Dog Gone It

This wasn't the dog, but visuals are important.

Last week, my long run was a bit longer than expected. With my bad vision, I didn't realize until after a few seconds that I had been making direct eye contact with a stray dog across the street from me.

I was hoping that'd be the end of it. After a little while, I saw a shadow coming from behind me, so I moved to the side thinking it was another runner. But then, I felt something pawing at my heels and realized the dog was following me. 

I had no idea what to do, so I just kept looking straight ahead and running. After a little bit, the dog was whining next to me and then he jumped up at me. I yelled at him and he stopped, but he kept pawing at my heels every now and then.

It wasn't the kindest thought, but when I saw a cyclist heading toward us in the opposite directions, I was hoping the dog was follow him. He didn't. After a half a mile, I came up with a plan.

There was a fire station a little out of my way. I figured I could go there and ask them if they knew if animal control could be called on the weekend (or at least keep the dog occupied for 10 minutes while I ran away). 

The dog was still with me for a mile, so I went to the fire station. The dog was gone by then, but I still stopped by the station telling the firefighters that the dog was following me. As I was about to leave, the dog was nice enough to be waiting across the street for me, so I waved him over. He kindly complied and the firefighters kept him to see if animal control was available. 

Stray dogs have always been a running fear of mine. Once, I ran into an area where there were dogs, who were bordering on aggressive, but there was distance between us and I ran in the other direction. I'm not really sure what to do. In this case, it was an open area without houses or stores. I didn't see a stick or rock if I needed it. This week, I made sure to pack my pepper spray with me. But any advice on dealing with stray dogs would be greatly appreciated. My first choice of course is avoiding them.

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