Almost all dogs have potential to harm another dog

With thanks to Mr. Richard Mortensen for his letter (“Show courtesy and keep dogs on leashes,” March 3) and with respect to Mr. Norm Borin for his thoughts (“Dog-tired of the anti-dog residents of SLO,” March 8), I add my comments.

Our 13-pound dog starts anticipating his much-loved evening walk as early as 3 p.m. He is never off-leash. Dogs are dogs. You have no idea how scary it is to have him charged by an off-leash dog, almost always a large dog. Once the other dog had his entire mouth around our dog’s neck. Oddly, that was the only dog that obeyed its owner’s command to come back. The other off-leash dogs that ran as far as a block to reach our dog ignored their owners completely.

How can I trust “don’t worry, he/she’s friendly”? I’ve learned to quickly pick up our dog and not put him down until the other dog is back with his/her owner. All dogs need to be on a leash in public always (dedicated off-leash dog parks excepted). Almost all dogs have the potential to harm another dog when the conditions are right.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Almost all dogs have potential to harm another dog."