Coyote drags sweater-wearing, unleashed dog from trail, suggesting a leash would have kept it alive

After hiking with unleashed dogs for a few years, it became apparent over time that, despite the minor hassle of holding a leash and keeping a dog from either hugging my legs or dragging me down the trail, a leash was probably the appropriate course to take. Two incidents finally steered me toward this conclusion. One was when my dog ran off into the forest after smelling a deer in eastern Oregon’s Elkhorn Mountains. The other was when the same dog ran up to oncoming hikers and jumped on them playfully but in a way some hikers could perceive as menacingly.

A recent incident out of Utah suggests that keeping your dog on a leash might save its life.

Dogs on the trail: some lessons learned

In a previous post about the different ways to hike into Green Lakes, in the Three Sisters Wilderness, I wrote about how one of my dogs, Cody, and I met up with a pit bull and proceeded to spin circles, as I tried to keep them from tearing each other to pieces. Like this pit bull, when they misbehave, it is usually the fault of their handler.