Dogs track their targets in such a way when they're running at you that you can generally trick them by quickly changing your pace. For instance, if you notice a dog that's about to charge you, slow just a tad and maintain a relatively cool even pace as it's charging you (the dog compensates for where he think you'll be at that speed), and as it gets to within 15 feet of you, sprint. You'll gain all the needed ground to avoid it.

If that fails a swift kick in the shoulder blades will send it down and, if hard enough he won't get back up to chase you.

I really appreciate all the replies.

I understand the "yell 'NO'" concept but I'm more interested in what to do with the really problem dogs upon which that tactic does not work. I can tell you, based on my experience a couple of years ago, yelling "NO" repeatedly has absolutely no effect on some dogs. In fact, if you've ever wondered whether you would really yell "HELP" in a dire situation, trust me, you will.

Furthermore, killing a vicious animal half your size with your bare hands is, admittedly a little out of my league, sorry.

I'm looking for the solution to those extreme cases where you're a bit away from civilization and confronted by the demon from hell. The Smith & Wesson website being along the right lines, for example.

I also appreciated the ammonia, air horn, and stun baton ideas. Gives me a lot to work with. Anyway, keep them coming. Thanks again. Great board.

How about a nice machete? Oops, wrong country!

Simple!

Clicky!

Mostly, its best to just ignore a barking or chasing dog and go your merry way. I think the conventional solution for a dog that is actually attacking is pepper spray. Of all solutions, peper spray is probably the most effective, lowest weight, most legal, and least likely to land you in prison or in a fist fight with the dogs owner.

I never had vicious dogs after me. When I did have repeat issues with dogs chasing me, I considered these options. I was mostly worried about high speed collisions because the house was at the bottom of a steep hill. These dogs would come running out in the road in front of me when they heard me coming.

Stop and confront them - It was somewhat gratifying to chase them back into their yard, but didn't actually prevent the event from happening the next day. In fact, I think it encourages the continuation of the daily game.

Carry a can of spray paint - I didn't actually do this. I think it would work, though. These were nice looking dogs. I figured if they came home with orange paint in their coats, the idiot owners would restrain them.

Urinate in their damn driveway - I'm the alfa. The top dog. I urinate in your space it becomes my space. That's right. I'm marking my space. This seemed to work. I don't think it intimidated the dogs as planned. Maybe the owners decided I was psycho and decided to fix their invisible fence before I burned the place down.

That's probably because they sense your irrational disdain. I'm sorry your daughter was attacked. THat is most awful and tragic (I'm a father as well- perspective)

But what is really wrong here is not the dogs "uncontrollable desire to do YOU harm". It's your inability to realise that you and your daughter suffered from an isolated incident. It has apprently scared you for life.

And if you kill my dog on my property REGARDLESS of what it may have done OFF my property. We're coming to blows buddy.
You live in Costa Rica. There is no way in hell you can tell me people leash their dogs. Unless of course you live in an Americanised section- which is quite likely.

Go tica.

Let see - my wife has been attacked on the back of our tandem 3 times.

My daughter had a dog attack, and cause her to fall.

I have decide enough is enough. This is not irrational disdain - perhaps hatred, but not irrational disdain.

I wouldn't come on your property to kill your dog - I don't have to. If they run - it is all that is required. But if they don't back down, they are dead. I would not come on your property - I would send the police. All dogs I have killed have been on public property. Your property is your place - it would be wrong for me to invade it.

If your dog bites me - you are sued. Do you disagree? You choose to have a dog - it is your responsiblity. If you can't control your dog - you shouldn't have one. Also, if your dog bites me, I will make sure that the animal control kills it. It most places, it is the law. If it chases me and I catch it - I will make it wish it never had at the very least. This is so it doesn't do it to my wife who IS a very afraid of dogs. Why should she not be able to enjoy riding bikes because people won't control their pets?

Yes, I will tell you in the country, they control their dogs MUCH better than in the USA - I have never had a dog attack me in the country here - not ever run out and try. There are cows and horses in the roads at times - a dog that starts chasing them isn't going to be tolerated very long.

Why should cyclist have to put up with being attacked - or even harrassed by dogs? This thread is sad in one thing - that a person needs to be worried about dogs on a public street.

I have a better solution. Send the police out on bikes, if a dog comes out - shoot it - or at least capture, take it to the animal shelter and give the owner a heft fine. I bet all the dogs would be locked up really quickly doncha think? My attitude is total intolerance for dogs chasing me on a bike. Do you disagree? You should see what happens to dogs that chases horses! I had my horse try to kill one for chasing a filly. The dog barely got away.

I have no fear at all of dogs - and I really like mine - yes, I am a dog owner. I will never allow mine to chase people or horses, or anything else for that matter.

Isn't this thread proof it isn't an "isolated incident"? Dogs love to chase things - and with cyclist, that is a big problem. It causes accidents, it causes fear, and sometimes, it causes people to be bitten.

Perhaps the incident scarred me for life - (not scared), but perhaps it educated me as well. Dogs can be dangerous - they are not just pets. I don't consider it scarring by the way, just education.

I refuse to curtail my enjoyment of hiking, horseback riding and cycling because of dogs. You defend you property, and I respect that - I defend my right to enjoy the public areas. Dogs have no right to steal that from me. I have ever right to defend myself - and you have every responsiblity to make sure I don't have to.

I do not at all live in an Americanized section of Costa Rica. We live in Ciudad Quesada and the campo. In Ciudad Quesada - most of the dogs that belong to people are locked up. The ones on the street are wild (strays) - they generally know better than to chase people. There was a big problem here last year with strays - there isn't now.

If my dog got loose and attacked someone out on the street, they wouldn't have to deal with him. I would. What is fair, is fair. There is no way I would favor my dog over a human being who was just riding a bike by.

(p.s. I hope Costa Rica wins against Germany too!)

Sorry for the off-topic, but some dog lover you are! With pit bulls the problem is the owner, not the dog - just like with any other breed. In fact, pit bulls were bred to be people-friendly (those who staged dog fights didn't want the dog to transfer aggression when it was time to break up the fight). The problem is that nasty people who want to train a dog to be mean will pick a pit bull cause of its reputation of such a tough and deadly dog.

I volunteer at the Toronto Humane Society by walking dogs there (I ride my bike there of course ). I get a lot of exposure to all breeds of dogs, and pit bulls have become my favourite! They are usually the most affectionate and the smartest dogs there, despite the fact that many of them had it pretty rough in life.

No. The people who let nasty dogs run out onto the road and expose the dog itself and whoever is on the road to danger - those people don't give a hoot their dogs get killed. They can always get another one. What you are proposing is unnecessarily cruel. I believe you when you say you hate dogs, and I just don't understand it. I don't understand how can you have hatred toward somebody who doesn't know what it is doing. I can understand fear, sense of danger, the need for self-defense in case of attack - but hating dogs is just as stupid as hating infants, even if those infants are lying on the roadway and therefore cause you to crash. You don't hate the infant, you hate his parents, no?..


Substitute "dog" by "motorist". I'll tell you, motorists are much more dangerous to cyclists than dogs. Perhaps we should just shoot the bad ones. It makes A LOT more sense shooting them - they actually ARE responsible for their own actions.

I agree with this, if you try to pass a bill for it you have my vote.

Too many cars on the road anyways.

It really depends on where you live. Here in Oregon, most of the pit bulls and pit bull mixes are as you describe. However, I'm originally from Detroit, and the majority of pit bull and pit bull mixes there decend from lines bred specifically for illegal dog fighting. Gang members and drug dealers are really into this. I believe other inner cities in the US have a similar problem. The thing is, you can't tell the difference between the 2 "strains" by sight, but the temperament is totally different. Well-trained and socialized pit bulls with this genetic heritage have been known to just snap. It happens enough that the Michigan Humane Society will not allow adoption of pit bulls. They euthanize them.

I would not want to encounter one on a bicycle without a taser, shock stick, or real gun, that's for sure.

crtreedude- yeah, I think i may have misunderstood your position and overreacted a bit. I think my tender heart got pinched a little when i read your first several posts. I appreciate and thank you for the detailed clarification.

Hmmm, am I a dog lover? Well, I love people more than dogs. Perhaps that makes me a racist - I love the human race more than dogs.

That doesn't mean I don't love a well behaved dog.

Yes - it is the owners fault - but there isn't much I can do about them, unless the dog bites me. Pardon me for not waiting for that to happen.

The dog (and the owner) has broken the law ( both legal and social ) by allowing their dog threaten people using a public area. Why do I have to wait for them to bite me?

If I come on your property and threaten you - do you have to wait for me to do something to hurt you or yours before you take action? Yes, you do have to evaluate and determine if the person accidentally pulled into the wrong driveway - but if a person comes onto your property (or a public place) and acts like they are going to injure you or someone you love - are you telling me that you don't care?

The illustration regarding babies isn't valid - babies can't really hurt me, nor do I tend to have problems with them trying to chase me down on a public road.

My point is very simple - if a person comes into my home or in a public area and threatens me with physical harm, they have put themselves at risk. A dog has good enough instincts to know that if it threatens something - it might not survive.

The alternative is to just give the road over to the dogs.

Today, a dog barked at me - threatening - and it was over on a field that was public property. I did nothing - why? One, the dog was warning me off and wasn't running at me, two, it was only warning me away from it's puppies. I would have been the fool to mess with it. Almost certainly it was a stray.

My animal danger today was I was nearly ran over by a stallion, a mare and a filly. I guess it is never safe! We really need to install a animal cross walk at that place... (they had been spooked by some heavy equipment making a road)

Please understand, I have been riding for a lot of years - I have only killed three dogs, and two were while hiking. Everyone was either that or get bit. I have flung more rocks than I can remember to teach them a lesson.

Most dogs get killed not by nutso bike riders like myself - it is usually because they go out to chase a cyclist and get killed by the car right behind. That is usually the cause of death. It is generally a matter of time. Dogs that chase people (or cars) almost never die from what they are chasing - it is the one that comes up behind that they don't hear because they are barking so much.

If you love your dog - keep it off the street. If you love dogs - teach them a lesson not to chase things on the street.

Dinstee,

Well, I suspect my emotions were getting a bit ahead of me too. A bit of a trigger point for me is these dogs - and probably their owners if the truth be told.

my apologies to one in all if I am being too harsh - it is not my intention (except if fido nibble on my ankle!)

I found the following https://www.laneselfdefense.com/dogrepellent.htm, it even comes with velcro so you can attach it to your frame.

Is hatred rational?

I am not questioning your methods on a practical level; I have had the good fortune of riding thousands of miles with maybe one or two dog run-ins where they barked -- I might have been a little startled -- and I pedalled faster and rode away... a very different world from yours to be sure.

It just seems that your hatred would be somewhat unpleasant to carry with you. I wonder if you could kill a dog under the same circumstances and feel compassion - I mean with awareness that you love dogs and the unfortunate soul who you had to kill suffered the initial misfortune of coming to an uncaring or irresponsible owner, before it's final misfortune at your hands.

I am not suggesting that you refrain from killing a dog if circumstances dictate it as a necessity. But perhaps your emotions run away with you a bit on the road like they might do when writing about dogs on an internet forum.

We could chop logic all day on this. If the hatred is based on real events, sure, it is rational. After all, do you think hatred is not rational? If so, why is almost everyone capable of such? Irrational behavior is something that means that normal people wouldn't do it.

Hatred is very normal - perhaps too much - but very normal.

Glad you have had less trouble.

Let's let it drop, okay?

One option that has worked on my commute is to make friends with the dogs.

Since we comute on the same route every day, we see the same dogs every day, now we visit friends on the ride every day. There is one we race, a few we pet, and one we squirt because the owner doesn't him chasing bikes.

We also know the dogs owners, the first time Fido comes out we go talk to the owners in a friendly way. Works wonders.

I also carry a few dog treats for bribery. That made us a lot of 4-legged friends.

I have a completely different frame of mind for dogs while on the road bike, but hey, this is the commuting thread.

Dave

Not picking a fight. Really; just joining a discussion. I am not laying down judgement.

Yes I think hatred is not rational; I think it is an emotion that can fuel actions (and thoughts) which can turn out to be quite irrational. For instance an automobile driver who hates cyclists and intentionally cuts them off or steers towards them.

I think we can probably agree (and come up with some juicy examples) that because something is "normal" does not make it rational (or good or healthy or necessary.) (That is, if we could ever agree on what "normal" is.)

Thanks - me too! Phew!

Okay.

Sorry to take it on a tangent from the question of the OP. I am sure it is not exactly what they were after, but it seems that the "best" way to deal with aggressive dogs can contain more than just a question of pure practicality.

Cheers.

the tree people are out killing dogs. run. run far from the trees.

I recently took an alternate route. On my right in a yard, I heard a barking little dog. It was a Chihuahua mix. It was charging hard. I have never seen a more athletic display in my life. It had no chance of catching me and I could only admire its athleticism for a moment.

pedal faster

"No" and "Go home" have always worked for me in the past, but may look into a taser, works on human pests too