As a dog owner and with a wife who’s a runner I’ve consistently noticed that many of the runners in our local running club actually create the issues with dogs they then complain about – albeit the original poster’s wife may have already tried this and may just be dealing with stupid owners and badly trained dogs.
Our local runners constantly sprint right at dogs being walked on leads and make no effort whatsoever to slow down, make a human like noise, slow down or do anything that would help an animal understand that the person running at it isn’t a threat. Most people wouldn’t do this with a horse or a cow but for some reason think all dogs will know they aren’t a threat.
It’s often made worse by runners trying for personal bests or listening to music as this results in them being completely oblivious to what’s going on around them – to the point where a friend carrying a baby in a sling was recently knocked over by a runner barging straight past her from behind and effectively elbow barging her out of the way. Rather than checking if she and the baby we’re OK he gave her a mouthful of abuse for getting in his way and walking in the middle of the path.
I’m pretty sure running clubs use to train runners on how to handle dogs I.e. Let them know you’re coming, move to the side, slow down and talk to it if necessary – but judging by the local runners the clubs don’t do this anymore.