Poll: running and dogs

[wshaffer]

[Poll #1668969]

*Is it very Northern Californian that the local historic graveyard doubles as a jogging/dog-walking hot spot?

**It was a biggish labrador retriever. Coming out of the fog at speed it looked about the size of a freakin' pony, though.

For the record, my answers were, in succession #1, #3, and #5. The dog was perfectly friendly, and merely nuzzled my ankles before being called off by its apologetic owner. Still, I'm never sure what the protocol is for meeting unleashed canines.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If I do not have my own small dog with me, my approach to strange dogs off-leash is to act immensely glad to see them with dogly body language. I say, "Hi! Hi, dog! Hi!" like a complete idiot, and I do things that many dogs can read as the human equivalent of play-bows. This sets the tone for almost every encounter I have with dogs, where unless they are rabid or deeply, deeply disturbed, their dog brain goes, "Oh! A friend! Hello, friend!" and the worst that happens is that I have a friendly wrestle with a dog that weighs about what I do. (Which many dogs don't.)

I understand that people who are less enthusiastic about dogs may consider this a truly bad worst case scenario.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That sounds like something I can do, though I think I need to brush up on my dogly body language.