Do you think a dog discourages any kind of encounters, or increases the chances of a wild encounter?

Off leash my dog likes to lead the way by about 10 foot or so, this gives me a great buffer zone again skunks, opossums, raccoons and other night time critter. My dog is smart, after being sprayed twice he has now learn not to chase skunks,  although possums and coon are still fair game. Before I started taking the dog, during a early morning run with a full moon I turned my headlamp off to run by moon light, it was a great run till I almost stepped on a skunk wandering down the same trail, I don't know who jumped higher me or the skunk.

When my mind starts traveling and creeping me out at night the dog always brings me back to earth and reminds me there is no man eating big foot after me, and if there was he would quickly distract his attention with a thorough tough licking.

A dog might not help but it sure feels better to have a little friendly company in the wee hours.

Definitely, I have a FB page called Southern Indiana Trail Runners and though I invite people, not just anybody can see the page. I don't want to post about a planned run on the trails before dawn and some stalker read it, though I also carry pepper spray and a very good knife.......... and prayers that Rocky would protect me if the need arose.

Agreed the more you do, the easier it gets.  Running with others makes it much easier as well - just knowing that a bear could possibly ignore me for my friend is comforting.

 

I do have to say though that running groups (using yahoo or similar) need to be careful about posting their runs.  If someone truly wanted to stalk or go after people, it's not hard to figure out where they are running and plan for some sort of attack.

 

My biggest scare on trails is not the wildlife but the random person who is out without a light.  I still can't figure that one out.