Kopefire
You're not the problem, its the people who have totally untrained unobedient dogs that ARE required to use leashes. You are unfairly lumped with those that cannot train and control their animals. Unfortunately in this case its the many that ruin it for the few...

Still the dangers to your pet when leave the trailhead are many and very real even if you do not hike in lion or bear country and of course there are places where taking a dog camping is not a big deal. My dog is part greyhoud and goes from zero to 150 mph in about half a second. She is so fast that she might even catch something and then get bit by it.

BTW there are bear dogs and they use them in Yosemite Park in the high camps to chase out bears, BUT in Alaska they say that the only natural preditor that bears ever had were huge wolves and that bears have an ancestral hatred for dogs. We were told that the very best way to get mauled was to bring a pomeranian into bear country and let it run into the bush - about a minute later it will come right back into your arms with 500 to 1000 pounds of hungry angry bear chasing it.

I believe that you are more apt to be attacked by wild animals with a dog than without one unless perhaps you have a pack of trained hunting dogs bred for the chase, but peoples city dogs are not street smart.

I have to admit that I do not have a doggy first aid kit and never even thought of it (only got the dog yesterday though). I have rudimentary first aid training but no vetrinarial experience. What would I do if my dog was ripped open? I carry a steril suture in my first aid kit so I could sew it up, but the animal would most likely go into shock.

I feel for those of you spend huge amounts of time on the trail with your dog - like what else would you do with it? So its take the dog or go it alone and I can see where a dog makes a good companion.

A story. I met a guy years ago who hiked the PCT starting in Mexico the day after christmas and finished up in Canada in June. He said he hiked with a dog and hunted with a bow and traveled the trail in the winter living off the land. The last morning he put his pack on in his tent and got out of the tent and a grizzly bear hit him and threw him quite a ways. The bear would have ripped him open had it not been for the pack on his back. His dog jumped the bear which ripped the dog in half but gave my friend the time to string his bow, nock an arrow and put it through the bruins heart - instant death. He probably would not have been attacked if he didn't have the dog. The dog gave his life even though his human was an armed and expert hunter.

I think I've decided that with the number of lions in the country where I camp (high Sierras), that I AM going armed in the future if I take my dog, my wife or my camping girlfriends. I hate to admit it but ultralite camping means I can carry a 48 ounce .44 magnum and still be under 20 pounds. I hate to scare people but handguns are supposed to be unconcealed and a shoulder holster is the best way to carry a big gun, I look like dirty Harry backpacking. ANyway as somebody once said - anybody who can hit a running lion or bear in the ten ring already owns their gun and is already an expert and if yer not an expert maybe you shouldn't take a gun and if you can't control your dog maybe you should leave him at home too.

Jim