I was in Snake River Raptor Conservation Area in Boise a couple weeks and it was the day after Idaho instated a stay-at-home order, but coming from Oregon I didn’t realize they had one instated. Anyway, I enjoyed a nice leisure walk around Dedication Point despite several groups of people who still went out. But about halfway back (it’s a mile loop), a guy parked in the lot and let his black lap run up and down the trail and through the sagebrush and back. Then the owner relentless continued to shout at his dog to come back and the dog would, then bolt again. Never once did I see the owner pull out a leash or anything, just continued yelling and whistling. And I was half-tempted to yell back, “How about instead of ruining everyone else’s day in nature, put your dang (nicest word I can think of) dog on a leash.” Ok, rant over. Typically when I see rulebreakers, I photograph them in the act, their license plate and take to whoever’s in charge.
Recently paper signage has appeared at local national forest trail heads on Mt. Lemmon (outside of Tucson) advising visitors to keep their pets on leash and explains that they disrupt wildlife and can be destructive off trails. I love this but haven’t noticed it making any difference. I routinely encounter by off leash dogs and have come VERY close to being bitten more than once. It is worth noting that I work in the animal welfare industry and before my last promotion was a dangerous animal investigator… and have never been bitten on the job or had anywhere near the close calls I do while hiking. Weirdly people with human and animal aggressive dogs seem to think it is a good idea to take those same dogs to heavily trafficked areas and turn them loose on the unsuspecting public enjoying open spaces.
When I was a regular ACO I bought slip leads by the 1000’s and would approach people, with a smile and say; “Hi what a beautiful dog! I can’t help but notice he/she is off leash today. Can I offer you a leash instead of a ticket?” No one ever refused the leash and once I handed them the leash, they were a captive audience for my little speil about the leash law and to take my dog law hand outs. I kept the mini presentation to under 90 seconds and left with a smile and a handshake. I paid for the leashes out of pocket and it was worth every penny!
Almost every time I’ve encountered dogs off leash out “in the wild” they’ve behaved aggressively towards me, even when the owner swore up and down that they were the world’s friendliest dog and that I must be imagining it. I’ve come to think that there are probably context-dependent behavioral differences at play. The owner is used to their dog’s behavior within their normal day-to-day environment, in which context they really may be relaxed and friendly towards strangers, but in the unfamiliar environment of a wild space the dog’s reactions may be outside the range of what the owner has come to expect. A strange noise in the woods? Dog thinks “maybe danger.” Source of noise looks and sounds like a person but is behaving strangely somewhere off-trail (botanizing, in my case)? Very suspicious to doggo. Dog well-adjusted in normal context thereby feels the need to act aggressively. Not a nice experience for someone like me who’s worked hard to come to love dogs after childhood near-phobia that can be dredged back up by that kind of encounter.
according to a veteran birdwatcher in New York, the best way to get people to put their dogs on leash is to carry dog treats with you and threaten to feed their dogs those treats (because people don’t like it when strangers feed their dogs treats). but be warned that that approach can escalate quickly: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/central-park-confrontation-goes-viral-white-woman-calls-cop-on-black-birder/, https://www.npr.org/2020/05/26/862230724/white-woman-who-called-police-on-black-bird-watcher-in-central-park-placed-on-le.
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