Originally Posted by
Doohickie
The problem with pepper spray is that sometimes you don't see a dog until it is almost upon you and you wouldn't have time to get pepper spray out before it could strike. I have pretty good dog radar but for whatever reason I let my guard down last night and both the dogs surprised me. The big one in particular would have gotten me if I depended on pepper spray. I pedaled faster to buy a little bit of time, but it still wouldn't have been enough to get pepper spray out. The very loud "NO!" is what got him to back off.
Pepper spray will stay with me. We dont have many unattended dogs in the areas I ride, in fact only one came to the edge of the road last year but wasnt the chasing or biting type.