Originally Posted by
dagray
So the other day I took my mountain bike out for a seven mile ride and encountered a couple dogs that came out to "greet" me. I noticed that the dogs tail was up and wagging (good for me), dog was smiling (good for me), and the dogs bark was more of a "come play with me" bark instead of an "I'm going to eat you" bark.
These are farm dogs and used to staying out of the way of pickups so I wasn't worried about running over them, but the bigger of the two dogs got close enough to give my lower leg a few licks (no I don't think he was tasting me to find out if I would be good eating).
Had the tails been down or tucked, and had the bark sounded different and the facial expression been different on the dogs I may have been in trouble or in pain from a bite.
Try to learn to read dog behavior so that you don't get bit especially if you are riding rural roads.
While it's true you can probably tell if a dog is likely to take a snap at you, "reading the dog" isn't going to give you a lot of cues as to whether the dog is going to "play" himself under your wheel or knock you down while trying to give you a hug. A dog running towards you on a bike is always a safety threat. Reading the dog may help you figure out how best to counter that threat while preventing harm to yourself and the dog.