Chased by a dog today.
 

There's this hill, which was freshly paved about 2 weeks ago, that I decided to go down today. I was about halfway through my planned ride when I was descending it. I was traveling about 30 to 40 mph and concentrating on the road. Then, on a field to the left, a dog starts running out perpendicular to me and tried to bite my left foot by my toe. The force of this relatively large sized dog made my rear wheel come off the ground, but I managed to stay upright. If I had been going slower, it probably would have taken me down and have bit me harder. Luckily nothing is damaged, and the shoe looks ok, although my toe hurts. I went back to the house I suspected the dog owner lived, and there were two yellow labs in the front yard, unchained and no fence. An 11 year old girl answered the door and said her parents were not home, and I asked if she saw their dogs chase anyone on a bike, which she said no. One of the dogs previously started to chase me sometime last year, but its owner was there to stop it. Should I call animal control, or possibly the state police? I am considering riding by there again to see if something similar happens, except with a can of mace/frame pump, and hope the dogs' owner is home. What else should I do?

HTFU. (And pedal faster)

Stop listening to your iPod ;)

Labs are smart enough to know not to chase. At least mine are.



Brilliant idea.

+1.

Dude, I'd be embarrassed to admit in public that a dog caught me on a downhill.

^ No way man. Not even close, I had a friend that had a chiuaua, it was unbelievable. My friend showed me how fast it was, I didn't believe him when he told me. He rode his bike as fast as he could, he's been riding his whole life too.(He's no nub) The dog was faster than him on his bike. It was incredible. It's not embarrassing by any means.

There are few animals who could catch me on a good downhill.

getting chased by a dog ----->>> great interval motivator :)

The dog was running from the perpendicular to me, not parallel from behind. It really did not have to run all that fast, it would only have to get the timing correct. My speed would be almost irrelevant.

If it wasn't a cheetah...

Ok, now you're admitting the Dog is better at trigonometry than you are.

Dogs are notoriously bad at trig. Aim for the dog, going as far as possible to the side of the road (within traffic constraints) from which the dog is coming. This causes the dog to make a too acute angel of attack. Then just before striking the dog, veer to the other side of the road. Despite years of having this tactic used upon their species, Dogs have yet been able to anticipate the move and adjust their vector angles.

I think the fib in this tale is that he was going 30-40.

agreed, but only if you are ready. sometimes they can catch you off guard and get the angle on you. then you either stop, kick, or throw. you decide.

on one of my shorter routes me and this dog have a regular thing. however, the first time he got the jump on me. he actually bumped my rear wheel, but i stayed up. now, i just drope hamers on the big fat pest. :D

later.

agreed.

You could always just spray it in the face with water always works for me.

You were wearing that US Postal kit in front of a dog.
WTF were you thinking?

No, this was the only real descent in my ride, and according to the Garmin my max was 40.5 mph, and it went from 600 feet to 200 feet in .80 miles hahah.

Made me laff. :lol:

It probably would have helped if I saw the dog before it was already in the road ready to attack.

If you talk to the dog/yell at the dog, many will realise you are a person and stop.
I always talk to dogs that are on or near the road or chasing me, and I have never had one decide to try to bite me. However in the event that a dog were to bite me, or knock me off my bike and continue to be aggressive, the owner will have a dead dog.

I love dogs, just not the ones that bite.

Animal Control, then the PD.

call animal control, tell them how you were attacked, then proceed to tell them how concerned you are for children and elderly people who might not be able to escape the dog, finally, suggest they put the dog down for everyone's safety and/or ticket the owners for being to ****ing lazy to train their dog properly

Carry meat. Next time dog starts to chase you. Throw meat. Dog will follow meat.

Last time I was chased by dog, I was going uphill. PR'd that hill. Thanks dog.

I dropped a dog the other day pretty badly.
Loser...
It would have been like way totally cooler if he was on a Cervelo d00d.

Duuuuuuude, why so harsh? Like some one above said, use water.

I know he didn't realize it till the dog was in the road, and that's the "freak" part of the accident. Definitely call animal control though if you plan to continue to ride past there. Tell them it's never happened before, blah, blah.

Just curious, why would some one make a story up like this? I'm curious as to why you would call some one out on a completely realistic/believeable story. Dogs are known to chase cars, I've even seen this one guy in my neighborhood that bikes up and down the street and his lab chases him in the median. Why lie about a lame story like this?!?!? At least make it semi-interesting.