There is something disturbing about extreme dog lovers. Today in the park I witnessed a typical incident. Man runs by jogging, dog chases man, dog owner says, in wheedling, ineffective voice ” oh Teddy, what are you doing?”, dog takes little notice but eventually gives up the chase. The attitude of the dog owner seems to be that 1. everyone obviously loves their dog as much as they do 2. everyone knows the dog is harmless (how could it be otherwise) and 3. everyone is happy to be interrupted by the lovable pooch as they are obviously not doing anything so important that a pleasant doggy diversion wouldn’t be welcome.
As a runner myself I have good cause to appreciate the fallacy of all of these assumptions, having been tripped up more than once, barked at numerous times and even, on rare occasions, bitten. Taken to its extreme, this kind of dog worship leads to the plague of dog crap which litters our parks and beaches. Love me, love my dog and whatever my dog produces.
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My fiancee sometimes has to face a loose dog when she goes out running with her dog. The wayward dog usually almost gets runned over by cars, with their occupants screaming at her to keep her dog on a leash. She has to yell back that it isn’t her dog while she simultaneously tries to keep herself and her dog safe.
From what I have read on the web, many owners encourage that behavior, don’t care about that behavior, or yell at the runner that the dog is harmless (sometimes ends in bite and worse injuries). Some owners never learn, and some learn the hard way.