I've been chased by dogs in suburbia. They can be tenacious in a chase. It's scary. The owners were probably not stupid rednecks. Maybe the dogs got out accidentally. I'm sure the owners would be surprised if they heard what their dogs did.

A year ago, I was walking my dog on a rural road, and a male german shepherd ran off his property and jumped on my dog, knocking her over. My dog is an old greyhound and very delicate. She gets scrapes whenever she falls. I took her to the vet and had her patched up. I stopped by to talk to the property owner. He apologized and said it would never happen again. The dog was owned by someone in jail, and the property owner was looking after him. He said he would confine the dog. And he asked me what the vet bill came to and wrote me a check.

We ended up talking about other stuff, and he was nothing but pleasant. I have no hard feelings. He made a mistake and owned up to it. My dog was OK.

Pepper spray the beeatches

Two 25 pound dogs attacking me and my bike would have received a beating. They're 25 pound dogs. You can punt them. No reason to be afraid of them. If I can hold our two 100 pound weimaraners then you can deal with two 25 pound dogs. A dog that latches on and does not let go is NOT playing. It is attacking and wanting to cause harm.

I vote bear spray.

If that doesn't work (I can almost guarantee you it will), I vote a weapon that we're not allowed to discuss outside of the safety forum.

You're making it out to be WAY more than it is. I'm not a "nuisance". I went to talk to the owner to let her know her dogs came after me and to NICELY ask her to keep them out of the road because I ride by there all the time and don't want to get bit. Simple as that. I will continue riding there because it's my right.

SHE starting having a hissyfit with me, not caring that I was attacked by her dogs, so I gave her an earful back and left. The entire encounter lasted less than 2 minutes. Not everyone has the same personality, and it's not mine to drop my head and walk away with my tail between my legs when someone starts calling me names for no reason at all.

If I get bit by a dog that was illegally out on a public road I'm not going to lose a lawsuit. Especially when my best friend is friends with and works for the sheriff and judge. That's the way it is here. But no, a sheriff is not going to care about two dogs 25 miles away from his department building when he has almost daily drug shootings in town. I'm willing to bet my rural area is more rural than yours. Ever seen Deliverance? It's pretty close to that. I'm from DFW and that's like going from the USA to Uganda. But it's where life (and my daughter) took me. Good riding, though.

We have plenty of feral dogs around here and some of them are abandoned fighting pits. In the Chicago area Cook and Dupage County Forest Preserves there were a couple women joggers killed by them. Nasty way to die, I'd feel terrible if I came upon that type of situation and couldn't help with proper tools....

Sorry, but it sounds like you're more interested in being right than in winning. I understand the are you're talking about. I live in the Delta, used to be a child abuse investigator in Appalachia, and I'm pretty intimately familiar with dogs on the road, rural law enforcement, and p'd off rednecks.
There are better ways to handle the situation, and more options than threatening or being a coward.
Good luck.

What area and when? My best friend's wife is a case manager for DCS. She often makes comparisons to 15 years ago when she started and now. She speaks of the impact that drug addiction has made on this area, to hear the stories is horrific. Babies born addicted has become so common in recent years, so many are going into the system from day one.

I am in the right and if I get bit by a dog because the owner did not control it and keep it on private property as the law requires then it's an open and shut case.

Call the sheriff or animal control or both.

Two friendly pit type bulls attacked me and nearly killed me. Shattered my femur and hip snd I wound up with a stroke as well. But, I sued the owner and won. I won a lot. Of course, they had home owners, if this person does not (have insurance) I suppose you could wind up owning her home or something.

Spray them with Dog Mace. If that does not work, I carry the other solution now as well. Life changing events can change certain attitudes.

J

I was in Middle TN in the mid 1980s. Drugs were an issue, but mindset and dependency were worse issues.

Good luck with that.

Good point regarding documenting with a camera. I once had a dog come out. I stopped and began to record a video in full view of the owner. That solved the problem without reporting to the animal control unit of the sheriff's office.

I think we've identified the real problem.

People who insist the victim is at fault unless of course it is them and then it is a completely different story possibly?

OP, it depends some upon the area but generally the sherrif can intercede or animal control. Most places do not allow dangerous animals to roam free, both for the good of the public and the animal. And, you do have a right to defend yourself.

A camera can help, yet another unfriendly animal. This one did it's best to get me and a face full of MACE hardly fazed him. But the owner called him off before it got real ugly. I called the sheriff, presented the photo. He told me right in front of the owner to next time shoot the (______):



But, as it would go, a week later driving into work, I came upon a dead animal in the road, yep, he had met his match. Thing is, they had a beautiful fenced yard. I owned dogs most of my life, never once did any of them hurt anybody or anything. I kept them with me or in the house or in a fenced yard. It was my responsibility to keep them safe and of course not owning known killer and aggressive breeds did not hurt my efforts.

That was a tough dog for sure!

My first thought was carry some milk bones, hand them out like candy.

Only problem with this is you train the dogs to be your best friend and next thing you know, you're stopping every time to feed dogs.

I didn't real all posts so if i'm repeating... sorry.

Beating the dogs can be a problem, since by posting here, you've already showed intent.

I would suggest something like pepper spray which is not lethal. And carry a second for the owner.

I am a 27 year Deputy Sheriff and ride my bike daily. I live in the country with a couple neighbors.
Up until a month or less ago every ride started and ended with a full attack by one of my neighbors dogs.
I had spoke to him politely, then sternly then all out full blown cussing him and his girlfriend.
The attacks have been going on for years and I finally had it that day I blew my stack and cussed them up one side and down the other.
What did he do? He went to the Sheriffs Office and complained on me.
Now all these attacks that have happened over time i have been documenting them with cell phone photos. If I knew how to post pics on here I would show you quite a few.
So I contacted animal control and asked them what I need to do to stop this problem.
They said to send in each incident with photos and a brief description. My wife and i bombarded them with incidents.
They wrote him a couple of County ordinance tickets costing him next to nothing.
He finally done something with the dog and now it is not a problem.
So end of story....nope.
My wife has a licensed home daycare. He called in several false complaints causing the business to be investigated. Nothing was found during the investigation.
He also called the health department complaining of my 'faulty ' septic system. We were cleared by County and state.
So my wife calls the Sheriff demanding a investigation into these false accusations. He referred the case to the State Police.
The trooper came to my home and spoke to my wife and I.
He said there was not much he could do. He said he would talk to the prosecutor office.
He came back later and told us that the neighbor said "he was done" .
I asked the trooper what he meant by that? I then informed the trooper that my wife and I are victims of a crime and now we are being harassed by the dog owner and I expected the case to be sent to the prosecutor.
Hmmmmm
In other words good luck with dog attacks. I did this the way your supposed to do and nothing was done.

Dogs like that are a menace. Frankly, so are the owners. What if some kid had been mauled by the damned beast? I'm glad it's dead.

Pit bulls are incredibly tough. That's one reason why law enforcement don't play around with games like "Shoot to wound" or "Shoot the weapon out of their paws" or whatever other nonsense armchair police learned from watching too much TV. This dog just trotted away normally. I never asked or found out but I'm assuming the bullet either went through without major injury or stopped against a rib or other bone.

And it was one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make, and done only after we'd exhausted every other solution since the owner was unwilling to accept any responsibility, even after separate warnings from a deputy and animal control.

Personally I like pitties and don't fear them any more than any other dog. The vast majority I've encountered were lovable goofballs. I've encountered a few on my rural bike rides and don't worry about them since they're just excessively enthusiastic, not aggressive. They tend to wander around in front of me like they're leading a parade. A couple of times I've run over their haunches when they suddenly stopped or changed directions, even when I'd slowed down to a walking pace. I didn't fall and they weren't injured. Those particular dogs didn't repeat that stunt.

What I do worry about is how even apparently friendly dogs can suddenly turn when they sense fear, excitement or pain. They can unexpectedly become vicious. This sudden personality change can happen with any breed. I've seen it in my own dogs and those owned by other family members. Several years ago we had a pair of part-bassett siblings. They were fine for several months, seemingly harmless and friendly. But before the puppies were a year old the female began attacking the male, and each attack got worse -- she nearly killed him once, shredding the hide over his abdomen and throat as he rolled over submissively. We had to split them up and gave the female away. And my in-laws had a couple of goofy bird dogs that seemed to be inseparable pals in harmless mischief. But one day one of the them injured its paw and the sibling attacked and nearly killed it. But the most dangerous and foul tempered dog we tried to adopt was a young adult chow that was wildly unpredictable and couldn't be trusted around my grandmother or grandkids. None of the usual methods for winning over difficult dogs seemed to work. We finally had to give her away to an experienced owner who understood what she was taking on.

But it's potentially more dangerous with pit bulls because they have such incredibly tough bodies with dense muscles and bones. Police officers have reported shooting pit bulls in the head and having the bullets bounce off or fail to penetrate. Others have needed multiple hits before the dogs even slowed down.

So I don't underestimate seemingly friendly dogs. If they knocked me over and I showed any sign of fear, anger, pain, etc., and was bleeding, any dog might suddenly turn vicious.

You'd be hard pressed to kill anything with a zefal pump! Halt II works good on dogs and their owners.

I agree. A neighbour's friendly, seemingly harmless German Shepherd nearly killed her one night, for no apparent cause, and I know of several other cases.That's why I never, ever would let a dog alone with a small child or baby.

Go to Youtube. Enter the words:

dog shot attack

See what a dog can do.

My friend told the story of an ex soldier who rode. Got chased by the same dog. Several nips at the heel, and other acts that were highly dangerous. Had yelling confrontations with the owner, who refused to do anything. Told the owner "The next time that dog chases me I'm going to kill it. Got a two letter response ending in "u". Sure enough, the next ride the dog chased him, the rider pulls his Beretta 9mm out of his bike bag and puts a round into the pooch's forehead.

The friend that told me the story averred that when the cop showed up, the owner was fulminating, but the biker just told the cop "If the owner apologizes, I won't press charges". The cop was sympathetic and agreed.

But this was Texas, more than 20 years ago. Back to reality as we know it today. I'd get and use the pepper spray. Negative operant conditioning.