who let the dogs out?

Generally, when I have done my doctor-prescribed walking I have done at least part of it with Golden and NJ. We strap him into the stroller and parade around the neighborhood. It must be a sight.

Since NJ has been sick the past few days my Friday and Saturday walks were by myself. On Friday, being alone meant that I walked further than I normally would and staked out what I thought was a good path that wound through the neighborhood for those days when I want to cover more ground than usual.

Saturday I headed on a variation of this path when I noticed a large dog running loose about half a block in front of me with its owner trying to catch it. This dog had barked at me the previous day so I figured it did not like something about me. I turned around and decided it wasn't a big deal if I trim that couple of blocks from my walk.

After about ten minutes I had gotten back on my planned path when I noticed an open gate to the back yard of a house I was just then stepping in front of. A lot of people were mowing at the time, so this was not the first house with an open gate that I had passed, but I was a little jumpy. I had good reason to be. There was a truck in the driveway of the house and once I stepped past it I noticed another large and unleashed dog that had been obscured by the truck and was standing in the house's front yard. Fortunately, it was distracted by something and was looking elsewhere.

Let me stop here to note that this was not a terrifying situation. This was not a huge dog, but simply a good-sized dog. It was not big enough to fear, but it was big enough to respect. I concluded that I would not to cross its path because I was not sure if this particular dog knew the difference between the smell of fear and the smell of respect, and I am decidedly not confrontational with animals who have teeth named after them.

Normally, this would just be an annoyance. I understand that dogs sometimes find ways of breaking out of houses and back yards and I am normally not concerned about getting attacked by a dog. Since I often take NJ on my walks, though, this gave me some pause. I am going to have to tread a little more cautiously when he is with me.