Editor:

What a beautiful morning it was on Mother’s Day. I headed down to the dike at the foot of 72nd Street for a nice walk with my two puppies, both under 18 months old. We walked to our usual spot and sat down on a log.

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I heard a man yelling frantically as he was running behind his dog, a schnauzer, that was running our way.

“Watch out! Pick up your dogs, my dog is not good with other dogs!” I looked left to see this aggressive dog sputtering and growling as he lunged towards us. I tried to grab my puppies up into my arms but the schnauzer was already at my heels, lunging at us fully intent on biting us.

My dogs were on leash, but because I was sitting down on the log I was helpless and all that I could do in the split second that I had was to lift my eight-month-old up puppy up by his leash and whip him out of the way, landing him hard on his back on the log. He was terrified. The owner grabbed his dog. Luckily there were no bites. Thank goodness.

The owners both apologized profusely. They said they didn't see me, but honestly it didn’t matter. Their dog should have been on a leash.

Events like this cause trauma to other dogs, especially puppies that are learning about the world and how to behave around other dogs. Today we are just feeling grateful that none of us were bitten.

The owner was being irresponsible.

The dike is a beautiful place to walk dogs. In fact, I walk there every day and always see people walking their dogs off-leash. Many owners leash their dogs when they see me approaching and others simply just don’t care.

Walking your dog in a leashed area means your dog must be on a leash 100 per cent of the time. This does not mean you can walk them off-leash and when a dog and an owner approach you put the leash on. This does not mean that just because your big dog is OK with other dogs that he or she can be off-leash.

It applies to everyone and every dog that walks on the dike with their dog. Maybe Delta should enforce this somehow? Maybe people should be fined?

Another reason that it is important to keep your dogs on leash on the dike is because of the bikes. The dike is shared by horses, bikes, joggers and walkers with their dogs. Also a cyclist, I have almost hit a few dogs of irresponsible owners that have wandered right in front of my path, again, off-leash.

Out of respect for other dogs, other dog owners, cyclists and joggers, please put your dogs on-leash when walking on the dike.

M.A. Burrows