Like I said earlier, some of the apologists for these vicious breeds will ALWAYS rush out with their "But MY little pittie, or dobie, or shepard is DIFFERENT. He would never even hurt a fly, and, why, I let my 2 year old play with him all day long..."

Who wants to be the victim of a vicious dog's FIRST attack? It also seems that the owners of these breeds, after the attack, will often make the "Why, he's never hurt a fly" comment, and then will attempt to blame the victim..."well, they must have been teasing him, or pestering him, etc." Sure, like the little 87 year old lady that was mauled going into her house was "teasing" some viscious mutt. Get real...

There are enough instances of these breeds just going nuts on someone that I will defend first and ask questions later.

I'm truly glad some of you have never had a bad encounter with a viscious dog yet, and that some of you can ALWAYS manage to sprint away from a strung out pack of dogs going up a climb,etc., but when the chase is on, and fido is acting like he wants a piece of me, I'll let him have it, and play dog owner psychologist and "dog whisperer" later. I can't tell the difference between "masters and torturing owners" at 30 mph...(okay, 26 mph...)

Like I said, I like dogs, but people SHOULD be responsible for their actions, and dogs SHOULD be properly controlled at all times, etc., but in the real world that doesn't always happen. I'm not advocating eliminating any breed, but penalties and fines should be severe for irresponsible handling of these breeds. The problem is that a fair number of the owners of these attack breeds aren't always too keen on following all the laws of the land anyway. So, you have to have a plan B!

And contrary to some of the theorists who have read about how to handle dog encounters, I can tell you first hand that a stream of water to the snout doesn't ALWAYS work, and that stopping and confronting the dog doesn't ALWAYS work, and that stopping and using the bike as a shield doesn't ALWAYS work.

I do carry a small air horn now, and of all the things I've tried over the years it seems to be the best deterrent so far.

DPN