Originally Posted by canklecat

Reminds me, I need to order some pepper gel spray. I'm recovering from a collision injury (car, not dog), but have had too many encounters with dogs. Usually not vicious, but being chased is a dangerous distraction. The dogs should be discouraged for their own safety and pepper spray, while temporarily painful, might deter the dog and save its own life.

It may save my life too. It'll be months before I regain full mobility of my right arm, which limits my ability to defend myself -- it's difficult even to lift my lightest bike right now. Dogs can sense fear and I've seen previously good natured dogs suddenly turn vicious when they sensed fear. Years ago I had to split up a pair of seemingly harmless hound pups, brother and sister, when the female suddenly turned vicious after her brother had a minor injury and began whining. Something about his momentary vulnerability triggered the killer instinct in her. A few years later I saw exactly the same thing again in my father-in-law's bird dogs. One of them had a goat head grass burr stuck in its paw and was whining in pain. The sibling attacked it viciously. Before that incident they'd been harmless goofballs. It shocked us all.

Regarding confronting owners, I've never found that to do any good. In many years of rural living and now in the city, I've never found a single instance of an unrestrained free range dog having a responsible owner who gave a single damn about the effect on their own neighbors, let alone passing cyclists, joggers or pedestrians. At best the owners are clueless, having absolutely no idea about training or disciplining their pets. At worst too many dog owners are as hostile as their dogs and are looking for an excuse to pick a fight. If it's a recurring problem I'll report it to police and animal control. Let them deal with the jerks and psychos.

And water has zero effect on dogs. Tried it years ago, including a high pressure hose on free range dogs that would chase and kill our chickens. Either the dogs would snap at the stream of water or run away a few yards and wait. And squirting water from a bottle is laughably ineffective. The dogs think it's a game and will continue chasing until your water runs out or they get bored.