I need to get something off my chest. It has to do with the city of San Luis Obispo. Specifically, I believe, with the Parks and Recreation Department. Twice now when I’ve taken a hike on one of the many fantastic trails here I have been accosted by city representatives about my dog. This seems to be a recent thing. The first time was on the Bishop Peak trail. As I drove up, I noticed that some guy was taking pictures of people with their dogs standing by their cars. Then he walked up to us while we were still in our vehicle and did the same thing. I asked him what it was about and he told us that we’d better keep our dog on a leash. I asked who he was, and he just laughed and quickly walked away. An inquiry told me that he may have been a “SLO City Steward.”
The second time was on one of the Irish Hills trails. I was at the end of one of them sitting on a bench enjoying the views when two guys with SLO City Ranger uniforms approached. One guy, the younger, seemed friendly enough, but the other, an older guy, was rude from the get-go. When they approached, my dog began to bark at him. He’s a very friendly dog, but he could sense this guy’s aggressive behavior. He told me to put my dog on a leash (I let him off sometimes to go to the bathroom). I looked for it in my backpack. I told him that I did have him on it, but when I didn’t produce it immediately he piped up and said, “something tells me that your dog wasn’t on a leash at all.” Just then, I pulled it out of my pocket. The guy’s demeanor was confrontational the whole time, telling me that we had to leave because the trail was closed. We did see signs on the way about the closure, but the one we were on was not closed. So we left.
A word of advice to the city: You seriously need to talk to your people about their hyper-officious PR, because if you’re trying to piss people off with harassment and discourage them into not hiking you’re going about it all right.
Ron Ray
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Dec 14-24, 2017.
It sounds to me that these officials are simply trying to keep the trails safe for all citizens. Not everyone is a dog lover and even if they are you can’t expect people to know your dog is friendly when it barks and runs up to people. I personally am a dog lover and own dogs, but I would never hike a trail where dogs are allowed to be off leash, as you just never know how dogs are going to interact with not only strangers or other dogs. My dog has been bitten by seemingly nice friendly looking dogs. Better to be safe and respectful of others to keep the trails safe for all.
I agree with hannahrock3 that these officials are simply trying to enforce rules about keeping dogs on leashes for safety purposes. I wish the officials were in my neighborhood park, where most people let their dogs run freely, despite the posted rules (leash at all times, pick up the poo). I am offended by people who flout laws because they feel they are taking care of their dogs. This “above-the-law” behavior puts others at potential risk of being harmed or simply scared by unleashed dogs. Worse, it puts folks like me in the position of either risking angering the person and facing some kind of retaliation, or saying nothing and effectively increasing the possibility that someone is going to get hurt.
T
I agree with you, Ron Ray. The Parks people are rude and arrogant, and far too aggressive. It starts with the leadership. They forget who they work for. The $500+ fines they hand out to fund their staff makes them confrontational. Somebody needs to reign them in, and require they identify themselves properly when asked.
I am a dog lover/dog owner. I OBEY off leash laws- many don’t. You don’t let your dog off leash so they can ‘Go to the bathroom’. They are 100% capable of doing their business on leash. You should have been ticketed. You were LUCKY. Do you know how much that ticket would have cost you if they issued one? KEEP YOUR DOGS ON LEASH 100% OF THE TIME IN POSTED ‘ON LEASH’ AREAS. We all need to obey the on and off leash laws, not just a special few who think someone is rude for confronting them about an off leash dog. If they start giving tickets every time will you finally concede?