Originally Posted by
Zephyr11
Also a note on the post before about not knowing whether a dog is friendly or not. This is true. My sense of awareness goes way up when I approach a dog on a trail, because I don't know the dog and whether it's well trained or not. But here's something else to think about. I'm a 25 year old girl who not only bikes but runs solo. My sense of awareness goes up EVERY TIME I pass a guy who looks like he can overpower me in an isolated area. Running 100% of the time in areas with people is impossible, and finding someone to run with is even more impossible than that. And not only is banning sketchy looking men from public areas impractical, but the vast majority of sketchy looking guys aren't actually *******.
So yeah...not entirely sure how well the argument that "I don't know how friendly the dog is" works.
There are no guarantees, being unarmed and run down by a stranger's 100lb dog in the middle of nowhere is downright terrifying. I would put it slightly below being run down by a cougar or charged by a bear... I am in favour of letting owner's who let their dogs do that to people having to experience the same and learning the hard way.
Maybe the dog has friendly intentions or not, you never really know until it's too late. Many owners will tell you it's ok or can often be heard screaming "noooo!" as if the dog 100yards into an attack cares what other thinks! Usually, "don't worry it's friendly" and the damn dog bites/nips you anyways or "don't worry" when the thing is chewing your foot and jumping allover you.
Yes it has all happened and no i don't think one can mtb in control and control their dog at the same time, even if it is lassie(the dog isn't lassie as much as the owner loves it).