i think she could be man, i would love to take her on a ride-ride. I just really mess around with her on the trails behind my house (the ones we created - they are much better now) and she holds up great. I mean if she can handle the kayaking trips i dont think she would have a problem with a few mile ride on an isolated trail at the Horse Park on a dead day? Im thinking about taking her out before i go off to WA. I leave around the 20th, and i leave Sachi behind as well.... :(

That's your opinion. If there aren't laws prohibiting dogs being somewhere, then I see no reason to expect others to give a **** how you feel about dogs. I may not like a person but if it's public property I can't expect that they won't be there just because I think they're a ******bag.

I wouldn't bring a dog with me that wasn't well trained, but I couldn't care less if people don't like dogs.

Numbers do make a huge difference. Years ago my wife and I took our 2 dogs on a hike in the local mountians. No problems, because we met absolutely 0 people.

Come to think of it I've been on a couple of other hikes with then and 0 people. So of course no problems. But at least one of those trails would be a major problem for passing anyone.

For the OP, time can make a huge difference in numbers. A trail that looks like rush hour on weekends can be empty on weekdays. Time of day can be harder to judge. At least here some trails are busy early and empty once it gets hot.

Oh that reminds me. As other have already pointed out the dog will be working, likely far more than yuo are. Remember to have water and somethign he can drink out of if you do try riding with him.

I a Walkydog. It's a shock absorbing boom attachement that hooks on to your seat post. Attachment point is below your center of gravity on the bike. If the dog lurches (even hard) to the side you barely feel it.

Video

I've had mixed experiences with dogs. I love dogs, and have encountered some very well trained animals on the trail, but as people have been saying, sometimes dogs can exhibit different behavior when other cyclists are passing or if there's general excitement.

This past summer I was riding on some tight single track that's usually dominated by cyclists, when I come upon a lady and her dog in a switchback. The dog was a huge husky, but seemed pretty calm as I approached. The lady went out of her way to tell me that the dog was friendly, and that it's name was (appropriately) "Chewie." As I slowly rode around the downhill switchback, the lady having moved up the trail in the other direction, "Chewie" starts chasing me, growls, and nips my heel. I didn't stop to tell the owner, as I was riding off as fast as I possibly could Chewie was hot on my heels. Luckily all Chewie got from me was a nip, no broken skin or anything, but it was scary in the moment. Even though I love dogs, I think there's just something about a moving bike that can trigger a "herding" reaction in what is otherwise an amicable dog.

I don't expect people to not take dogs in case someone doesn't like them. I do expect dogs to be under a level of control as required by the law. If they aren't under control I will take whatever action is required to remove any danger from the dog based on my own assessment of the situation. I have been known to thump a dog that jumped up at me, and to grab a dog by its collar and drag it 100 yards back to where the owners (who weren't paying any attention at all to it) were standing chatting.

On a shared use path I expect to find people walking, cycling, walking dogs, small children, whatever else. The fact there aren't laws prohibiting something doesn't mean a free-for-all in being an a*se with an animal that isn't under control. The simple point is, if someone's dog endangers me then they are the one who is out of line. Shared means everybody gets to use the path - and that doesn't mean I'm expected to put up with someone else's dog jumping up at me.

I actually agree with you here, contango, even though I never ride without my dog. The bottom line is that the dog better be trained to trail ride. I can ride with Iris, my border collie, because no one even knows she's there- she sticks to my rear wheel and knows to ignore anything we may come upon- people, animals, etc.

Yep, the average pay-out for the victim of a dog bite is $24,840. It is the most common civil law-suit in america, some 4.7million americans are bitten each year and it is a $417 million industry for lawyers.

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/to...88-306x172.jpg

Running your animals unleashed has serious consequences, I dare say, always. It is a lottery who your dog jumps on - maybe it's a smart lawyer or maybe it's dog whisperer - and even dog whisperer won't like it if your dog jumps on him.

It really is just a matter of time before some 5yr slaps your dog on the nose or it gets under somebody's bicycle wheel and they break an arm or the damn dog drinks up a pool of anti-freeze in a parking lot.

Sorry, but i'm not going to buy the rationalizations about oh we're in nature, yadda yadda i do it all the time no problem(yet). The best way to avoid the situation is to keep the dog on a leash. Just yesterday, again, I was chased by some crazy 100lb dog. One day i would like to get that owner and set some 100lb dogs on him. The worst offenders at this are those who think they're in "nature", or country folk... why? It is simple really, they are the worst because their dogs are the ones not on leashes.

They aren't people and it is cruel to expect them to act that way in public.

I refuse to believe that keeping an untrained dog on a leash while you're on a bicycle is safer than having a well-trained dog follow behind you. You seem to be of the mindset that all dogs are unable to be trained & need to be treated like they understand absolutely nothing but their core animal instincts, when this isn't at all the case. An untrained dog on a leash will still jump in front of people, but this time it'll do it with a clothes-line attached. If your dog is properly trained, I see nothing wrong with having it follow behind you, no more in the way than you are.

Here's proof of what dogs are capable of with the proper training: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCmASq-YRg/watch?v=9gCmASq-YRg

If a redneck is capable of training his dog to do that, the average Joe can absolutely train their dog to follow directly behind them & step of the trail when other riders are approaching.

Of course it isn't my point that the leash is safer, obviously all these leash systems have one issue - a tree coming between you and the dog - *SNAP* goes something, the tree or your dog.

The conclusion is to leave your dog at home when MTB'n.

Dogs are dogs my man, sure you can train it... but what does it take to train it? mistakes. Those mistakes might cost you or a neighbour a lot. Even after being trained, the dog just can't understand what todo in every situation. Of course I realize many people have different "dog" philosophies, but in the eyes of law and society there is only one proper and forthright action in public - leashing the dog. Sorry.

Very true. Hopefully someone training their dog to go out on the trails with them would use controlled mistakes to teach their dog rather than just waiting for a law suit. Nine times out of ten, dogs aren't trained well enough to be on the trail. This is why leash laws make sense to have. BUT, how many of us follow 100% of the laws 100% of the time? Do we not all bend--or even outright break--the law on a regular basis, when that particular law wasn't intended for us? I know I do. This is why I remain a firm believer that if your dog is trained properly, you should be able to take it out on the trails without issue. But I want to make it clear that I'm not arguing leash laws & I'm not one of those extremist who thinks leashes are cruel & all dogs should run around free & kill each other just like they do in nature.

Well, breaking the law is basically giving the finger to the general ethics of society(your riding buddies included). You do that, you're choosing to stand alone or place your wants above societies. It is probably why judges have no issue in awarding large settlements in such cases when the attacks happen. In public it is even clearer, because the answer was so simple and the owner deliberately chose to risk it.

So, no, breaking the law for that reason - I don't agree with. I walk the dog, on a leash and pickup it's ****. It really isn't that complicated.

So while you're up there on your high horse, you'll go ahead & verify that you've never broken a single law ever in your entire life for any reason without being punished to the fullest extent of the law? You NEVER drive faster than the speed limit? Never disobeyed anything your parents said when you were growing up? Never smoked a little green or had a sip of beer before you were of legal age? I leveled with you & admitted that those laws exist for a reason, but there is not a single law ANYWHERE that everyone should rightfully have to follow all the time. That would suggest that every single person in the world is exactly the same, which we're proving not to be true by disagreeing on something.

And I think what bothers me most is you seem to have no sense of what the laws are actually there for. Do you really think leash laws are there because having your dog attached to a rope is just the way of the world? Because I was always under the impression that it was to keep you, your dog, & other people/dogs safe. If your dog is properly trained, then you, your dog, & other people/dogs will remain safe even when your dog is off its leash. But I guess taking rules for their intended purposes is a thing of the past--in modern times, nothing matters but bureaucratic bull****. Who cares about dealing with problems on a case-by-case basis when you can go by the book & treat every single situation as if it's no different than the next.

That isn't my point, you wanted to rationalize breaking the law. There are differences in intent you know, speeding by accident and speeding by choice(racing) and killing somebody are two different things. What you're describing is "speeding by choice" because you're deliberately loosing the dog when there are other people about. I told you that is antisocial.

Why do you care what my personal actions are anyways? I am no advocating you follow my example, just the rules set out by us. You want to break them that is your problem, quit whining about it law breaker.

You've NEVER sped by choice? When the speed limit is 60km/h & you see that you're going more like 62, you take the time to slow down & focus on your speedometer rather than the road? Because obeying every single law is what counts, & it would be silly to break the speed limit just to avoid the possibility of swerving into the other lane & killing someone. Possibilities aren't illegal, after all...but speeding is. And the law is what matters, not the problem the law was created to solve.

And I don't care about your personal actions, I care about the rational behind them. If after all is said & done, you choose not to take your dog on the trails--fine. That's your choice & I honestly couldn't care less. But to say there is absolutely no situation where it would be okay to take your dog on the trails without a leash is just bullheaded & asinine.

My rational is not to be anti-social in public.

I know maybe one day you'll get it. So here in the best way, is hoping somebody else's dog ruins your day on the trail. Seems like you need to learn the hard way.

Peace.

Thanks for the civics lesson, John Law esquire. Where do you ride your mountain bike, the city park?

I agree that the function of the law is more important than the letter of the law. The question then comes to how to enforce the law - since we're on the topic of dogs it's entirely possible that one man's dog can run along beside the bike and not trouble anybody no matter how crowded the trail gets, while another man's dog will chase anything that moves and inflict grievous injury on anyone within biting range. How is law enforcement supposed to tell which dog is which, short of being attacked themselves? Just about everybody seems to think their dog is the perfect pet that wouldn't hurt a fly so no amount of protestation from the owner will prove anything (although, in fairness, one dog owner I encountered called her dog to her when she saw me approaching and held its collar until I was well past, on the basis she said the dog would chase me).

I have seen dogs on trails that were well trained, I've seen dogs that weren't well trained, I've encountered a couple of dogs who practically ran under my wheels and forced me to brake hard even though I was going at barely a moderate jogging pace. The only way a lot of laws can be enforced meaningfully is to impose them upon everybody.

Speeding also came up - while someone like Michael Schumacher might be safe driving much faster than the rest of us once again the traffic police have no way of knowing who is a very highly trained driver, who is a competent driver, who is drunk and who is driving a car they stole. So if they see someone going fast they pull them over. While we might argue that someone like Schumacher should be sent on his way it's much harder to justify not pulling him over to make sure it's not some young oik in a stolen car.

Sometimes, and after that I ride it over to your mom's place. :D

Man, it is the same ol' story... people think it's not them that is causing the problem! Their dog is well behaved, it never bites or runs in front of somebody... ****, give me a break! The reason we have to write it down is because people don't want to inconvenience themselves or a dog, of all things.

Well I live in moose/bear country. My cowardly dog is not going in the woods with me! As to all those well behaved dogs, I'd like to meet them. I'm mainly a roadie and getting chased by some dog is pretty much a weekly event. Of course this also means I work on my sprints at least once a week, :lol:

In my experience, trail dogs tend to be better behaved than dogs out in someone's yard. Most people who bring their dogs on trails train them well enough to not chase people. Not all, of course, but the majority are alright. Yard dogs don't seem to be trained nearly as often. This is, of course, a generalization, and there are always exceptions, but that's what I've seen anyway.

I agree completely & this is the same point I was trying to convey when I said I wasn't arguing the laws. We have to treat every situation as if it's a dangerous one because there is no way to know beforehand whether or not a dog will snap. My point was simply that situations do exist (in a fair world, which ours will never be) where someone should have the privilege of taking there dog to the trails. Not saying any laws or rules should be changed just for a few exceptions, just stating that not all dogs are dangerous. I thought this would be a universal understanding.

Oh & +1 to Zephyr. The trend seems to be that the more rural you get, the worse the dogs are trained. Not that there's anything wrong with that, there's just less reason to train a dog to run in a straight line when it has 100 acres of land to run around on.

Before I had a dog I could not stand dogs on the trail, actually now that I have one I still get pissed by most of the unleashed (and leashed on single track) dogs I encounter. Before I got this dog I would have said I would never ride with a dog, leashed or not. Now I ride with her quite often - but there are a few unique things about her, and I use large dose of common sense before I take her with me.
Her unique qualities:
She likes me and my family, and a couple of my kids friends - and that is it. She does not like anyone else, she will not approach them - and leaves plenty of room to pass, usually she gets off the trail to let others pass.
She is afraid of most things other than ripping single track, when we see a deer, moose, etc. she goes the other direction.
She does not bark - really (only at strangers approaching the house) She has never barked on the trail.
She will approach other dogs but she is scarred, and will turn tail if they growl or bark.
My common sense:
I only ride one trail with her - it is mainly a hiking trail, ~10 miles with about 2000' vert - I ride it a couple hours before sundown and if it is under 75f (which is often around here). Most people are off the trail - about 60% of the time we pass no hikers, and 80% no riders.
I carry a leash - just in case, but have never had to use it.
I did bring her with on a ride with a freind once, but I felt that was rude of me (he thought she was awesome though) so now I ride with her solo or with her and my kid.
If she craps - I kick it off the trail - I hate poop on the trail too.

Am I breaking a law - technicaly, yes. Am I inconveniencing anyone, or creating a potential for disaster? Nope.