You're a lucky dog, then. Here in Fort Worth, lots of loose dogs in the neighborhoods. I still prefer riding through the hood to on the main roads in most cases. The mayor (also a rider) did a public group ride on the east side of town last month. Prior to the ride, they sent three Animal Control trucks ahead on the planned route to round up the strays.

I've had lots of dog encounters, only two were anything like an attack. One was climbing a hill; I saw the dog and tried to avoid him by going to the other side of the street (twice). When I realized that was impossible, I dismounted and kept the bike between him and me. He approached, barking and snarling. He looked like a shepherd mix. As he got closer, it looked like coyote was the other part of the mix . When he was about 15-20 feet away, I squirted my water bottle at him. It fell short, but startled him. He sat down, but continued to snarl and stuff. I started to slowly walk off and the dog just sat there and barked at me; when I got over the crest of the hill I got back on the bike and continued on.

The other was was earlier than that and he totally surprised me. I tried to dismount but in the process I just fell over and the bike landed on top of me. The dog was about 5 feet away at that point and the commotion of me going down startled him and he ran back to the safety of his yard where he continued to bark at me.

My primary defense is to see the dogs before they see me; I've developed pretty effective dog radar, and I'll jog over a block if I see a big dog loose in my intended path. I've had several other instances where dogs have chased me and they either didn't catch up to me or a quick squirt from the water bottle startles them enough to break them off the chase. It's not frequent but at this point I'm getting used to it.

FYI, we have a leash law here, but, meh... sometimes dogs get out.