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Does anyone in Vancouver know of any hiking trails where people abide by the leash laws more often than not??? 😂 Or suggestions how to manage on hikes?

I’m so frustrated by off leash dogs and especially frustrated at the owners who let their dogs rudely rush up, straight on, and sometimes AGGRESSIVELY, to my LEASHED DOG. Then of course my dog is the problem, and we go home and I probably maybe cry.

We’re being isolated because of this and I feel like she misses out on so much. I do everything I can in our yard, it’s a rental so it’s not fenced and I can’t get it fenced so I normally have her on a long lead. Not because of her recall but because the neighbours dog doesn’t have one and rushes us whenever he’s let out, I want to have some sort of control to usher her inside if I have to. Even in our own yard she can’t even experience off-leash freedom.

I haven’t tried Sniffspot yet, not quite the same thing as a hike. I’m disappointed I can’t feel safe taking her on a hiking trail when she loves coming with me. I hate leaving her at home when I don’t have the energy to deal with the ignorance. People go into nature to relax, I wish other people were respectful of that and of course the leash laws.

Picture of my gorgeous girl 💕

in reactivedogsby a_verycomplexfig

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Status_Lion4303

I kinda have come to terms that it’s inevitable to run into offleash dogs while hiking. I feel like it’s becoming a lot more normalized and lazy people are just taking their untrained dogs offlead thinking its fine as long as “they’re friendly”.

I carry a water spray bottle now for our hikes for the annoying pestering offleash dogs with their owners 100 feet away. N I carry pepper spray incase we run into any psycho people or aggressive dogs. The biggest thing though is not being scared to advocate for your dog if you actually see the owner close by. A quick “can you leash while we pass” should do it for most normal people. If they question it then I usually say “not dog friendly” just to keep things short and not leave room for more bargaining. I also worked a lot on a stay with my dog so I can step in front of her to block the oncoming dog while I let go of her leash so she doesn’t feel as restricted (obviously not ideal if you know your dog might try to go after the other but my dog is more so just anxious and rather not approach/be approached by unknown dogs).

But with that said I also try to go earlier in the morning and really get a feel for a place. A lot of people go around the same times so I will sometimes notice patterns of the annoying offleash dog people and will avoid going at those times. Its also good to look at all trails or even read reviews for a hiking trail. And sometimes when I need a good true decompression walk where I’m not so paranoid about someone’s dog running up on us, we’ll rent a sniffspot upstate with a bunch of acres. I found a really nice one with hiking trails, there are some really great ones out there but sometimes it’s quite the drive (very worth it in my opinion though for that peace of mind).