Everyone loves dogs. They are loyal, protective, and most importantly, adorable. When dog owners embark on a walk with their furry friends, they don’t expect to be caught in a sketchy situation. These dog owners discuss how they escaped bone-chilling encounters with their cuddly canines by their sides. Content has been edited for clarity.
“The Dogs Were Trying To Protect Me From Something”
“Once upon a time when I was much younger, less tired, and a lot nicer, I moved into a house in the country with my partner, ‘Todd.’ The house renovation was not complete yet, so Todd and I were a bit on edge. There felt like there was so much to complete in the house, and there wasn’t very much time to do it.
One day, Todd contracted poison ivy while working outside. He was being very grumpy about it, and he demanded I make him a paste made of oatmeal he could apply to the rash to soothe the itching. I made the paste and applied it to his rash while he sat on a towel complaining.
‘I have to sit here in oatmeal for hours, this is a waste of my night. Can you at least make me some oatmeal to eat, too?’ Todd asked.
I patiently responded, ‘Todd, the new stove hasn’t come in yet. I can’t cook you oatmeal.’
Todd asserted, ‘Why can’t you just make oatmeal in the microwave? Everyone else does.’
“I have never used the microwave to cook oatmeal, only the stove. I don’t know how,’ I replied.
Todd annoyedly yelled, ‘Just figure it out! It’s easy!’
I tried making the oatmeal in the microwave, but each batch came out worst than the last. Todd was being very rude about it, and he threw the last bowl I cooked across the room.
He screamed, ‘I am not eating this garbage!’
I was upset and my feelings were hurt, so I walked out the door. I didn’t know where I was going to walk, all I knew was that I needed to get out of the house for a bit. As I was jogging a few blocks down the road, two dogs came at me barking and growling. I did not break stride, and the dogs didn’t scare me one bit.
The dogs continued to circle me and kept snapping, barking, and growling at me. As I passed the next house, four more dogs ran to the road and began doing the same. At this point, I had six dogs circling me. I never once slowed down.
I kept jogging a few more blocks down the road and the dogs stopped barking at me. They began following me and protecting me. More dogs tried running out into the road to try and bite me, but the dog pack was not going to let them mess with me.
Owners began yelling at their dogs and asking them to come back, but they kept following me instead. The neighbors were looking at me like I was insane. I was surrounded by all types of dogs of all sizes.
After a while, I walked to what ended up being a dead end where construction was happening. I stopped and sat for a minute and played with the dogs until I had calmed down. Not one had a bit or scratched me. I counted how many dogs had followed me, and there were twenty-one in total.
I stood up and started walking home with the dogs. As we passed each dog’s home, they left the pack and began walking up their driveways. However, some of the dogs weren’t leaving my side.
When I got back to my driveway, I squatted down and told the dogs, ‘This is where you have to leave and go back home now. Thank you for making sure I got home safe.’
The dogs still wouldn’t leave, and they tried to follow me up my driveway.
Todd ran outside, glanced at the dogs, and asked, ‘Where have you been?’
He was terrified of dogs, so he ran inside the house and locked the door. It took a while for him to let me in the house, and he locked himself in the bathroom until I assured him no dogs were inside our home.
Todd opened the bathroom door and said, ‘I tried to go looking for you, but I couldn’t find you. When I saw you walking back with the dogs surrounding you, I was terrified. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen.’
The dogs staying outside my home for half an hour to make sure I was alright was weird. However, I knew the dogs were trying to protect me from something.
Todd then stated, ‘I don’t like those dogs. We don’t get along, and they always try to bite me.’
When he said this, it told me everything I needed to know. The dogs were trying to protect me from Todd. I dumped him and never looked back.
I always believed dogs could pick up on negative energy, and this situation served as proof.”
“The Woman Thought I Stole Her Dog”
“One time, I was walking my dog when a van pulled up next to me. This was nothing new, as I have been walking my dog around my neighborhood for years. Many people have stopped me and asked for directions during this time.
However, this interaction was far from normal. I was not expecting the woman in the van to pull up and begin screaming at me.
The woman yelled, ‘Is this your dog? I don’t think this is your dog! It’s mine! Give me back my dog!’
I stopped walking, picked up my dog, and pulled out one of my earbuds. The woman thought I stole her dog.
I asked the crazed woman, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
The woman angrily replied, ‘I had my dog at a park about five miles away. He ran off chasing a squirrel, and I have not seen him since.’
Her theory was that her tiny chihuahua would have been able to find his way home after being driven to an unfamiliar park five miles away. Therefore, I must have found her dog wandering the neighborhood and claimed him as my own.
The woman exited her van and attempted to pull my dog out of my arms.
‘Lady, this is my dog,’ I asserted, ‘Maybe try looking for your dog in the place where you lost him.’
‘No, I am sure this is my dog. Give him back!’ she screamed.
Once again, I told the woman, ‘Lady, this is my dog. Do you want to know why? My dog is a girl, not a boy.’
The woman continued yelling at me and attempting to steal my dog until I lifted my dog to show her the ‘girl parts.’ Only then was this insane person satisfied and believed I had not stolen her dog.
She stomped back to her van huffing and puffing and slammed the door shut. But of course, in a desperate attempt to cover her embarrassment, she had to have the last word.
The woman screamed out her car window, ‘If it is a girl dog, it should not be wearing a blue harness! Blue is for boys you idiot!’
She attempted to spectacularly peel off in her mini-van but forgot there was not anything great about her beat-up old mom van. The van lacked any ability to peel off at all. The woman ended up jerking her van away from me, running the stop sign, and almost hitting one of the neighborhood maintenance trucks driving by. She had to stop in the middle of the intersection so she didn’t wind up in an accident.
I knew the guy in the maintenance truck for years. He looked at me out his window confused and raised his eyebrow. I gave him a shrug, set my dog back down, replaced my earbuds, and continued walking.
The situation was far more embarrassing for the woman than it was for me.”
“My Neighbor Was A Coward”
“One afternoon, I was walking my three Rottweilers. One was a puppy, but the other two were older and very well-trained. When we walked by a fenced-in dog, the dog began aggressively growling and barking at my three dogs and me. This caused my puppy to freak out and jump on my older male dog. I released my older male dog and he walked about fifteen feet away and waited for me to get control of the puppy. The puppy was still reacting so my female pinned him down.
When I finally regained control of the puppy, my other two well-trained dogs came to heel beside me. My older dogs understood. However, the puppy was scared and did what dogs do sometimes, act stupid.
As all of this was happening, I never noticed my neighbor watching us from the opposite side of the road. Upon passing him, he began berating me for walking my three Rottweilers.
He pointed to his wife and baby a far distance away and said, ‘I am concerned your dogs are going to attack my child.’
I was confused as to why he felt he was under attack by my dogs when they were standing at my side.
The neighbor continued ranting, ‘I feel like my only option here is to throw my child over the fence and into the bushes. Do you think my child will be safe then?’
He continued swearing at me until I retorted, ‘I will mention to my husband how you are speaking to me.’
The neighbor snidely replied, ‘I am not afraid of your husband. I am afraid of your dogs. If your dogs ever get loose, they will be done for. Unfortunately, I have to be concerned like this, but I see no other option.’
I rolled my eyes and responded, ‘No, what is unfortunate is how you have to act like such a baby.’
Upon arriving home, I called my husband who happened to be a couple of blocks away.
I told my husband what happened, and he replied, ‘Yeah, I see the neighbor. I will talk to him now.’
I watched as my husband pulled his car over in front of the neighbor’s yard and began speaking to him. This man looked like he was going to run away he was so scared of my husband.
My husband told me one of the first things the neighbor said to him was, ‘Your wife called me a baby!’
Quite honestly, I thought he was a very cowardly man. He could scream and swear at a woman, but almost lost control of his bowels when confronted by another man.
The neighbor never bothered my dogs and me again.”
“Being Hunted Is An Unnerving Feeling”
“When I was twenty-five years old, I lived back at my parent’s farm after completing a year of teaching down south.
I went on daily walks with my parent’s dog. One dog was named, ‘Misty,’ and she was a black Shitzu. The other dog, ‘Bocho,’ was a German shepherd. Both dogs were off-leash, as we would walk through my father’s fields to a deserted gravel road. The road led to a bridge over the top of a creek. It was a beautiful walk, and it was only about three miles there and back to the house.
I had been doing these walks ever since I was about fourteen years old. In those eleven years, I had several stories of my adventures walking down there. Misty was prone to chasing foxes, and Bocho once ended up on the wrong end of a baby porcupine. We saw deer, beavers, and muskrat. We ran into people who were using the deserted road for mischief. There was even a time when the local doctor was cruising the dead-end road looking for the landowner to ask if he could hunt.
I knew how to handle myself and my dogs in a variety of situations. There was only one time when I felt genuinely scared.
It was wintertime, and the grounds were covered with knee-deep snow. It was about five degrees outside, but it had been even colder earlier in the week, so the slight chill was a welcome change. I bundled myself up in winter gear and stepped out into the snowy cold wonderland. The dogs were excited for a walk as they had been cooped up inside due to the cold weather.
We barely made it out of the yard when Misty’s feet began to get caked with snow and freeze up. Sighing in exasperation, I picked her up and returned her to the house. It was just going to be Bocho and me, but he was fine with it. Misty liked to annoy him, anyway.
Bocho and I were about one mile away from the house, and we were just walking up to the gate which connected to the old gravel road. It was a hard trek through the knee-deep snow, and I was sweating underneath my gear. Across the field, I noticed a coyote in the distance. Bocho hasn’t noticed yet, and I was thankful Misty was not with us, as she was prone to wandering off.
I called for Bocho and turned around to go home. I didn’t want him getting into a fight with a coyote. As we calmly walked back, I kept checking over my shoulder to keep track of the coyote. It was coming closer to me, and it was less than a couple hundred feet away. I noticed the coyote was limping, which was odd.
I chose a different path home, this one going to the top of a hill so I could see all of my surroundings. When we trudged to the top of the hill, I noticed two other coyotes flanking the limping one as it got closer. I realized I was dealing with a pack, and they were hunting my dog and me. The first coyote was faking an injury, hoping to entice the dog into an attack or trying to lure me in to help it. Then, the other two coyotes would ambush.
I realized Bocho and I were in very real danger and needed to get home. We walked quickly, but we didn’t run. Running would have enticed the coyotes to give us a chase. It was only when I entered the gate taking us back home I relaxed.
We were both fine, but being hunted is an unnerving feeling.”
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“The Closer The Man Was, The More Nervous I Became”
“One afternoon, I was out walking my German shepherds. One of my dogs, ‘Bear,’ was a gorgeous, mostly tan girl. My other dog, ‘Hunter,’ was a boy with black fur.
I had them at the park, and they were off their leashes. I was walking along a pathway while they were wandering around in the bushes only a few feet away from me.
I noticed a man standing on the pathway crossroad maybe sixty feet away from where I was standing. He was wearing a black hoodie, and he seemed to be looking in my direction.
I continued walking slowly toward the man, as I didn’t want to make any negative assumptions about him. I thought he might just be taking a walk too, and deciding which path to take at the crossroads. Suddenly, the man started walking toward me relatively quickly. The closer he got, the more nervous I became.
In hindsight, I think there were a few cues for me to feel nervous. The man was not wearing exercise clothes, he had his hood up, and he kept looking around to see if anyone was near him. To the man, I probably looked like an easy target.
I stopped walking toward the man, then I took one step backward. He continued walking toward me. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, my dogs slunk out of the bushes and piled on top of me. Both were growling at the man and had their teeth born. Bear continued growling and took a step toward the man, but Hunter was silent.
The strange man abruptly stopped, then ran away. Hunter looked up at me as if asking if he should pursue the man.
Bear let out a large snarl, like ‘Yeah, you better run!’
I patted both of them, put their leashes on, and walked home. I am certain my dogs prevented me from being seriously hurt.”
“My Dog Saved My Life”
“When I was younger, I grew up somewhat naive and sheltered. My family lived outside of the United States for a bit, but they decided to move back when I was in eleventh grade and my brother was in his first year of college. My parent’s reasoning for moving back was to get us used to being in America before turning us loose at age eighteen by ourselves. It had mixed results.
My brother made a friend of another college student, ‘Kyle,’ who was teaching him falconry. Falconry was the hunting of small wild animals like squirrels and rabbits. Kyle was a strange guy, but he was friendly enough.
At the time, my family had a Spitz dog who was thirteen years old. He was a smaller dog, only seventeen pounds. The dog had been all over the world with my family, and he was smart and obedient.
My brother’s college was next to an old cemetery where I often walked our dog. I could turn him loose and let him run around without the fear of cars being nearby. One afternoon, I was going to walk in the cemetery and Kyle asked if he could come. I didn’t think it would be a problem.
We walked to the cemetery, and I turned my dog loose to explore. As soon as my dog ran away, Kyle pushed me down and tried attacking me. I tried to fight him back, but I wasn’t strong enough.
At this point, my dog came running back and jumped in between us, and began barking at Kyle. His sparkling white coat was chocolate brown from the mud he had rolled in somewhere in the graveyard. It smeared all over Kyle’s shirt and instantly angered him. He ran off and never spoke to me again.
I am so glad my dog was so loyal. He quite literally saved my life in this situation.”
“She Tried To Take My Dogs Away From Me”
“As I was walking my dogs, I spotted a woman and her two kids walking.
The mother pointed to my dogs and told her children, ‘Look at the puppies!’
This never bothered me. Most kids loved dogs, and it was fine if people just pointed and said, ‘Oh look, a dog.’
However, the woman proceeded to call for me saying, ‘Wait! Stop!’ and flagged me down.
She was dragging her children over to me too. I was confused, and I had my dogs sit and wait. The woman came over and had her children pet my dogs without asking me first, and snapped pictures of my dogs while pushing me out of frame.
I was uncomfortable, and my dogs were noticeably upset too. The kids were pulling on their tails and ears, and I could tell the dogs were starting to become irritated. I didn’t want these children touching the dogs, as they weren’t mine. They were show dogs, and I walked the dogs for the owner in exchange for a bit of pay.
I asked the children to stop messing with my dogs, but the mother replied, ‘They are not your children! Do not tell them what to do!’
I then politely asked the woman, ‘Can you please stop taking pictures of the dogs? I need you to delete the ones you have already taken, too. The dogs aren’t mine to take pictures of, and I don’t know if the owner wants any pictures of them taken.’
The woman scoffed and said, ‘Show dogs? So they aren’t treated like normal dogs?’
The woman tried to remove the leashes out of my hands, tangled the leashes, and nearly tripped her children in the process.
I quickly untangled the dogs and told them, ‘Heel, fast.’
The three dogs raced ahead before I ran up behind them, leaving the mother and her children behind.
I couldn’t say I have ever had someone try and take my dogs away from me while walking before, and it hasn’t happened again.”
The Riveting Rescue
“One night, I was walking my black Labrador, ‘Walter.’ As we were walking through our inner-city Houston neighborhood, we were suddenly surrounded by a pack of feral dogs.
The dogs tried attacking Walter and me, so I tried to fight back. I was not going to let go of Walter’s leash and let him fight, although he wanted to. I know Labradors are not fighters, but he was a dog, and he was not going to go down without a struggle.
A guy in a pickup truck drove by us and yelled, ‘Get in, now!’
Adrenaline flowering, I tossed my eighty-pound dog into the bed of the man’s truck. I jumped in the passenger seat and the driver sped away. A few blocks later, he stopped, found out where we lived, and drove us home.
I lived in the Houston area for years, and I never experienced anything like this. Had the man not come along and rescued Walter and me, the other dogs would have seriously injured the both of us.
To this day, I am so grateful for the driver of the pickup truck.”
The Bad Vibes Guy
“One day, I was walking my chihuahua through my neighborhood. She usually ignored other people and dogs who passed by. However, she lunged, teeth bared, full-on panic barking like a wild animal at a man walking past us once. I got the chills, and I walked a different way home just in case.
My dog was shaking for a couple of minutes after, and she seemed terrified. To this day, she still has yet to react this way to anyone else. I believe there was seriously something sketchy about this man.”
The Staring Showdown
“As I was walking my sweet Corgi, I had a strange feeling that someone was following me. I tightened the leash and commanded him to heel. I then turned to find a dog staring at and following us.
This dog had an unpleasant demeanor about him, and his stare was penetrating. I have never felt fear for a dog until this moment.
Having no weapon or cell phone, I shouted at the dog to go away. After a short staring contest, he turned and left, albeit reluctantly.
The dog did stop to look at me again but continued on his way. Many people carry large sticks when walking their dogs, I now bring my cell phone.
My Corgi is a fierce fighter, but I would not want him in any altercation.”