Rounded up by Romanian Sheepdogs!

Who let the dogs out?

It’s hard to stay focused when three very large and very aggressive dogs are coming at you from all sides, snarling, lunging and snapping. Whirling about and keeping my hiking poles between their teeth and my legs while walking slowly backwards was my limit!

We had been walking for several hours through the Romanian countryside in continuous drizzling rain and mist – not ideal hiking weather. We had ponchos over our backpacks, including hoods over our heads, and looked like hunchbacked aliens – Vogons from Hitckhikers Guide to the Galaxy! Or maybe like deformed bears..

Who knows what the dogs thought we were when they burst onto the track barking madly, but the lead dog quickly decided I was the primary threat that needed to be neutralised. Maybe because I was the tallest, or because I was lagging behind, but either way I was the target.

Romanian Sheepdogs are not pets, and are not to be trifled with. Officially they are Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD), and are needed because the Romanian mountain sheepfolds share the Carpathian Mountains country with wolves, bears, and the Eurasian Lynx, all of which have a taste for lamb.

The largest of these dogs can weigh up to 90kg, or 45kg for the Carpathian Sheepdogs I was facing, and will take on any animal they perceive might be a treat to the flock. They are fiercely territorial and protective, and a mere human cannot expect to intimidate them, in fact any attempt to do so may be taken as proof that this intruder is a threat that must be attacked and driven away.

So how did I live to tell this tale? Was it luck, were the dogs all bluff, or was it following the hiking company suggestions of:

• maintaining eye contact while walking away slowly backwards,
• do not run (the guide helpfully pointed out: “they can run faster”),
• not using your hiking poles as weapons,
• not turning your back on the dogs,
• talking to them (I was mainly shouting “NU” (Romanian for “no”) at every lunge for my legs).

Regardless, none of the bared teeth buried themselves in any part of my body (although my hiking poles lost a bit of paint). The hiking guide info said that “not many” people get bitten, but if you do and cannot identify the dog concerned you need a course of half a dozen Rabies and Tetanus inoculations, very reassuring..

Anyway, after maybe five minutes of attacking the dogs backed off, for a while.. But they followed at a distance for maybe a kilometre, charging in attack formation two or three more times. Each time I was the target and it was the same shout and dance routine. Needless to say, I was overdosing on adrenaline that had me buzzing well into the evening!

Note that in addition to the handy hints, the hiking adventure company provided a “dog device” on request. This was a battery-powered ultrasonic repeller intended to drive away dogs and cats. One other hiker reported using theirs and the dogs concerned turned tail and ran away, while another said it had no effect.

I had a dog device at the ready in my pocket, but these dogs burst onto the track so close that they were within a metre before the device was out of my pocket, and the brief press of the button I managed did not seem to do anything except perhaps annoy the very large lead dog. Right or wrong, I didn’t try it again!