Love the comment about the dogs. I was walking on a forest trail near where I live and a woman approached with two collie type dogs running free, One of then ran behind me and nipped me on the back of my leg.
I told her and her reply was "Oh they are Romanian rescue dogs". I had to smile at that.

My wife and I have always had Bouviers in our family and they were well trained, even the show dogs because a Bouvier de Flandres can break an adults arm with their powerful jaws. i would never consider leaving a loaded fire arm around carelessly and I would never want an untrained dog under my roof either. In Canada you must take an intensive course and go through a police background check before you can own a firearm but any idiot can buy a large dog that can maim or kill. Glad you came out of this scrape all right.

Nice photos, especially the one top left here.
If you look at it, in the middle, just off centre on the right there's a rock outcrop with what looks like a bird or animal holding on to the rock face either scared of falling or telling everyone " Touch me and I'll jump."

Any dogs my family has is well trained. We had to sleep in a building we rented downtown once right next to the police station because of flood. Cops had a back door, we did not. I took the dogs (golden and black lab) to the back at midnight for a last potty run. We weren't out there a minute before I heard the police station back door open, at the same time I hear the dogs take off in a run. They were going hoping to be petted but the cops didn't know that. I instinctively yelled, "drop!" while putting my own hands up. They did. Flashlight swept the back lot and found all three of us. The officer was amazed. Talked with him a few minutes and asked him if I could release them because the only danger he was in was of drowning from being licked to death. They ran in and sat right in front of him waiting when he said yes. I won't tolerate any dog that won't listen to me but I tend to follow the way the Dog Whisperer does it. There is never a need to strike an animal. Those owners you mentioned were plumb idiots.

Nice scenery, too bad the dogs owners let them run free. I went hiking in the Olympics yesterday and passed a number of friendly dogs on the trail.

A well behaved dog off leash under voice command is not a problem

It is rare that a dog is that well trained and these obviously were not.

I also cringe when I see parents allowing a 75lb child to walk a 100lb dog.

A full grown adult is going to have to use full strength if a poorly trained 30lb dog decides to dart for a squirrel or whatever..

This just came from memory. Where I work there used to be a cat. This cat was apparently afraid of nothing and could be quite vicious to all who would treat it poorly. Those that knew it were treated well and would be allowed to pet it. One day a car came into the parking lot and within it was a Pitbull. It owners were told to secure the dog, but the owners decided to let it attack the cat. My boss, ran over to the dog, grabbed it and threw it back into the car. He then told the owners, "I am not worried about the cat, I am worried the cat will tear your dog apart, it almost did, care for your dog." The car drove off with the dog in pain, bleeding from the head. The cat was taking a bath on the loading dock totally happy. I hope this makes sense.

Beautiful pictures.

Beautiful scenery too bad the locals are not so beautiful. My late partner only had 2 fears - slippery roads and dogs off lease. When we went hiking and was confronted by a dog off leash she would always give the owner a tongue lashing. When we were waiting at the ferry terminal we would often walk the boardwalk. It was sometimes scary for me when she got into others for the lack of dog manners (no one ever went after her). Problem there is never any control, just signs. She would even congratulate the owners that had obeyed the rules. We got into some interesting conversations.