Well this was scary as hell

[reveal]

My wife is training to walk in a half-marathon next year. The plan was for her to walk 14 miles this morning. At about 9am, I get a call from her (thank goodness for cell phones!) and she's crying and scared. Apparently, she was chased by two big dogs (a black lab and a rottweiler) who left their porch as she went by their house. She ran and was yelling NO as loud as she could and ran into a ditch behind some homes. No one in the houses came out.

Luckily, a car drove by and saw what was happening. The person in the car drove off the dogs with their car but, for some reason, the lab came back. The person saw this and chased the lab back to its house. Then the car drove off. The person didn't even get out of the car to see if my wife was alright!

I calmed my wife down enough to tell me where she was because she was out of it and didn't know exactly where she was. She found a cross-street and I got a map and went and got her.

Definitely not something you want to get a phone call about on Sunday morning but, luckily, everything's ok. She's going to start walking closer to our neighborhood or on the bike trail (Wabash trail) we have through our state.

 

[HellHound]

Yoinks!

 

[devilbat]

Scary, time to start carrying the Pepper spray. Or bear repellant, if you are in Canada, and want to keep Johnny Law off your back.

 

[Planesdragon]

She ran and was yelling NO as loud as she could and ran...

Never, NEVER run from a dog. They are faster than humans along the short term, and are evolved to hamstring and kill larger mammals that are running away from them. Luckilly, though, they're lacking arms, and a human who keeps a level head can keep most dogs at bay--although for the big dogs you describe, not getting them to chase you in the first place is probably the right thing to do.

I know that comes off as crude, but it's one of those situations where human instinct is not the right behavior. I'm glad that your wife is alright, and shocked that this could happen anywhere in the civilized world.

(You should also call your local police department. Most jurisdictions hold the owner of a dog accountable when that dog attacks someone, and your wife was certainly attacked by someone's dog.)

 

[reveal]

Never, NEVER run from a dog. They are faster than humans along the short term, and are evolved to hamstring and kill larger mammals that are running away from them. Luckilly, though, they're lacking arms, and a human who keeps a level head can keep most dogs at bay--although for the big dogs you describe, not getting them to chase you in the first place is probably the right thing to do.

I know that comes off as crude, but it's one of those situations where human instinct is not the right behavior. I'm glad that your wife is alright, and shocked that this could happen anywhere in the civilized world.

(You should also call your local police department. Most jurisdictions hold the owner of a dog accountable when that dog attacks someone, and your wife was certainly attacked by someone's dog.)

I don't think she remembers where the dogs came from.

And she said she ran for about 10 feet into the ditch. She grew up in Alaska and learned not to run from animals if she could help it because it wouldn't matter.

 

[IronWolf]

Not a fun way to start a Sunday morning. I occasional cycle on the back country roads we have here and encounter a dog that likes to give chase. In the past I always subscribed to the out sprint them theory - sprint training we called it! Of course at the time I was on a bicycle and in pretty good shape, so out sprinting them was an option (albeit a risky one as a previous poster said).

Yesterday (and now being further out of shape) I encountered a dog on a ride. He gave playful chase and I fell back to my old sprinting days. A much closer race this time, but it still gave up the chase before it got me.

Hope your wife shakes it off and that is doesn't deter her from running, I know the dog events can be quite scary.

 

[Uzumaki]

Yeah, never run from a dog, unless it has one leg or something, or has one of those carts that it sets its back legs into. Then you can outrun it. And even a greyhound with no legs at all can still catch up to you.

Also, is you stand your ground, yell at it loudly. Dogs will interpret it as angry barking, and coming from something that's much higher than it, and not scared, it should keep its distance.

 

[Mystery Man]

Probably a crank dealer considering your neck of the woods, and considering they weren't chained up. And I tell ya, whenever I hear stories like this it really chaps my ass. Why is it that all of the irresponsible pet owners seem to own Rottwiellers?! Fence your dog or put it on a chain for God's sake! I hope your wife is OK, and thank goodness she didn't take your kid with her.

The guy three houses down from me in my old neighborhood had two that were always getting out of his back yard. I have a (4 year old at the time) daughter that could be playing outside! After the 3rd time this happened I knocked on his door and told him that I'm keeping two loaded shotguns, one for my back door and one for my front and I ever saw his dogs out no matter where they were I was going to kill them. He didn't really like that too much, but there's really nothing like me with a full mad on so he knew I was deadly serious. The dogs never got out again.

 

[tarchon]

What you do is say to the dogs loudly "Oh, you want a BATH?"

 

[Crothian]

I hope that she recovers from this nicely.