I WISH to thank M Harrison for putting forward the case for runners on the pavements. This was in response to my original letter detailing the problems dog owners encounter on the pavements when runners run up very close, from behind, at a fast speed with no warning.

It is good to hear the opinion of one runner at least even though he addressed me with an incorrect surname.

It is obvious from his arguments that he paid little notice of most of what I said. I have owned dogs of many types for over 30 years and what I said was totally true, and I said it to try to educate runners about the reactions of dogs.

Most dogs, large or small, mongrel or pedigree will react in the same way to a perceived threat. The close encounter me and my dog had was not 'laughable' as he stated, not in any sense of the word, it was a potentially serious situation and flippancy from him was an inappropriate response.

It is probable that runners who do not currently own dogs, and therefore have never encountered this problem, cannot empathise with those of us who do.

It would after all, require some imagination from them. I can just hope that Mr Harrison is not a typical runner. He did however, show that he has been thinking of some sort of a solution which is similar to the one which I would like to put forward.

His suggestions were to clap or ring a bicycle bell as he is approaching. I do not think that clapping would alert a person walking their dog because that sound is not unusual enough to draw any attention to it. If I heard a bicycle bell from behind I would certainly stop and draw my dog in closer to me and look behind.

My solution would be for runners to play a ringtone on a mobile phone about seven or eight seconds before passing me and other owners. Harsh sounds might be too surprising to the dog and to the owner.

I know that iphones have 2 very distinct ringtones - one is the sound of a duck quacking and the other (named choo choo) is the sound of a train.

Now these types of sounds would certainly draw my attention and bring a smile to my face and to the faces of runners, and it would dispel some of the angst between us.

There's room for all of us on the pavement, all it takes is a bit of give and take and a degree of understanding each other.

Christina Haslam, via email