reasons to keep dogs on trail

Wildlife Danger to Dogs:

From Katy: "This morning.......(we) were running up trail 26 behind another woman with 2 dogs. Just shy of where trail 26 leaves the road and dips down to cross the creek bed one of her dogs, running off-trail, got too close to a coyote den and was chased by two coyotes. She had a hard time getting her dog back. The coyotes were pretty aggressive in the chase, understandably.......fortunately she was able to get her dog back without any altercation. The coyotes escorted us at a polite distance, however, back to the junction of 26 and trail 5.

.....all the years I've run on trails (over 20) I've never had anything like this happen. We've seen and heard plenty of coyotes. My dogs don't generally run offtrail, though. I think the dog could have been hurt had it not come back."

This is the second recent reminder. We heard at the meeting last week about a coyote who enticed a dog to chase and then led her to where another coyote was waiting to gang up on her. This from a reputable source who saw it happen. The owner got her dog back, but it was scary.

Watch for coyotes, especially when they are denning (March through August). Don't let your dogs bother them. Not only is it potentially dangerous, falls under the category of wildlife harassment ( as would distrubing any nesting or denning creature).


Cheat Grass

A friend asked me for information yesterday, so for those of you who don't know about cheat here's a link. My vet says he has been doing lots of removal- from every orifice. Having had to put Teddy under a few times to extract some from his paw, I can tell you it is nasty stuff & not cheap to deal with if it gets too far. Most vets will tell you to stay out of the hills completely this time of year.

http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesconditionsfaqs/qt/QT_cheatgrass.htm