10/19/2026
Today was a lovely, sunny, crips autumn day - a perfect day for accomplishing some yard work. (Photo from tracking exercise we did Saturday on campus)
And for setting a track for Miko. 750 yards in the grassy fields behind the T-bur SureSav. Those lovely fields are owned by the GrassRoots organization, and used for camping and parking for that well known music festival held each July.
4 1/2 hours later, we headed over for some tracking fun. Which we were having until I heard a small dog yapping like mad as it galloped towards Miko. There was a guy a bit behind the dog.
I walked up Miko's lead quickly, and held her by both the collar and her harness. I asked the guy politely to call his dog, stating MIko is not good with other dogs. He said 'no, you need to leave.' The little curly white yapper kept coming closer. I again asked the man to collect his dog. He began yelling 'you need to leave, I own this property I rent that trailer, you don't have permission to be here.'
The dog was stupid enough to come close enough that I feinted a kick towards him -- had to do something to keep the little idiot from coming any closer (no, he was not close enough for me to actually kick him).
Foolishly, I tried to explain we were in the middle of a track. Alas, that seemed to set him off even more....
He eventually collected his dog and we proceeded. Except he put his dog away and came after us, yelling that we need to leave, don't have permission to be there, blah blah blah. He followed us the rest of the track.
"Load up your car and get out of here! Don't come back!"
Buddy, I did and do have permission to be there, you don't own the property, and frankly (though I did not say this), you are being a jerk.
Oh, and by the way, the entire interaction is captured in the video I was taking of Miko tracking....
