JameB

Guys... dogs aren't tools. Yes, the owners are responsible for their safety and for ensuring they don't harm another person; but dogs are dogs! Calm down...

danmc

I was out in the boondocks a couple of weeks ago and a huge German Shepard chased me. I realized I couldn't out pedal it so I stopped. It growled a bit but luckily didn't try to bite me. But then all of a sudden it decided to run back home, right in front of a car coming in the opposite direction. The car had to swerve and almost wiped out, and the dog just missed getting hit by an inch. Then the people in the car stopped and asked me, "Is your dog allright?" I think that made me madder than the dog chasing me!

Dave Cutter

Good for you for feeling bad! It's very human (and desirable) to have empathy. But of course the event was well beyond your span of control. There was nothing you could have done that would have altered the outcome.

phoebeisis

DOG'S OWNER got his dog killed.
Dog is just a dog-
Poor dog-
Idiot owner will just get another-and let it run loose
White trash dog owners-NEVER LEARN!!
And let me be inclusion-black hispanic equivalents-same story-
They act surprised when their dog gets killed on the road.
Yeah their poor kids-assuming it was a pet-get to see dead dog in road-
because parents-are white trash(or other ethnic group equivalent)
Acting smart-makes you smarter-you don't have to be "book smart" ACT SAT smart-to "act smart"
You do have to learn from your mistakes-
These folks-DON'T!!
I hate people that get their dogs cats killed by persistently letting them run loose-then acting SURPRISED when animal get killed by a car or a dog or a creepy human
OP had nothing to do with this-nor did KARMA-STUPID TRASH OWNER

likebike23

If it's a dog's instinct to chase and hunt, then as potential prey, wouldn't it be our instinct to run? I wouldn't give this a second thought. If I were being chased by a pack of wolves and a Grizzly bear came charging in and killed one of them, disrupting their hunt, I would be happy. Too bad for the dog, Karma's a *****.

ksisler

OP; Entirely possible that the owner had the dog well attached to the a proper chain and collar, but the dog just worked loose of it. Dogs can sometimes be so smart they can outsmart the best protections, but dumb as a rock when it comes to vehicles and roads.... The worlds dog population is not threatened with extinction.

On the other side, if the owner had been outside the first time the dog chased a vehicle and provided the dog some firm educating, it might still be alive today.

I have heard many folks say that a biker should stop and yell at the dog to stop and get back in his yard... I have done that and it worked about half the time and about half the time I had to defend myself from a snarling beast with pepper spray and a Zephal pump while keeping the bike between us. Screw that. Now-a-days if I can't outrun them or the dog is in front of me, I am glad I keep 2 cans of mace or pepper spray at the ready on the handlebar clip with refills handy in the handlebar bag and the good old Zephal pump is still a friend also and ready to contribute.

/K

Alsan

Honestly, I'd be interested to know if there is anyone from England here that carries pepper spray with them when they ride. It seems to be pretty popular in the USA from what I've read on this forum.
Maybe you have different dogs in America, perhaps werewolves. It must be something like that because it seems like a crazy thing to do. I wonder where all this fear of and aggression toward dogs comes from.
I've been around dogs my whole life, and not just my own, and I've never had a threatening encounter with one. The only dogs I've ever seen that were a bit aggressive were small enough to be flicked away with one shoe, if they ever decided to do more than make an irritating small dog bark.

danmc

A guy was killed while out jogging in Michigan a couple of weeks ago by two loose dogs. That's where it comes from.

headloss 

At one point, I had a neighbor that was "raising" Pit Bulls as fighting dogs, which is not entirely uncommon over here (unfortunately)... not a far stretch from werewolves in the aggression dept.

Beyond that, I've had dogs chase me and if I bothered to stop, they would usually stop pursuing the moment I stopped being a bike and started being a male human adult with a booming voice yelling "NO!" However, with the haphazard way that many people raise dogs over here, it's not even a slight exaggeration to believe one might attack for no reason what-so-ever. I carry pepper spray, and I'm not what you'd consider a paranoid type. Usually spraying water is sufficient, but you never know. I've been bit by a dog before, granted, I wasn't on a bike at the time.

FWIW, I love dogs. Not a big fan when they chase after me while out on the bike though, and it's quite common.

mrodgers

I've had 3 dog encounters and I don't ride on the road very often. I've only been on the roads since this spring.

All 3 were when I was climbing a hill. One very slow and steep hill, and the other two, hill shallow enough that I could stand up and motor away, but only for a short bit.

First was a German Sheppard. This was on the slow hill, I'm talking my speed is about 3-4 mph. He came out of a driveway and half heartedly trotted while barking behind me up the hill. He gave up when I went beyond his territory of what I could tell was the property line.

Second was a Golden Retriever. Same as the first, just trotted along within the yard along the road barking at me. If any dog is not going to attack a human, I think this is the dog. I was concerned though of it entering the road, catching me and knocking me down, then drowning in its slobber while it greeted me with its tongue.

Third was some sort of dashhound or something. I don't know dogs very well to know what they are. All I know is it flew out of the yard (while the big dog stopped before the road) and must have put its heart and soul into catching me. I could see it in my mirror and those poor little legs were a blur as it tried to chase after me.

Now the one I worry about. There is a road that I come out at a T to another road after my biggest climb. I'm exhausted only having about 30 seconds of recovering after the climb where directly across the road I'm exiting is a very large Pit Bull. He looks to be nothing but about 120 pound muscle. He's tied up to a box right at the road (amongst a mass of junk, this would be what we call Boofers here in rural western Pennsylvania, junk cars, junk tractors, and a dog tied up amongst 3 foot tall uncut grass.) As soon as he sees me, he lunges out of the box and flips upside down when he reaches the end of the short chain. Not sure what's going to happen if he ever busts off the chain.

QtoC

I love dogs. I hate cars.

Chris516

This is slightly subjective. You said "not my fault for provoking the dog to chase me".

OTOH-It could be said that you need to be more behaved around dogs
OTOH-It could be said that, the owner should have trained the dog not chase cars and/or cyclists'
ATST-The owner having not trained(fully or completely) the dog to chase vehicles' and/or cyclists', should have had the dog leashed up in a HUMANE way.

To say that you provoked the dog. Considering the outcome, you didn't 'provoke' the dog. Because that would be malice aforethought if you did.

unterhausen

I was the last of 4 cyclists in our group, and I heard a dog get hit behind us. A few minutes later, the irate owner had chased us down. I never even saw the dog and really barely knew what happened myself. The owner insisted the dog was never on the road, which defies the laws of physics the way I look at the world. I kinda assume that the dog was chasing us and took a bad line, but I really have no idea. Assuming that was true, that was the first dog I have contributed to getting hit in my 4 decade cycling career. Made me feel bad, but nothing you can really do about it as far as I can see.

Alsan

It seems that many people are under the impression that a dog moving in their direction and barking is a dog attack or at least could be if they didn't heroically ride away.
I think people are way too paranoid about dogs. Perhaps dog behaviour education classes might help.

Also many seem to feel that all owners must have professionally trained dogs. Most people don't train their dogs, they don't really need to be trained. If a dog respects its owner it will listen when it is called and perhaps sit when you ask, that's about it. But even a professionally trained dog will obey it's nature and run if it wants to. It's usually medium and small size dogs that want to run away uncontrolled and bark like idiots at everything, but barking is all they'll do.
I've always had big dogs that are too noble to bark at everything and run after other dogs, they just watch what's going on around them quietly and only bark if there is a good reason. I've never liked small dogs that much, I don't understand why people breed them or want to keep them. Especially those little hairless things that certain people like to carry around like babies.

Im not not sure why America seems to be littered with free roaming dogs. Don't people have garden fences? Aren't the dogs in the house most of the time?
i find it very hard to picture all these dogs wandering around without an owner holding a lead.

Essex

There are varying attitudes (in the US) with regards to the management of dogs. In my local area there is no lease law and as such it's not unusual to see bands of dogs roaming the town doing whatever it is that they do. Some people in my local area think it's quaint and "natural." I find it a problem for motorists, joggers, children and the dog. These dogs have threatened people in the past - but there has been no change in the law. The same also holds true for cats who wander and cause high % of damage to local fauna like birds, small reptiles, mammals etc.

It is not unusual to see any of these dogs run after a cyclist because anything which crosses their territorial path is considered an intruder by the animal. Until there is some common sense (and penalties) regarding the care of dogs outside we will have issues like this in the US.

findude

Back in the 1970s when I was a paper boy two biggish wire-haired terriers attacked and mauled me. They brought me to the ground--a Sting Ray with a loaded newspaper bag over the banana seat and another loaded bag on the rider's shoulders is not stable. Stopping me was not enough, and they proceeded to chew on my calf while I tried to free myself from the bike and newspaper bags. Luckily a passing motorist stopped and scared them off long enough for me to get free.

Once you're off the bike and on the ground, all bets are off. Your only hope is to get the bike between you and the dog while you reach for other options and try to move away. With two dogs, you are out of luck.

The follow-up investigation resulted in the dogs being euthanized.

I recovered and delivered papers for a couple more years. Like other paper boys in that pre-pepper-spray era, I started carrying a squirt *** with lemon juice in it to spray in the dogs' eyes. We had a lemon tree, so it was easy for me and easier on the dogs--other paper boys used bleach.

JoeyBike

I used to do a training ride out in the country near my parent's house in the 1980s. One particular 2-lane road had several "porch-dogs" who delighted in chasing me. I would try my best to set up a traffic situation that would CAUSE the mutts to get hit, but never could pull it off. I did manage to cause one German Shepherd to get heat stroke on a blistering hot summers day on that same road by pedaling just fast enough to keep him thinking he could catch me. When he became exhausted I turned the bike around and whipped out my frame pump for a little doggie massage. This caused him to gallop on the black tarmac in direct sunlight an extra 1/8th mile. I will end that story right here.

I felt bad too...

uciflylow

I was riding with an older friend one evening to a point where we had to cross a large 4 lane devided highway with a high speed limit. Across the road we could see a fella out for a run with a large dog in tow. We crossed the first lanes and just as I cleared the second lane I hear a sickining loud thud. I just knew my friend had been hit! I turned around just in time to see the dog spinning in the road, run across the median and nearly be hit again and crash back in the median. Thankfully it wasn't my friend. I asked the runner "is that your dog?",and he replied "no". He kept on with his run and we with our ride. Armadillos, coyotes, deer, racoons, opossums, dogs, cats, and other asorted animals are hit every day around here. In our state there is a leash law, and we are even allowed to use deadly force against a dog if nessary. Take it from someone who HAS been bitten while cycling, that ain't a bad option! I have also ran over a few smaller dogs while cycling and one not so small dog. Didn't stop to see if they where OK either!

Chris516

This is needs to be etched in stone somewhere. Yes there are those dog owners that like some motorists' hate dogs. But still. The dog gets' penalized for being in the middle of the argument between dog owners and cyclists'. The dog is not the problem. It is the cyclist and the dog owner.

Lone

Even though that dog could have been someone's wife, they are responsible for their own actions.