Yesterday I went hiking with my boyfriends son, Mason and my Rottie, Grux. We are nearing the end of the trail at Tuscarora Lake, the trail comes out on the other side of the beach area, anyway....We are at the water out from the woods come a very scared and unsure dog growling and slowly walking towards us. This dog was freaked out and under some stress. Grux, isn't always great with other dogs so I feared the worst, then my priority was Mason, I needed to get between him and this dog as I had no idea what would happen. We had no where to go, the lake was behind us and the dog was in front of us. Well Grux surprised me and completely 100% ignored the growling dog and simply walked up past him, they came within a foot of each other and the dog never once tried to go after Grux or Mason. I put myself between the dog and Mason and told Mason to just start walking back up the trail with Grux. I kept telling him, it's ok, I won't let anything happen. Now that Mason and Grux were in front of me and the dog was behind me, I could assess things a little more. The dog was just so afraid and unsure, I slowly started walking and notice the dog was getting closer, next thing he was right behind me still growling and hair up. I knew if he got passed me I'd have no control so I took my leash and looped around and got it around his neck, I knew if I at least had control of him he wouldn't go after Mason or Grux, I had no way of knowing his personality all I knew is he was very scared. So, here I am with a dog, no clue what will happen next, I just took a deep breath and started walking, he was hesitant at first but then started to follow me. Mason just up head was calming down and I kept telling over and over it's ok. In a few moments, the dog stopped growling, hair came down, ears forward and started to relax. I never spoke to him, made eye contact or tried to pet him, I just walked. Once things settled down and I was just happy that Grux didn't loose his mind and most important Mason was ok and not scared anymore I caught up to Mason and Grux and we proceeded to my car which was still about 20 min away. Grux would try to approach the dog to play, I would just say leave it and he would, thank God. Keep in mind Grux is totally off leash and listening to everything I told him. He stayed with Mason the whole time I was trying to access this dog and get things under control. We made it to my car, I got Mason and Grux inside nice and safe. I realized that the dog was no threat anymore, we built some kind of understanding between the lake and my car. I carefully checked his tag and got a hold of his owner who was franticly looking for him for the past 2 days. He got away from them, leapt out their car window after a bird. His name is Jake and he was a perfect gentleman, he is now safe and back with his family.
I just wanted to share this with the Community, if you ever come across a stray dog, take a moment to access the situation and stay calm.
This is Jake
Mason and Grux