This poster is exactly right. I've run a lot these trails and had the same experience. I can't say that if a small dog off leash nipped at me while running in the east bay trails that I wouldn't kick it. I'm cetainly not going to let a small dog bite me. I wouldn't be trying to kill the dog but I also have no idea how hard of kick it would take. Maybe the runner kicked to hard on accident.
bay area trail runner wrote:
As a person who runs on those trails a lot, one thing I should explain to you all is the sheer volume of dogs on those trails. On any given day I go for a run I encounter several professional dog walkers. The legal limit is 6 dogs and they often take up the entire trail, roaming around and shitting all over the place. Most of these dog walkers are fairly responsible and pick up their dogshit but still what they do is put the dogshit in bags a and leave the bags on the side of the trail so usually the trails are not only covered with dogs but lined with little bags full of dogshit. I don't condone kicking dogs but when I saw this thread the first thing that came to mind was the rage this situation can insight because I've been there. It seems like every time I go for a run now I have to dodge several dogs. I've had to jump over dogs, zig zag through packs of dogs and I've been chased by dogs. the dogs are usually friendly but it gets to be really annoying because dogs don't have any sense of courtesy on the trails. they will run right out in front of you.
one time I ran across three different professional dog walkers a the same intersection with so there were like 15 dogs running around and quite a few off leash. but even when they are on leash it's worse because then you have to avoid the leash too. The leashes get tangled up as the dogs run this way and that basically clotheslining the whole trail.
Likely this is the kind of thing our rogue runner had experienced many times before he just snapped and started kicking. I know because I've felt like that myself at times. I think people just need to stop having so many dogs. Most people work all day and have no business having a dog. they neglect their animals or hire these professionals to take care of them, so what we end up having is lots of people whose job it is to manage a ton of dogs that their owners can't take care of but want a nice fluffy animal when it's convenient for them. but I digress...