Managing Unknown Dogs MUD

[Salamander]

Maybe I've just been lucky, until the past several years I've seen very few problem dogs. Lots of well trained dogs here in town, and with rare exceptions the only problems are owners who let their dogs crap on other people lawns (few of those, and the behavior usually gets modified pretty quickly... returning the dropping to the owner "I think you lost these" usually does the trick) and the occasional ranch dog left in the back of a pickup truck on Main Street and barking for an hour, that's just part of local life.

It became more real when we started a project a couple hours up the coast. 1960s scam subdivision, 27 miles of roads to nowhere, never developed, pretty much marshes, willow thickets, and sand dunes and, when we started the project, an estimated 100 homeless dudes squatting on 750 acres. For every homeless person I think there were at least three dogs. Mostly pit bulls or mixes, occasionally something much bigger. Always running free, sometimes gone semi-feral. I had a team of biologists and hydrologists on that site for three years doing characterization and getting permits and then another two years of construction to remove a bunch of those so-called roads, actually 1/2-inch chip core over river rock, and more pothole than road after all those years.

I never went out there unarmed, and the folks who chose not to carry firearms had pepper spray. However the most common encounter was seeing a dog at 50-100 yards, and the dog leaving. Occasionally one would bark or growl but not approach. We had only one close call, some really large mixed breed, and my gut feeling that all the growling and posturing from 30 feet away was just saying don't come any closer. We never found out, some tweaker crawled out of a tent and grabbed the dog. Just in time, the federal agency guy with me was about to soil his shorts. There were a few others that approached aggressively but responded to "stop" commands and backed off. I was really surprised, but we had very few problems. Once the construction crews came in most of the homeless moved on, we're still up there a few weeks a year but it's no longer the wild west.

I've told this story from earlier this year in another thread, easy enough to repeat it here. This one was not far from the above site but on state park land, during a site visit related to writing a NEPA document. I'd hiked in a couple miles to characterize a site, was done and almost back to the trailhead. Again this is swamps and willow thickets, very poor sight lines. Came around a corner of the winding trail, had just picked up the sounds of a homeless camp off to one side at quite a distance, and as I round the turn saw a very large pit bull in the trail facing away from me. It spun around, growling and approaching aggressively. Can't tell you exactly how I knew, but I knew this one wasn't bluffing. As soon as I cleared the holster it spun around again and ran. Pretty sure it knew that guns make loud noises that hurt sensitive dog ears. I was really happy that I didn't need to shoot that dog, it was a particularly handsome critter. Ironically I had Underwood Xtreme Penetrators in the pistol because that site is really high density black bear country and I'd just seen fresh scat and tracks.

Next week starts a new adventure, we just got a signed contract for a remote 3,200 acre site up in the coast range. Project site is in a region notorious for illegal cannabis grows, which probably means more sketchy guys with aggressive dogs... five minutes on Google Earth and I counted at least 12 illegal greenhouses within a mile of the site.

[Salamander]

...Dogs like that tended to disappear mysteriously from time to time;

That's been known to happen on ranchlands around here also.

And another variation, before we moved in there apparently was a yappy little thing next door to where we now live, I'm told it barked relentlessly all day long every day, the owner is a strange lady who has pretty much dis-engaged from life since her husband passed away so she made no effort to control the dog. The old guy who then lived behind her allegedly had an "accidental discharge" one day. I heard the story from our now retired police chief, who said he didn't believe the story for a second but had dealt with so many complaints about that dog that he just said don't let it happen again.

I can also say that on certain types of large open space preserves, any and all types of non-native nuisance animals are dealt with harshly. Some years ago I was invited along to help staff cull feral pigs and a few other things, and they told me a story about two dogs with no collars that had been chasing wildlife for a few days. They took them both out with centerfire rifles from a distance. This is on an 8,000-acre site in rugged terrain and 15 miles from anywhere, so no one knew where they'd come from.

[Mjolnir]

Maybe I've just been lucky, until the past several years I've seen very few problem dogs. Lots of well trained dogs here in town, and with rare exceptions the only problems are owners who let their dogs crap on other people lawns (few of those, and the behavior usually gets modified pretty quickly... returning the dropping to the owner "I think you lost these" usually does the trick) and the occasional ranch dog left in the back of a pickup truck on Main Street and barking for an hour, that's just part of local life.

It became more real when we started a project a couple hours up the coast. 1960s scam subdivision, 27 miles of roads to nowhere, never developed, pretty much marshes, willow thickets, and sand dunes and, when we started the project, an estimated 100 homeless dudes squatting on 750 acres. For every homeless person I think there were at least three dogs. Mostly pit bulls or mixes, occasionally something much bigger. Always running free, sometimes gone semi-feral. I had a team of biologists and hydrologists on that site for three years doing characterization and getting permits and then another two years of construction to remove a bunch of those so-called roads, actually 1/2-inch chip core over river rock, and more pothole than road after all those years.

I never went out there unarmed, and the folks who chose not to carry firearms had pepper spray. However the most common encounter was seeing a dog at 50-100 yards, and the dog leaving. Occasionally one would bark or growl but not approach. We had only one close call, some really large mixed breed, and my gut feeling that all the growling and posturing from 30 feet away was just saying don't come any closer. We never found out, some tweaker crawled out of a tent and grabbed the dog. Just in time, the federal agency guy with me was about to soil his shorts. There were a few others that approached aggressively but responded to "stop" commands and backed off. I was really surprised, but we had very few problems. Once the construction crews came in most of the homeless moved on, we're still up there a few weeks a year but it's no longer the wild west.

I've told this story from earlier this year in another thread, easy enough to repeat it here. This one was not far from the above site but on state park land, during a site visit related to writing a NEPA document. I'd hiked in a couple miles to characterize a site, was done and almost back to the trailhead. Again this is swamps and willow thickets, very poor sight lines. Came around a corner of the winding trail, had just picked up the sounds of a homeless camp off to one side at quite a distance, and as I round the turn saw a very large pit bull in the trail facing away from me. It spun around, growling and approaching aggressively. Can't tell you exactly how I knew, but I knew this one wasn't bluffing. As soon as I cleared the holster it spun around again and ran. Pretty sure it knew that guns make loud noises that hurt sensitive dog ears. I was really happy that I didn't need to shoot that dog, it was a particularly handsome critter. Ironically I had Underwood Xtreme Penetrators in the pistol because that site is really high density black bear country and I'd just seen fresh scat and tracks.

Next week starts a new adventure, we just got a signed contract for a remote 3,200 acre site up in the coast range. Project site is in a region notorious for illegal cannabis grows, which probably means more sketchy guys with aggressive dogs... five minutes on Google Earth and I counted at least 12 illegal greenhouses within a mile of the site.

I believe your experiences best answer the Original Post.

Thanks for sharing!!

[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]


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[willie]

Pits. American Bulldogs, Catahoula cur dogs, and Blue Heelers all had a place on farms and ranches. They were socialized animals with a job to do. Those deemed crazy were destroyed. Most of us here have seen the terrible results from irresponsible breeding and other failures in their management. I just returned from a funeral held in a rural area in Mississippi. Four stray dogs without collars or tags ran around the cemetery. If I still lived there, I would remedy the situation. I'm convinced that irresponsible people dumped them.

[Clusterfrack]

Hiking in Oakland hills right now. Dogs off leash everywhere. Plus I stepped in dogshit. :-(

Edit: one of the off leash dogs had a muzzle. At least there’s that.