i whisper to them. I'm the dog whisperer.

But your name isn't Cesar. lol

Of course I do, and cats too.

There are no dogs on my route. If I was chased by a dog I would call animal control that would come and quickly remove it or cite the owner. An advantage of living in the city.

The last time I was chased by a dog was 22 years ago.The last time I petted a dog I was a kid and it had fleas. I don't talk to dogs and I don't pet them.

No. Dogs are not toys, not my business, I don't know them. But I'll sound the horn if there's one on the path.

Of course, dogs are the best therapist of all and the best cheerleader when you are down.

I am into bikepacking and Iohan is one of my favorites. Some of my foreign work colleagues know him. His adventures are outstanding.

I also moo at cows.

I started a thread about least scary wild animal attacks recounting when I tried talking to a groundhog who was partially blocking the path. She didn't like that.

As I said above, I consciously stop myself from talking to dogs on leashes while I ride because it might encourage them to try to play with me and cause problems for the owner. What I didn't mention is that I love dogs so much that I occasionally find myself making an involuntary demented-sounding laugh noise when I see on that I find particularly amusing or adorable.

Yes. You are showing them who is "top dog." For stubborn ones, a squirt of water to the face often works well. I love that "Whoa! I wasn't expecting that!" look, especially from the smaller ones.

"They're good dogs, Bront!"

I love behaved dogs. I hate loose dogs while riding. I do not talk to them. I don't want to encourage them to start chasing. If that happens they will get a loud "NO". I will talk to other animals since they react better with a warning sound by staying out of the way. The exception being squirrels. I usually say "damn stupid #$%&*# squirrel".

Well, now that we've broken the seal on cows, I have to say that I have an inability to pass a cow and not moo. Horses get a "Hey horse", goats get a "Goat goat" (I dunno why, they just do) but there is not a cow within 100 miles of my house that I haven't mooed at.

Any animal that I encounter gets a hello. Even the human variety gets a wave.

First rule of dog ownership: DOGS CAN BE TRAINED. Too bad 99% of dog owner don't get this. Having your dog on a leash is the law. But allowing him to stretch 20 ft. in all directions across the path and sidewalk defeats the purpose.

For those of you that don't get this consider the command known as "heel". But I've gotten off topic haven't I? This is the talking dogs thread.

I'm pretty much the same. Where I ride, I encounter a lot more animals than people.

With loose dogs, I don't want to surprise them. I don't encounter a lot of them, but when I do I want to see how they might react to me before I'm right on top of them. Mostly they're fine and they just give me a friendly nod.

A while back there was a goat on the roadside. So I was conversing with him to inquire as to why he was on the road rather than behind the fence with the rest of the goats. It was a rather one sided conversation. Then I realized the old guy who owns the goats was standing by his mailbox listening to the exchange. I waved and he gave me a rather quizzical look.

My favorite dog command is "BEHAVE!" Covers a whole host of sins, and leaves the dog little or no wiggle room, if he later claims he was attempting to act in good faith by following your commands as given, without attempting to figure out why they were given.

On of our local groups was once chased by a goat. It was described as being quite aggressive.

Ever been head-butted by a male goat with horns? They hit HARD, aggressively, and repeatedly, until you leave the area they're "guarding".

Plus je connais les hommes, plus j aime les chiens.

In other words, the more I know men, the more I love dogs; especially my dogs.

You have to, Old Bossy needs guidance counseling now and then.

Yup. I moo at dogs, bark at people and recite haiku to cows. And punch horses because those mean b@$tards always try to bite me.

I hope that the part about punching horses was said in jest and with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

I love horses and if I saw anyone punching a horse that human better hope to be able to outrun me...just saying.

Yup, just a joke. Reference to Blazing Saddles.

I've actually been bitten by horses several times, but it just feels like a pinch. My cat gives me worse injuries almost every day.

Talking to dogs actually goes against their psychology. Chatting with dogs on a regular cycling route might seem like it helps but the dogs are probably just becoming used to seeing the cyclist anyway. Dogs see humans that talk to them as weak dogs that need to be dominated. Dogs that seem to be becoming more friendly can turn aggressive if the human walks/rides away...in their view you're leaving the pack without permission.

I live near a bike path with lots of dog walkers & there's 100% correlation between owners who talk the most & the worst behaved dogs. BTW I love dogs & often get compliments on how well-behaved my dogs are.

On my daily ride there's a meadow with a pony, a donkey, and a burro. I'm smitten with them, and many times we've stopped to pet them and offer carrots, etc. I've named them, Pony Boy, Donkey-Donk, and Burrito. I'm particularly fond of Donkey-Donk, and yell his name every time I ride by. The fun part is, that all of them turn to look when I say that, so I'm sure all of them think that I'm speaking to each of them individually. Then there is Maggie, a yellow lab, who will run along side of us for a while, and then veer of and return home. My wife will talk to her in her dog-love-baby-voice, and you can see that Maggie just loves the attention. I've never had a bad dog encounter, which is rather odd to me after hearing so many stories. Maybe dogs can just tell? Maybe I smell so bad that the dogs would rather just roll on me instead of barking?