The day before Thanksgiving, I was standing on Rattlesnake Knob in the Mt. Holyoke Range, enjoying the view east toward Long Mountain, when I suddenly heard a noise behind me and then felt something hit me in the back of the leg. For a second I thought I would fall, and was conscious both of the cliff and of my wrists, each of which has broken in previous falls. Then I realized I was still standing, and that I’d been run into by a mid-sized heavy dog that was now standing next to me. I turned to look for the owner; not in sight. My fear turned to anger.
When the owner did, fairly quickly, show up I told him his dog had almost knocked me over the edge and he should have the dog on a leash. He had a leash and after a couple of failed attempts got the dog to come to him and he put it on a leash. I said “You think your dog is well-behaved, but he’s not.” He replied, “You’re entitled to your opinion.”
I was very fortunate this dog did not push me down or over the cliff; if I were smaller — a child or a small adult — the dog would have knocked me over. The dog was not vicious; it was overly friendly. People are frequently injured by friendly dogs that are too exuberant around strangers; others are injured by dogs the owners think are “friendly” but they aren’t. Dog owners need to take responsibility for their dogs and how they interact with other people, and other dogs, in public. If you are hiking and your dog is so far ahead of you that you can’t see it, it is NOT under your control.
Not to mention that the regulations for the conservation areas and the Mt. Holyoke Range State Park state that dogs should be on leashes.
Elisa Campbell
Amherst