In my experience, Kelly, is the exception. Most times I've enountered
dogs, they are as noisy as the poorly behaving children of the
littering adults they accompany.

Oh, and yes, that was me in Harrisonburg ;)

On Aug 29, 2009, at 11:50 AM, Karl wrote:

> But yet small noisy poorly-behaved destructive children are welcome
> everywhere. Go figure. I have a nice series of posed photos of my dog
> off-leash in key national parks from our 'maiden voyage' together in
> '97. :-)
>
> Karl
>
> Dave Mcneely wrote:
>> One of the reasons given by the National Park Service for not
>> allowing
>> dogs on trails is the interaction with wildlife, bears especially.
>> So,
>> are you folks saying that dogs are a benefit when hiking in bear
>> country?  I can see how they would alert one to a bear, but I can
>> also
>> see how the dog and the bear could take a powerful interest in one
>> another.  Most dogs being smaller than most bears ........... .  Of
>> course, the Park Service doesn't allow dogs on trails in parks where
>> there are no bears, as well.
>>