The long-time resident was walking his dogs -- in a harness -- with his two-year-old daughter Hope three weekends ago when he noticed what appeared to be an Eskimo husky barrelling towards them.

He yelled at the animal but it continued its charge, zeroing in on his two Karelian bear dogs and attacked. Even after grabbing it and kicking it away, the dog continued to fight.

Meanwhile, the dog's owner caught up with them, but could not control it either. The husky circled them for several minutes, before finally wandering off, leaving the owner to continue chasing after it.

If that wasn't enough, another dog charged them a short while later. This time, Warner was able to deter it with a stern voice.

He says the problem with loose dogs on the bay is even more apparent when he hops onto his Ski-Doo. It seems there's always a dog present who cannot resist the urge to give chase.

"You really don't know what these dogs are thinking when they come at you at full speed," says Warner.

"They'll come right across the lake at you ... Boy, if your dog is going to do that maybe you should keep it tied up, because (a) your dogs are going to get run over; and (b) maybe it's going to hurt somebody."

Many times, says Warner, the dogs are accompanied by their owners, but as soon as something interesting comes by -- like a snowmobile zipping along or another dog -- the animals dart off and give chase, leaving the owner far behind.

"I don't want to bash dog owners or anyone else, but boy, if your dog does this maybe it is time to look at walking it on a leash."

Terry Woolf, who also lives near Back Bay, says loose dogs sometimes harass his dog team while out travelling on the ice, but it's all part of living and playing in Old Town.

"People all walk their dogs loose out there, or most of them," says Woolf. "Most of them are pretty good about it.

"If I thought there was an excessive amount I'd probably would be concerned, but at this point I haven't noticed any."

Manager of municipal enforcement Doug Gillard says it's illegal for any dog to be allowed to run loose within city limits. A licensed dog at large could net its owner a $40 fine, while fines for unlicensed dogs start at $75 and are doubled for each subsequent infraction up to $300.

But Coun. Blake Lyons questions the city's authority to regulate dogs on Back Bay, saying jurisdiction over waterways lies with the federal government through the Canadian Coast Guard.

"It's the same with the houseboaters, where do we have jurisdiction?" asks Lyons. "Someone could come along and question our authority there."

While the regional Coast Guard office in Hay River insists they have no authority over dog control -- on ice or off it -- Gillard admits it could become a thorny issue if a dog owner chose to fight a fine on an incident taking place on water or ice.

"Something like that, we would look for a legal opinion on whether we could enforce dogs on the ice in areas within city boundaries but it hasn't become an issue as far as I know," says Gillard.

The city currently regulates snowmobile traffic on Great Slave Lake, but they haven't received any complaints about dogs on the lake so jurisdiction has yet to be questioned.

Lyons thinks a simple solution can be found by having a meeting between the city and Back Bay residents to come up with a plan on how to deal with loose dogs.

"I guess the first thing we would have to is find out how common is this," says Lyons.

"The neighbourhood can more or less bring peace to this incident ... Because it's always easier if they work out an agreement themselves instead of something imposed upon them by the city."