after them or apologize to us. i was truly caught off guard. with the amount of traffic on that road i would be terrified to have any one of them off leash (and two seconds later a car flew by!).

 

ok, so now I have that song stuck in my head - "who let the dogs out? woof, woof"!!!!


but seriously, that is very frightening! That should not have happened. I'm glad you are ok. I just don't understand some big dog owners.... I used to raise Alaskan Malemutes which everyone knows are just 125lbs of sweetness and fluff but I totally understood that others found them threatening and I made sure to keep them away from people unless they were my friends.

 

I think the owner's the real idiot...it's no wonder the dog was trying to escape in the first place

 

I just talked to a guy working in the rental office of that property and he told me that the same unit was visited by animal control three times on three different complaints! Even he himself was chased by one of the dogs and he expressed frustration that there's nothing they could do about it. He said these dogs are not pitbull and rottwailers (i thought they were) and according to animal control as long as they were not caught in action they can't do much about it except leaving a warning. He told me that these dogs are so well-trained they can open the door themselves.. kinda hard to believe.. He's going to bring this to his manager's attention but there's not much he can promise at this point.
I guess i will have to use the trail on the other side of pkway until this problem is put to bed and i urge other folks to follow..

 

It's completely possible- I had a husky collie mix that could open doors that had handles instead of knobs.

 

I'm talking about dogs that are not on leash or on long long leash that bark / jump when you are minding your business ....... Just trying to walk around the community .... simple pleasures in life.....

 

AGREED. just because YOU know you have an electric fence, doesn't mean that everyone walking and jogging by should assume 1) that you do and 2) that it's on!

so when your unattended dog come charging aggressively across your lawn, it's a heart stopping moment.

and my instincts are typically fight, not flight. when an agressive dog came at ME earlier this summer- i'm glad yelling in its face was enough. i LOVE dogs but HATE when owners put me in a position to question my or my family's safety.

 

I did see the animal control truck in the neighborhood this afternoon so maybe they did stop by and talk to the owners of the dog.

 

The worst thing you can do is run from a dog. You will never win that race.

 

I would recontact the apartment manager directly. Remind them they may have some liability as an apartment complex if they are aware of the issue and do nothing to try and solve the problem (if someone gets bit and it can be proven they were aware of the dogs running at large...). Good luck to you. You may want to recontact animal control (a supervisor) with your concerns.

 

One more reason to carry a Taser or mace or ??? If they get close enough to where you feel threatened, taser then call the police. From your standpoint you felt they were attacking and felt threatened for your life. There is no way I'm being bit before the owner\apartment complex\animal control does something.

 

Similar thing happened to me about a month ago at this location. I was running around 10 pm on the trail along Clairborn when two large dogs came out of the woods in front of me. They were pretty aggressive, barking and moving towards me. I stopped and yelled at them till they ran across Clairborn and disappeared in the woods near the apartments. I did not really follow up because it was not clear where they came from but it all makes sense now. This makes me pretty uneasy, the dogs were behaving territorially and the outcome could have been different if I was closer to them when they first saw me.