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Health & Fitness

Skating With Dogs

Commuting can be painful; stay alert.

Recently I was knocked down by a big dog near Brighton.

I was skateboarding home with my groceries and a man walking his dog along the fence by let his very excited dog lunge across the bike path at me, knocking me into the dirt. 

As a child I was terrorized by semi-wild dogs while walking to school and I still get a strong dose of adrenaline when a barking dog comes towards me, even from the other side of a fence. 

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Now, as I reach middle age, I'm learning to face adversity with a level head and a kind tongue, so I brushed myself off and picked the gravel from my palms without a word.  He asked me if I was OK and I said yes, but he offered no apology.

Owners of dogs who lunge are usually well aware of their companion's temperament, and try to head off confrontation by reigning in their animal when they see a child on a bike or a skateboarder coming towards them. 

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We wheeled ones try to avoid trouble too. I have my children pull over to give extra room to passing dogs we don't know, but sometimes on the foliage-narrowed streets of Albany there isn't a great deal of wiggle room. 

The combination of children and roller skates is too much to bear for some of our furry ruffian friends. For some reason it surprises me how many well mannered dogs there are in our city, but we have been jumped on enough times by angry or excitable dogs to stay on guard.

In January I was thanked for not being angry when a little terrier chased me down the street nipping at my ankle. The owner apologized and I also apologized for upsetting their dog and delivered my new salutation for times like these: "Some dogs hate skateboards."

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