Another Thing A Bike Is Good For: Wrangling Runaway Dogs

Replaying the timelapse vid of last night’s ride home hardly tells the tale. I’m biking up Larchmont approaching Rosewood north of Beverly Boulevard. To the sidewalk on my right I notice a young man and woman jogging and  calling out to something in front of them, and about three parked cars ahead is a dog on a dead run that looks a bit like a cross between a bassett hound and a German shepherd.

Not sure if it’s their dog or a stray, I head the mutt off at the pass by pulling onto the sidewalk in front of it, effectively blocking its route, and in response the dog reverses course and runs back toward the two but eludes capture and comes back in my direction before running into Larchmont with the young lady of the pair yelling “Tootsie!” in horror that it might get hit.

Fortunately Larchmont is clear and Tootsie uses it to swing wide around me and head east on Rosewood, as captured by my handlebar cam, like so:

I ask them if Tootsie’s theirs and they tell me yes, so I head off on Rosewood in pursuit, pulling alongside the hard-charging dawg as it reaches Gower and makes a right, heading south. I pull alongside yelling “Tootsie!” but the dog just glances at me in unbroken stride with a look like “Who are you and how the hell do you know my name!?”

Looking like it could run at that pace for days I power it up and pull ahead, angling to get on the sidewalk in front of it. Halfway down the block Tootsie sees this and stops hard, once again about-facing to return from where it came. I turn around too and see the man has made it onto Gower and I’m hoping he’ll be able to catch the dog up. Alas, Tootsie evades his grab again, and hangs another right on Rosewood, which I do as well, passing the man who’s crossed Gower as well. I pass Tootsie before we get to Beachwood and with the same blockade maneuver get the dog to do a 180 and head back to its guardian who this time — yay! — manages to reel the dog into his arms thanks me for my help as I roll past them.

“Happy to,” I say and get back on my way.