Tails on trails

In all of our years of hiking in the Rocky Mountains, we’ve had our share of animal encounters: An elk calf lying on the trail, its mother standing threateningly nearby; a moose crashing through the willows; a rattlesnake sunning itself on a rock we had just brushed past.
But those all pale next to the worst kind of animal mix-up – with another hiker’s dog.
It plays out the same way almost every time: We walk one direction on a trail with our leashed dog. Coming toward us: Another hiker with one or more loose dogs. They smile and yell, “Don’t worry! He’s (they’re) friendly!”
The “friendly” dogs approach our dog and a fight ensues. Sometimes words follow, as an animal encounter escalates into a people conflict.
Animal behaviorists tell me the trouble arises when one dog perceives itself as having to be on the defense (the leashed dog) and the other dog is on the offense. The leashed dog feels threatened or frightened. The unleashed dog senses that fear and attacks.
For more than a decade, we walked our favorite trails with Waldo, a yellow Labrador retriever who was perceived by other hikers as a gentle giant. But he didn’t like other dogs, and he really didn’t like loose dogs approaching us. Many times, Waldo taught the “friendly” dog a lesson.
Now, we hike with our beagle, Hunter. He weighs 30 pounds, and although he’s all muscle, he’s also obsessively pack-oriented and not very brave. On a hike last weekend on a trail in the Pike National Forest, a man approached us with two dogs – a pit bull and a small shaggy black dog. Both were loose, and when the hiker saw us approaching, he quickly leashed one dog - the pit bull. The black dog, head and tail down, headed for us, his eyes on Hunter. “Don’t worry,” the man shouted. “He’s beagle friendly.”
That was a new twist – this dog especially appreciated beagles. Turns out he wasn’t really a beagle lover after all, and after a skirmish between the two dogs and verbal sparring between the hiker and my husband, we continued our hike.
As the day wore on, we encountered a dozen more loose dogs, and we developed a new strategy. When we were surrounded by a pack of dogs – five of them, all loose, and their owners said, “Don’t worry. They’re friendly,” my husband responded, “How do you know my dog is?” he asked. “You’d better watch out for him.”
(Note: This method only works with people who don’t know much about beagles.)