Trouble on Tubbs

COEUR d'ALENE - When the owners arrive, they usually have a dog leash in their hands.

That's the part that bothers Catherine McLandress most.

McLandress owns two spaniels which she walks around Tubbs Hill nearly every day, and in the last year she's noticed an alarming trend.

She has encountered more and more unleashed dogs while on the downtown hiking hill's trails, she said, dogs which have attacked her spaniels way too often.

Eight times in the last year by her count, three of those in the last two months.

"It's really, really gotten to be a problem," she said.

And when the owners catch up to their unencumbered dogs, they're holding the very leashes that could have prevented the encounters.

"I don't understand where they're coming from, but they don't seem to have any remorse for it," she said.

She's had to kick away dogs to stop the fights on the hill's narrow trails. The owners are slow to get to the scene because their dogs are galloping so far ahead of them. And when she asks any owner on the hill to leash their dogs - just as the signs at trail heads specify is a requirement - "they look at me like I have three heads," she said.

"This is new," McLandress said of the trend. "I'm not sure where this is coming from, but this is new."

But the Coeur d'Alene Parks Department and its animal control division haven't received an increase of complaints pertaining to loose dogs on Tubbs Hill. In fact, both departments said that specific complaint doesn't register big any year.

Out of roughly 10 complaints about dogs on Tubbs Hill the parks department could get in one year, nine of them would be about owners not cleaning up after their pets, Eastwood estimated.

"People are pretty darn good about accepting their responsibility of their dogs," Eastwood said. "I think the awareness has increased."

In 2011, the animal control division issued 221 citations for animal offenses, with one of those occurring on Tubbs Hill. In 2010, it issued 235 citations, also with one happening on Tubbs Hill.

Each year, the division received more than 3,000 calls regarding animals, according to numbers provided by the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, which operates the animal control division.

Laurie Deus, animal control officer with the city for two years, said "very few" calls generate from Tubbs Hill. She estimated she's received two in the last three months.

If there is an increase of owners disobeying the rules, people aren't reporting it, she said. That could be because people know finding the culprits would be difficult for an officer reacting after the fact to an area that covers several miles with hiking trails.

Plus, there's usually one animal control officer on duty covering an entire city's worth of property.

"We can't devote all of our time to one location," Deus said. "That's the really frustrating part of all this, we're just so limited."

McLandress became so frustrated with the perceived trend, she wrote a letter to the editor in The Press describing it. She said she's received feedback from several people who shared her opinion.

One person who's fed up with leash-less dogs on the hill is Rick Casemore. He wrote a letter to the editor agreeing with McLandress that it's a problem.

"I'd like to estimate probably 25 percent of the dogs aren't leashed when they're here," Casemore said, walking Tubbs Hill on Friday. "I can't believe people are ignorant (of the rule that's marked with signs). I don't think people care."

A citation for dog at large citation carries a $75 penalty for the owner.

But to combat the problem, Casemore said he carries pepper spray now when he walks the hill three or four times a week. McLandress, who's worried about children getting attacked besides her dogs, said she's thinking of getting a Taser. Both said resources are too strapped for officers to patrol the hill constantly, but the problem would be avoided if people just followed the rules.

"It's about respect for other people," Casemore said.

Others hiking the hill Friday said they don't see it as a problem.

"I've never had a problem with it once," said Manda Ross of Post Falls, who walks the trail regularly. "Maybe every once in a while there's a bad apple. It's just one of those situations."

"I might have had dogs lick me," said Joshua Stevens, another regular hiker. "But I like it when dogs come up to me."

Meanwhile, the city of Coeur d'Alene has made strides in the past years at earning 'Dog Friendly status.' Tubbs Hill is the only city park out of its roughly 30 public parks that allows leashed dogs, besides on the Centennial Trail, which cuts through City Park, but that could be changing soon.

In 2011, Dog Fancy magazine named Coeur d'Alene Dog Town USA, the most dog-friendly city in the country. That award came in part because the Kootenai County Dog Park Association raised enough funds to build two off-leash dog parks in the city. The city could be looking at more dog-friendly strides later this year, such as allowing leashed dogs on walking trails around the perimeter of parks like the Landings and Bluegrass, Eastwood said.

"It gets some a pretty good reception, but it also gets a little bit of push back," Eastwood said of proposals to loosen dog rules in parks. Some people's concern "is that some dog owners just aren't being responsible enough."

And animal control does randomly patrol Tubbs Hill at times, a practice the division will continue, Deus said. The best enforcement, though, is awareness, and rule breakers usually conform after it's explained, she said.

Aware or not, McLandress said, people don't seem to bother with the law like they used to - for whatever reason.

"If we followed the rules, this wouldn't be an issue. If we did what we're supposed to do, it would be fine," she said. "I truly think this needs to be addressed."