rha600

since most of you seem to ride with dog treats and raw beef in your shorts I thought I'd post this. my co worker bought something like this for training and to repel dogs that get too "agressive" at the dog park. he said it works great so I was thinking that if you tape this to your handle bars (not pretty but affective) it would be ready for you if you get chased.

https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Dazer-II-2...7455651&sr=8-1

Avalanche325

The solution...

Sprocket Man

Those high frequency dog repellants aren't always effective, especially if the dog is already riled up. It's basically a noisemaker, and like all noisemakers, it may scare some dogs and not others. You stand a much better chance if you use some kind of spray like "HALT!"

rha600

sure, but the spray might not be as easy to use. most of these dogs are not "attacking". dogs like to chase moving things. that's their job in life. the problem is that they are not smart enough to know when to stop and not to get in your way. the noisemaker COULD stop the dog before it even gets to you where as the spray can probably only reach 5 or 10 feet at the most so by that time you're trying to stop/ride/aim/spray/panic...

JayC

We got charged today on our ride by a couple of dogs. I slowed down, unclipped and waited. Fortunately they chased the people ahead of me

beaus pete

a simple referee's whistle blasted a few times does the tirck just as well as anything cheap and easy to carry on a lanyard around your neck...

urbanknight

+1 I know that my dog likes to attack anything that makes a funny electronic noise (squeeze-me plush toys, musical greeting cards, etc.) yet he hates water. I actually use my bike bottle when taking him outside and squirt him when he barks. It's so hard to tell what type of dog it is when it's coming at you at 20+ mph. It's like the dogs have different personalities or something!!!

rha600

my co workers dog likes to chase bikes. well actually it turns out he just wants to race them. he took off the other day and ripped theleash out of his hand to chase a guy on a bike. the dog was on the sidewalk and the bike in the road but when the guy stopped his bike the dog just ran right on by. haha. he got about 50 yards past the bike and stopped, turned around and I swear he had this look on his face that said "come on wimp, I can take you."

John Wilke

I look to see if they're wagging their tails when they take off before I start reaching for the water bottle. Sometimes they just want to pee on your tires. Really !

jw

sancocho

+1

Conundrum

I've always been of this philosophy too, and it has always worked for me. I usually just ignore the dog until it gets bored with me and decides to do something else. That is until this morning. I actually had my first dog that was really trying to take me down. Of course since my philosophy is to ingnore dogs, by the time I felt him trying to sink his teeth into my heel my only option was to hit the gas and try to out run him - luckily I won and escape any teeth marks. I'm starting to rethink my bike/dog stratagey and on the plus side I didn't know I could sprint that fast

C.

Green Jager

Well spray can have some bad points, the worst being it sprays back at you because the wind is going in the wrong direction. Take it from someone who has many years of experience with gas this is not something that you want while riding. As far the blasters , sonic repellers etc I have yet to see one really work on a dog that really wants a piece of you. Is there a real simple solution no.

Keith99

My 2 dogs are both abotu 105 lbs. Both sweethearts and both dogs I would not like to face if they were angry. When it comes to water they are 180 degrees apart. The Alpha dog hates it. The Beta dog loves it. If you squirted them both with a water bottle it would mean the Alpha dog would back off, but the Beta would follow you all the way home (well at least if he thought you might squirt him again).

You are right you can not always tell a dogs intentions, but a wagging tail is a pretty good sign. Of course a happy dog can still jump on you and try to lick your face, not a good thing if you are still clipped in.

urbanknight

Absolutely. Friendly dogs can be dangerous too, which is why my plan is always to stop the bike and dismount, then get the bike between me and the dog if possible. Nothing against my bike or anything, but if the dog wants to bite, it can chew on my downtube before it gets my leg!

I did have an encounter with a dog on Monday. It was happily running out into the traffic lane so I decided to see if I could coax it home or read its tag. The dog wanted nothing to do with me and my funny head and 2 circular legs, so it growled at me and walked the other way. I have yet to be attacked by a dog aside from my former dogs nipping my heel trying to herd me back home (appropriately enough, they were a cattle herding breed)

Machka 

9 dogs out of 10 that chase me here in Alberta are Border Collies. I've come to dislike Border Collie owners for the fact that they let their dogs run free, and obviously do not give their dogs enough mental stimulation. It's like every other farm around here has a Border Collie who runs free, and who is bored.

I don't dislike the dogs, because I understand them. It's not their fault ... it is the fault of the owners. According to the Wikipedia article on Border Collies; "Border Collies can be motion-sensitive and may attempt to control the movements of family members, cats, squirrels, bicycles, cars, or anything else that moves if not given enough mental and physical stimulation." When they chase me, they are simply trying to herd me ... but being herded by one, two, or more Border Collies is a very disconcerting experience. They are extremely persistant dogs!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Collie

Rather than using some sort of spray or something on the dogs, I'd rather use it on the owners. Wouldn't that be fun ... to cycle up the driveway of the home where several pesky Border Collies live, to ring the bell, and then to spray the owner who answers the door!!

slacker00

Stopping the bike and getting off to scold the dog is definitely the right answer. I've had to learn the hard way.

This season I've come into more contact with dogs in the road than the rest of my life combined by two fold. I think it's because I'm doing more rural riding and charting more unknown territory rather than doing familiar loops. Anyway, I've been bitten twice in 2007, the second one should've been prevented by getting off the bike, especially since I knew the dog to be fairly friendly and it probably bit me solely because I was a moving target, despite the fact I was moving slowly and trying to tell it to 'go home'.

Yesterday I had two huge dogs playfully run towards the road after me, so I immediately downshifted & unclipped & dismounted. I yelled at the first one to "go home" while pointing at his house, they both stopped. After yelling right at the first one about two more times to "go home", it looked back then looked at me and troddled away, the second one never quite made it into the road. I'm kinda proud of myself, because anything else I could have done would have been dangerous. I couldn't sprint because I was at the base of the main climb of the day, even these fat dogs wouldn't have gotten dropped.

Sure, I could carry pepper spray or ammonia or whatever, but it's really only necessary in extreme cases. Besides, I have a hard enough time remembering to put on my helmet, I don't need to be fumbling with dog repellent, which with my luck I'd have forgotten to bring the one time when I could really use it.

The moral of the story is that stopping the bike & getting off is the best solution, barring extreme circumstances. I know it's an absolute PITA, wasting several minutes needlessly because of negligent dog owners. I wish there was some way to put the dog owners on notice, but I'm not sure what can realistically be done. As it is, dealing with dogs in the road is an excercise in disaster management.

urbanknight

Those are (arguably) the smartest breed on the planet. Do you have any idea what it would take to give them adequate mental stimulation?! If the owners have latched gates without a padlock or door handles instead of knobs, they might not even be intentionally letting the dogs out. I agree that they should make sure the dogs are kept from roaming free, though... and I love your idea of following the dog home and spraying the owner! I should try that some time.

SSP

Get the "stream", not the "fog" dispensers. I've sprayed dogs on quite a few occasions while riding the bike and only got a tiny bit of blowback one time.

SSP

Stopping is typically *not* a good option when there are multiple dogs involved. The pack will often surround you, making any attempt to use your bike as a shield futile. You were lucky this time.

SSP

Here's a good review of different strategies for dealing with dogs.

The guy tested the ultrasonic "Dazer" unit and found it pretty lame.

He found the best results with full strength pepper spray (not that watered down "Halt" stuff). The full strength stuff can also come in handy in a confrontation with a two-legged varmint.

FWIW, I've used full strength pepper on dogs about 10 times (averaging once per year), and find that it works very well. It's fairly easy to deploy from the bike, and it causes the dogs to stop chasing almost instantly. Typically, they head for some tall grass to rub their muzzles, but they don't whimper or act like they're in any real pain.

Ammonia can cause eye damage...I like dogs too much to use that.

asherlighn

I have always wondered how effective punching a dog in the nose would be. Not that I have really wanted to do it, but just how effective it would be.

SSP

A downward kick with a cleated, carbon fiber soled cycling shoe can be quite effective...though I wouldn't want to try it on a p*ssed off pit bull.

Machka 

I know they are extremely intelligent dogs ... more intelligent than their owners from what I've observed! You see, around here, it seems that no one keeps them locked up ... they just roam free all over the farm yards, fields, ditches, roads, etc. etc. I'll see them from a distance sitting, unleashed and unfenced in the middle of a lane up to some farmhouse, and I know I'm in for a sprint.

But here's the thing that really gets me ... I've seen these dogs nearly hit by vehicles while they are intent on pursuing me. What are the owners thinking??? Do they want to get their dogs killed?? You'd think the owners would take some measures to keep their dogs from chasing things for the dog's own health and safety.

SSP

^^^
Not sure if its legal for you in Canada, Machka, but I would highly recommend you carry some pepper spray. A small canister fits easily in a jersey pocket, is quick to deploy when necessary, and works great to stop dogs and (if necessary) their owners.

And spraying a dog is a good way to "train" it to not chase cyclists. Most dogs won't come back for a second nose full of pepper.

merlinextraligh

Sprints with Eddy.