Aaak! I'm so sorry you were bitten like that. Glad it wasn't worse though (I learned the word hematoma when I was 9 and my mother was bitten by a pit bull). I think you handled it well--calling the sheriff, rather than whipping out a 12-guage double-barrelled Remington and shooting the thing because it's owners weren't controlling it.

I got bitten once, last year, but I was partly to blame. A woman was walking her dog (off leash, but lots of people do in that area, though technically they're not supposed to) on the side of the bike path and it was one of those big grey floppy-eared jobs--so cute, so loveable. When he came running up to me, my heart melted and I stopped to pet him, thus unwittingly encouraging the chasing behavior. He let me pet him, then as I tried to ride away, he chased me again and chomped my thigh. Didn't break the skin, but I had a really disturbing bruise.

I don't stop for dogs anymore. And I always make sure to keep mine on a leash or in my ample-sized fenced-in backyard.

People are forgetting what you should do if a dog is chasing you. Stop.

Throw it some peeps, that will make it pause for awhile to enjoy the spongie sweetness, and , they are on sale for 1/2 price now! :D

It was my mother-inlaw's dog... In the end I put it down. Worst dog ever.

Even more reason to spray the owner, or at least daydream about it alot!

:roflmao:

Dogs are so unpredictable. Last year I got taken out by a Great Dane. One minute I'm riding to work the next thing I know I'm in Hospital, and to this day still don't know what actually happened. I can only assume he came across in front of me and we collided. I guess I'll never really know.

The owners should be penalised not the dogs, they are just animals and they really don't know any better.

CHEERS.

Mark

True but a cat generally won't attack or bite somebody like a neighborhood kid. Cats tend to run away. I was bitten by a dog playing when I was a youngen. It's just in their nature. I would never really shoot a dog. I was just teasing. I happen to be pretty fond of most of them. I also keep my cats indoors anymore. Not willing to let them get killed by cars so it's just safer all the way around.

The last time I was chased by a dog I slowed down and circled in the street. I just talked to it like I would any neighborhood dog with "Hey boy! How ya doing?" I guess it got bored as it just turned away. I didn't present him with the "challenge of the chase" anymore.

Absolutely.

Yeah, it's not the dog's fault and I have a real aversion to being bitten. Twice now I've been told that "snookums" doesn't normally bite. I got bitten once on my bike and came off a cropper. I positively loathe tetnus etc., injections. These days when I get bitten I call the cops and have the dog put down, then I send an account around to the former owners for the cost of the medical bills.

Once I had a dog run out in front of the car and I sent them the panel beating bill. That even made it on air. The owners couldn't beleive I'd ask them to pay for the damage after I'd killed their dog.

Sorry, but if you're a dog owner you have a legal responsibility to look after that dog. If it gets its teeth kicked in, then the owner is responsible not the kicker. I feel sorry for the dog but mainly because the dog's owner is an irresponsible jackass that should never have been allowed to own one in the first place.

I was out the other day going up a hill and three large dogs slipped through their fence and came after me. Usually I don't worry too much about dogs but this time one of them seemed like he was serious. So I stopped, got off the bike and guess what all the big mean dogs did? Ran away! Immediately. Also, when I got back on the bike, they didn't come back.

I think that what cyclists trigger in dogs is a predator-prey response. If you stop and get off the bike, you stop being seen as prey. Anyway, I'm going to start using this as a standard technique whenever I get a sense that a particular dog is going to do something more than bark. If it doesn't work and I do have to defend myself, I'm much better able to do so off the bike, especially if I am in on a hill or in somoe other spot where I can't outsprint the dog.

I do a lot of riding in remote rural areas where there are many unleashed dogs. Last month one of my friends got seriously bit by a dog on a club ride.

Yes it's an instinctual thing. Doggies just love to chase - cars, bikes, whatever. They are also protecting their territory. You know, all those places they've hiked up a leg? If need be hop off the bike and hold it between you and the naughty pooch and use the front and rear wheels as weapons swinging them violently back and forth. Yelling works too. I have yet to beat on my chest like a great silverback but whatever it takes to out alpha male the alpha male I suppose. :D


I just realized that my territory is very limited to the bog and a little smattering about on the floor! :o