Tuesday, March 26, 2013

My Scariest Competitor Yet, A Dog

I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The end of my run  was approaching, my watch beeped for the 10 mile mark, and I was cruising down a big hill. My legs were getting a little fatigued, but still felt strong. I could almost see my house.

A car passed me and pulled into the driveway a few feet ahead of me. I watched the driver and passenger get out. All normal so far.

Then I saw him. The 70 pound dog I ran past every day was out. Nothing new really. The dog has an invisible fence which has never failed me. Until today.

I kept running, basically ignoring the dog. I don't know if it was because the owners were in the yard or what, but the dog started running, whimpered for a second, and kept running. Shit.

I turned around on the hill and started hauling up it. The dog was right on my tail. I ran faster while keeping an eye on the dog. The dog was literally within slapping distance. I took my water bottle and tried to spray it, but it didn't help. The dog kept chasing me up the hill. Then something happened. I started to pull away. I was actually getting away. I slowed down a little, then the dog started chasing me more. I ran harder and pulled away again. This time I kept running until I was out of the dogs sight.

I waited at the top of the hill until the owners waved me down. They asked me if he bit me. They were sure he got me, but he didn't.They apologized and told me that the battery must have died on the leash. I told them that I was okay and that I understood. Having owned a dog before I know that sometimes things are out of your control. It is the owners responsibility to keep a dog in control, but sometimes bad things just happen. They apologized again and told me they were going to check the leash right now.

Honestly I have more respect for them as dog owners than most owners around here. I have had many dogs chase me, but this is the first one that has been on an electric fence. I have ran past this dog probably 50 times and never had an issue. It was only when the owners were out that the dog got aggressive.

Running home I couldn't help but think, "Man... I just outran a dog." and "This is going to make for an awesome blog post!"

Now that I am reflecting on it, the only thing that I think I could have done different is maybe put my water bottle in his mouth or hit him with it. With luck, I avoided all conflict. I have written about dog tactics before, but it has never come into play as much as it did today.

Since the dog will probably have a fresh set of batteries and won't be as aggressive tomorrow I might try throwing it a treat. This seems to be the only dog in Dahlonega that has a problem with me. Maybe we can make friends. It not, there will be pepper spray in my other hand.

6 comments:

  1. Saw this via DailyMile...I loved reading this- I can TOTALLY relate. In the subdivision that I live in, it seems as if 90% of the homeowners have dogs, and out of that number, probably 70% have invisible fences. Since I've lived here, I was chased by 2 dogs at once when I was out for an early night run. More annoyed than anything, I wound up out-running them, but I was fully prepared for a battle if it came down to it.

    Good stuff :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, invisible fences are so questionable. Some dogs test them every time, others know the line and don't cross. Maybe a makeshift-weapons post is in the future...

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