Erutan, If we ever run into each other in the mountains, and Bearzy is with me, I am 99% certain (been with him 7.5 yrs now) that you will either see a dog on his own mission, cruising about, and ignoring all of us, or if you're lucky, a friendly dog, with his ears down, squirming a bit in anticipation of perhaps a pat on the head. He will not bark, nor show a single sign of aggression. Bearzy has never been in a dog fight-- let alone hassled a human.Honestly not a fan of people with off leash dogs in the wilderness - there's a reason why your Inyo permit says your pet must be under control (6 foot leash at all times). Aside from the environmental impacts (running through redds in inlet pools, having marmots and pikas stop their foraging, etc)...
My thought is that in a more perfect world, dog owners could go through a sort of exam with their dog, wherein a dog expert would assess the dog's behavior, and I would sign my life away (on a liability waiver) to receive the "safe dog permit," confident that my dog will never attack or harass a person on the trail... or on the beach, down at the lake....
Regarding your statement above, we too are absolutely not fans of aggressive, or out of control dogs in public places. I actually can get pretty wild myself when I have to pull aggressive dogs away from our dogs, or children. Do you agree that the rules are largely to do with dogs of that nature, and may not apply to non-aggressive dogs? Re. your second important point about wildlife disturbance, I understand the concept of "take," to describe adverse effects on wildlife- much of my career work was an attempt to minimize "take" on a variety of Rare, T. and E. species. You are right to point out that "take" is more that just the obvious lethal events, but includes significant harrassment, and habitat degradation. So, with Bearzy and Wolfie, we minimize that by having trained them to break off the pursuit of any animal, and we try to keep them (and us) out of sensitive habitat areas. They are both trained with a snake-like hiss, and the words Sloooow" to stop, and if repeated, to walk behind us, so they are effectively "leashed." We dutifully bury their ****, or cover them with large rocks. However, I think I may be correct in my assumption that a domestic dog chasing the odd squirrel, or hare, is not far outside the natural realm, that is, these prey species are well adapted to being chased, and were chased more frequently in the past when Gray Wolves and Red Foxes, Fishers, and other predator species were more common. The caveat, of course, is that when domestic dogs become more common, and chase more than the former native predators did, then it must stop.
We care a lot about the wilderness, but admittedly run into conflicts, as we care for our dogs like children, and want them to express themselves and have a great life. With that in mind, I must say that I believe that to always have a dog leashed, and stuck at our own paltry pace, is a refined and inexcusable form of torture! Mind you, Lizzie and I are quick to leash them whenever little people, old people, or other leashed dogs are present.
