While hiking and snowshoeing, I have been attacked by eight unleashed dogs while hiking and snowshoeing. It took six months for my knee ligament to heal after one dog attack.

"He's friendly!" the dog owners called. The did not control their dogs despite my plea, "Grab your dog's collar! He is required to be on a leash!" None of the dog owners apologized. Sadly, I went from being a dog lover to feeling terrified of strange dogs.

Rottweiler attack

Yesterday while snowshoeing with Karen, a large Rottweiler barreled down the trail toward us, barking and growling. The dog owner was nowhere in sight. A woman in her 20s, she was meditating above: out-of-sight and oblivious we discovered later.

"Get behind me, Kathleen," Karen said kindly. She bravely drove off the Rottweiler by hitting and stabbing it with her hiking poles. Although she carries cougar spray, she didn't have time to get it out of her pack.

Karen says vicious dogs are after her own dog, Bonnie, not me. Small comfort.

We calmed down over lunch with hot tea. It was gorgeous! Snow was falling, lining every horizontal branch with white. But the Rottweiler attack colored my experience.

How to repel attacking dogs

Pepper spray on a Velcro wristband irritated my wrist, giving me a painful rash. I ditched it.

Instead Karen taught me to hold my hiking poles vertically in front of me, swinging them vigorously, criss-crossing at my ankles. It works. Dogs back off. "Stop waving your poles!" one women yelled as her dog ran toward me, barking and growling. "You'll poke his eyes out!"

"That's the point!" I called without stopping. "Grab your dog's collar! He is required to be on a leash." She finally grabbed her dog's collar.

To my inner disgust, all of my female hiking partners let their dogs off-leash while hiking. Yesterday Bonnie went berserk when man on a fat-tire bicycle suddenly appeared. Ignoring Karen's commands, Bonnie continued barking madly and chasing the bicyclist.

He was affable. "You're in big trouble," he told Bonnie with a laugh as he rode by in the snow.

When little dogs race toward me barking and growling, I throw my hands with hiking poles into the air, making myself look bigger. "ROWRR!" I roar in a deep voice, charging toward them. "NO! Get out of here!" They yip, turn tail and run back to their owner.

At Lake Clara and Marion trailhead, when we see one woman with her three, out-of-control large dogs, we leave and choose another trail. Karen has tangled with this woman's attacking dogs repeatedly on that trail. Not a leash in sight.

U.S Forest Service regulation on dogs

"Dogs must be on a leash or under firm voice control." This is too squishy. Everyone thinks their dog is under voice control.

Selfish, irresponsible dog owners are responsible for dog attacks. Refusing to control your dog is disrespectful toward other people.

Your thoughts?