I see a lot of advice to outrun, outsprint, use the bike as a weapon, etc. - but this is the Touring group and when I think of touring, I think of a bike laden with panniers and all sorts of gear. After I've been up and down hills all day long and I'm on mile 73 and almost to the campsite, I can't see myself sprinting or holding 20mph for ANY length oftime, much less an extended length of time, no matter how much adrenaline is flowing. And picking up by bike and wielding it around as a barrier doesn’t seem plausible in that scenario, either. To that end, I always carry a pepper spray which is designed for cyclists. The spray canister has Velcro on it and is mated to another Velcro strap which is affixed to the top tube, near the head tube/stem. I also have a frame pump attached parallel with the top tube, if things devolve into hand-to-hand combat (probably more for the two-legged creatures, than the four-legged ones). I have had many dogs give chase and I usually just "sweet talk" them, as others have said, "look at that pretty puppy" and so forth, but I don't slow down. I don't speed up, either.
The one time I thought I was in for an inevitable physical confrontation, I was having a particularly bad day on a week-long, fully-loaded tour. My patience was so thin that day, that you could read a book through it. I was relieved to finally be on a beautiful section of rail trail for a few miles, when shooting out from someone's back yard comes a medium-sized dog, running hard and ready for action. Well, that was the final straw for me. I was hating life and welcoming death at that moment and feeling like I had nothing to lose, so I just slammed on the brakes, looked him square in the eyes and screamed at the top of my lungs: "Come on you son of a b****! You want some of me? I'll eat you raw and spit you out, you little f*****!!!" And just like flipping a switch, that dog stopped dead in its tracks, cocked its head to the side, as if to say: "Dude...chill...I was just doing dog stuff...it's all good." Then he turned and walked back home. I ended up feeling bad for the dog for a long time afterwards. I'm pretty sure that I scared him waaaay more than he scared me, hahaha!
Last edited by BikesnBlues; 12-29-16 at 03:20 PM.