I heard the low growl before I saw the second dog. I’m usually pretty good about checking my surroundings unless I’m on my phone. Even when I’m not paying attention, my own dog Junee looks backward to let me know a dog or some sketchy human is behind me. This time around, no one was there — until they were. We’d stopped at an intersection. As I usually do at every stop sign or light, I said, “Stop,” and Junee automatically paused and hovered over the cement.
(Side note: She’s never been thrilled with the idea of sitting down on sidewalks or at curbs, so she does this strange squat. It is completely backwards to me because she has zero issues rolling around in random, dirty grass. Why is her butt more precious than her full back?)
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This time, though, it was just us two at first. And when I heard the growl, I immediately recognized it as my own dog who was clearly unhappy. I turned around to see an Alaskan Husky and a jogger running by us at top speed. The problem was the car that stopped at the stop sign in front of us was trying to make a U-turn, so the jogger and her dog couldn’t keep running because the car was blocking them. And across the street was a familiar Pit bull and his owner, who I regularly see during morning walks.
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With three distractions and this lady’s dog clearly not socialized, this became a chaotic scene. The Alaskan Husky was yanking away from the car and trying to bolt toward both dogs. I moved in front of Junee and short-leashed her so she couldn’t get around me. Junee has zero issues with matching another dog’s energy, except in dog parks when she’s inexplicably antisocial and borderline shy around 75% of the other dogs. Like anonymous social media users, apparently the leash gives her the equivalent of keyboard courage. But the Pit bull across the street is not to be played with any time, and this Alaskan Husky just wouldn’t chill out. That made Junee even more annoyed, and she kept trying to get around my legs to see the other dogs more closely.
The driver trying to make a U-turn stopped driving so he could watch this lady wrestling with her Alaskan Husky, and her dog was refusing to run altogether. And the whole time I’m guarding Junee, who is trying to guard me, I’m wondering if dog owners who jog take the proper precautions before they decide to make their dogs into exercise partners.
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12 safety tips for jogging with dogs
I’d already seen a similarly awkward situation with a dog owner who decided he would let his dog jog next to him while he was on a motorized scooter, and the dog ended up getting dragged behind him. When it comes to exercising large dogs, small dogs and puppies (who notoriously have Zoomies energy, walk in zigzagging lines and then refuse to walk at all), there are 12 steps that active dog owners should take to keep their dogs safe.