mandovoodoo

My dear fellow, you're quite the expert.

One of the incidents I'm familiar with involved two skilled cyclists enjoying an attack from cover. Centerline position of the cyclists was a measured 23 ft from the cover. The dog ran full tilt from cover without warning heading for the lead cyclist. The trailing cyclist made it to the far side of the pavement adjacent to a dropoff, ditch, and barbed wire while maintaining speed. Impact was within a couple of seconds at most of the dog appearing and was to the extreme rear of the rear wheel, bending the wheel beyond repair and tossing the rear end of the bicycle up to about waist level, tossing the rider face first into the roadway.

Tell me, Expert, how one can prepare for an attack like this? These cyclists are, of course, dog people and virtually never have any trouble with the usual dogs. Also, the state has an "at large" law in place making a dog owner - very broadly defined - essentially strictly liable for any damage done. There's also a criminal component.

I contend that you're off base for most states and completely off base for any state with an "at large" prohibition.

While cyclists need to be prepared for encounters with dogs - and most of that is simply figuring out an appropriate strategy for the various dogs one sees, and their owners - they cannot be armed for all encounters. A determined silent attack from cover can't really be accommodated in planning. Determined attacks or encounters while climbing steep hills are also difficult to deal with if the animal is persistent. And most cyclists aren't really equipped to handle truly vicious dogs. There are a few of those out there. When prepared cyclists very familiar with dogs get hurt, it isn't their fault as you suggest. One incident comes to mind where a dog trainer cyclist was hurt. Here's someone who knows how dogs work, how to defuse situations, how to work with strange dogs, unable to thwart a determined attack.

Now go lick your wounds like a good boy.