corrective action with dogs
 

A few weeks ago I had a medium sized dog start to chase me, he was gaining on me fast and was worried he would get to the front tire,so I clipped out,took aim,and gave him a shove to the front quarter to knock him off-stride. It worked, and he stopped chasing. Now don't get me wrong, I would never try to to hurt a dog; my black lab is sitting next to me as I'm typing this. It might have been a little more difficult if it was a Pitt Bull trying to take a bite out of my leg. Just wondering what other's experiences were.

Squirting with the water bottle is usually effective.

Strangely enough, just yesterday I was out on a solo ride, saw a dog, and the dog proceeded to run away from me! :confused:

I'm a dog owner too but if I feel threatened, I'm gonna take action. I don't know what I'd do but if I got charged I'd probably unclip and kick the thing as hard as I could. I don't think taking either hand off the bars and reaching for a water bottle is safe. I don't think a squirt from a bottle would be enough for one that wants to bite, maybe ok for one who is just play chasing. I have friends who were on foot and stood their ground and the dogs wussed out and ran when my friends raised their arms and yelled at the dogs.

Just stop. Get off the bike. Leave the bike between you and the dog, unless you're being chased by a pack. Keep your shoulders and back straight, but tuck your head a bit down. That says to the dog you're letting him be the boss of the teritory, you're leaving, but you're not scared and will defend yourself.

If attacked by a pack, try looking the meanest, most eager dog to bite you in the eyes. Stay calm. 99% he'll back off. Have water bottle ready and spray him if he doesn't stand off in a second.

Most animals will not attack anyone without a good reason. If you make it clear to them you're leaving, not challenging them for teritorry, they will leave. 99% of the dogs are just annoyed by spinning of the pedals and feel happy to chase you. When you stop and dismount, they loose interest quickly.

Whatever you do, don't kick dogs while on the bike.

+1
If you kick it & miss, you might end up falling & the dog will be on top of you.
It's way easier to defend yourself on your feet, the on your back.
I have dogs, & I'm always the 1st to step in when dogs get out of hand @ the park.
I just walk right in to the mix, so far I've never been hurt. If you seem like you have authority over them they will usually back down.
Even aggressive dogs will back up before they lunge @ you. Stand your ground! Keep your hands up.
If the dog attempts to jump on you knee it directly in the chest. This is usually enough shock for them to know not to mess.
If you run it brings back their natural instinct of "the hunt".

Dogs are dogs. I ride by dogs that are aggresive but fenced in or chained by their owners. I've outrun a few "free-range" dogs, but mostly just stopped and stood my ground, tried first to talk nice, then if not effective, yelled at them. Most dogs come out barking, but occasionally they go into stealth attack mode, requiring you to be hyper-vigilant.

Standing down works, but with 3-dog packs they can use one dog in front, two others circling behind.

The main problem is, a lot of dogs don't recognize a public road as being outside their guard territory.

Options for riders include hiring a lawyer to threaten a lawsuit, and contactiong LEO, and warning them to make the property owners contain their dogs. After this,if no correction, carrying bear spray, or letting LEO be apprisedl you are going to carry an unconcealed firearm, and if LEO says "That's illegal," just tell them. if you can't get dog containmentand by are bitten, you are going to sue the City/County and report to the media how local gov't is letting dogs have open season on cyclists, and they are recklessly negligent to public safety. And they are going to answer for waste of public dollars when it would have been taxpayer-dollar-free to make dog-owners pay for measures to contain their dangerous-to-the-public animals on public right-of-ways.

Public streets and roads are not part of property owners' dog-protectable private property.

Dogs are dogs. I ride by dogs that are aggresive but fenced in or chained by their owners. I've outrun a few "free-range" dogs, but mostly just stopped and stood my ground, tried first to talk nice, then if not effective, yelled at them. Most dogs come out barking, but occasionally they go into stealth attack mode, requiring you to be hyper-vigilant.

Standing down works, but with 3-dog packs they can use one dog in front, two others circling behind.

The main problem is, a lot of dogs don't recognize a public road as being outside their guard territory.

Options for riders include hiring a lawyer to threaten a lawsuit, and contactiong LEO, and warning them to make the property owners contain their dogs. After this,if no correction, carrying bear spray, or letting LEO be apprised you are going to carry an unconcealed firearm, and if LEO says "That's illegal," you inform them if you can't get dog containment or self-defend and are bitten, you are going to sue the City/County and report to the media how local gov't is letting dogs have open season on cyclists, and local authorities are recklessly negligent to public safety. And they are going to answer for waste of public dollars when it would have been taxpayer-dollar-free to make dog-owners pay for measures to contain their dangerous-to-the-public animals on public right-of-ways.

Dogs can be territorial guards. Absolutely. They and their owners "legal defensible territory" doesn't include public right of ways. Absolutely.

I like dogs. I've owned good watchdogs. But they didn't attack innocent people on the street. I was bitten by a little terrior, but it didn't penetrate my skin, ankle-biting into my winter riding boot. My son, a jogger, was calf-bitten by a pit-bull. Loose attacking dogs need to be contained. Or even put down by the people they try to attack.

One thing that surprises me is the number of cyclists that kick at dogs. While that tactic can seem effective, it generally works only with dogs that are smaller, excited, or basically friendly (i.e. the big risk you face is crashing into them). The water bottle trick will also work on such dogs. Dogs that are actually attacking have incredible pain tolerance and are very single minded, so it's rarely effective on large aggressive dogs.

Sprinting, kicking, and other quick movements increase your risk of escalating the situation from an excited encounter to an attack. There are a million different things you can do, and what works varies with the rider, the dog, and the specific situation.

I use them as training partners like the movie "American Flyers". I have one dog on one of my favorite routes that has raced/chased me probably a hundred times. I am pretty sure that I am the highlight of his day.

Most dogs don't know how to use angles to their advantage so a little acceleration towards the end of their charge messes up their timing. You have to be able to get up to 25 mph or more though.

Unless its a grayhound, it can't run more than 30 mph in a sprint. Since this is the 41, and everybody's average speed is 45 mph, you can slow down and still outrun the dog. :rolleyes:

The best thing to do is to use your situational awareness - that thing you need to have anyway - and let it tell you the next move. If there are a lot of dogs on your routes and you aren't used to being around them, you should make friends with people who have dogs, and join them to walk the dogs, especially to dog parks. It's usually pretty easy to tell whether a dog is running at you because it's excited to see somebody or because it's vicious and wants to attack. Jerky, frightened, or aggressive movements will only escalate the situation; if a dog is just patrolling its turf, don't "tell" it to attack you.

To those of y'all who plan to rely on sprinting, keep in mind that both the dog's territory and the dog are typically in front of you...

Yeah, cuz if you knock them off the bike, the bike could get damaged.

German sense of humour? Hmm?

German?

I talk to them all cutesy, telling them they're a good dog, and if that doesn't work, I squirt 'em.

Little dog - I worry more about running it over and ruining th owners day. It's the owners fault if the dog is not on a leash. I generally slow down to avoid running the dog over and crashing. I'm not worried about getting bit by a tiny dog, though if I really feel its going for my ankle I'd probably stop and prepare a soccer kick. I've kicked small to medium sized dogs in the head- that's generally enough. I'm more worried about damage from the crash.

Big Dog charges, I break and get off my bike, and walk until its not interested. That's all I've ever had to do. You can see in their eyes sometimes if they are serious or just all bark. I'd probably stop and hold my ground if I though they were really serious. I've done this walking, but haven't had to on a bike. I think most dogs just don't know what the hell you are on a bike.

Dog bites me on public ground or really tries to, it's dead if I get ahold of it - Period. if one gets close it gets booted. If it comes back for a second pass then I might get out the survival knife.

I've chased little dogs back to their owners. I've had shouting matches with owners on bike trails who think a leash is optional. When I ride on trials I actually carry a large knife in my camelbak. I've never had to used it or unsheath it. I actually love dogs, but I hate crappy owners who A. Treat a dog with cruelty or train a dog to be mean and aggressive or B. allow such an animal to ever be off leash or out on control. If I kill your dog it's your fault not mine. End of story.

I got chased a few weeks ago, he wasn't to fast so I just stood up and picked up the speed a little bit. It was my first and only time being chased and it was hilarious to me! Two days ago I was approaching a short but steep hill after about a hour long ride of mostly hills, so I was pretty tired, and the dog ended up running opposite of my direction (downhill) and as I was ready to panic, it just turned and ran away eyeing my down the whole time. It looked happy though :) .

So many internet tough guys™ in this thread. Gawlee.

:popcorn









It's been too long since we've had a good holy war in here.

All you dog kickers, dog water sprayers, and dog talkers need to come ride with me. You can then convince the dogs that chase me and have biten me to cooperate and comply.

I'd be happy to if you were driving distance.....But going out searching for a dog to attack you is kind of stupid...... Just because I've defended myself a few times does mean I'm not scared of a big dog, or look for confrontation. If I knew the location of a mean dog I'd avoid the route if it wasn't way out of my way. Ive never been serously bitten. Don't be a wuss. Dogs like to bite wussies!

That must be the problem. I must be a wuss as I have been serious bitten twice. I still have the scars on my legs to prove it.

I live in South Alabama. Geting chased by dogs is a daily occurance. Most just chase, bark and head home. The ones that are more aggresive I use Sabre Red Self Defense Pepper Spray. Available on Amazon. It will drop a dog in it's tracks. Including the Pit Bull that bite me last winter. Went back to try it out. Worked. The Pit Bull that bit me cost the insurance company $6300.00 and me a lot of pain.

Being nice may work but why take a chance.

I love these Canine Psych threads. Whisperers post on here as if all dogs, globally, behave the same way, like there's some treaty signed with humans way back when that governs dog behavior.

As far as I know from TV, dogs think about bacon an awful lot.

I would always stop and slowly walk away. Too many riders have crashed from dogs running into their wheels. The dogs would just bark until I got out of their territory.

But last year, I saw a large and small dog running down their lawn toward me. I stopped, straddling the bike, yelling NO. But the two dogs immediately split up and lunged for a leg, and I got nipped on both calves. The dogs did back off then.

So, no dog methods always work. Things I've personally seen work: Squirting with a water bottle, Blowing a loud rescue whistle, Yelling, Sprinting. I haven't seen anybody grab and use their pepper spray, yet.

Actually, it's the exact opposite.

There are some tricks that generally work, but you always have to read the situation and figure out what will work for those particular circumstances. The only thing that works almost universally is that if you look for battle, you'll find it practically every time. May as well take the same attitude with hostile cars and blow those up when you can as it will be equally effective for purposes of keeping you out of trouble.

One thing I love about these threads is all these tough guys that wear road rash like a badge of honor regardless of how stupid the cause act like little girls if their skin gets broken (or even almost broken) due to anything involving a dog. It's the road equivalent of sharks. People worry about them all the time, but the danger and damage factors are amplified in peoples' minds compared to other threats they face.

Dogs are like any other hazard you face. If you live in an area where roads are steep and crappy, you need to learn to descend. If you ride in heavy traffic, you need to learn to deal with that. If you ride where there is ice/snow, you need to deal with that. If you ride where there are dogs, you need to figure out how to deal with them too. Getting excited and stiffening up increases the odds of a bad outcome in any emergency situation, and this is particularly true with dogs.

Dogs can be unpredictable, and I hate getting bitten. But you have a lot of influence over the outcome. Anyone who rides like they think they *should* be able to without doing what the situation calls for is going to get into trouble a lot more often with dogs (or cars, or anything else for that matter).

I may start carrying bacon treats for dogs. I'd rather have them divert the attention to the treat than to try to kick them. I'm a dog lover, so if a positive tactic works, I'd prefer it.

Reward aggressive behavior, that's going to work well.

Ones that are actually aggressive won't be deterred. It will reward chasing, but that's not the same as aggression.