unkokuri

I'm getting ready for a big trip in South America and did a small tour from Olympia, WA to Portland, OR this week to break in my new bike. Everything worked great and I loved the bike - only a few minor things I want to change. I was shocked by the amount of loose dogs though. In two days I was chased by four different dogs and attacked by one.

The lone dogs were fine. I yelled at them and if they got too close I stopped, got off the bike and yelled some more and they'd stop. On the other hand, I was going by this house and out of nowhere a dog ran out from under a tree and went for the bite. I moved my leg and the dog nailed my rear pannier and threw me off balance a bit. It didn't hang on to my pannier, it just nailed it - it was a midsized very muscular dog... not sure on the breed but similar to a pit bull or boxer. No biggie, I regained my balance, put my foot back on the pedal and kept going. I looked back and there's another dog - must have been this dog's buddy or something - and it was coming around on my left. I didn't want to stop now because I'd have a dog on my right, the one that just tried to bite me, and one on my left, the dog's buddy. I just kept biking and for whatever reason they dogs didn't pursue me any further and I went about on my way.

After reading the posts on this forum about dogs and touring most people talk about single dogs, pepper spray, kicking them in the nose, throwing water, speaking to them in nice tones and whatnot. I've toured a little before in Tibet, Nepal and India and ran into dogs but I have always ran into one dog at a time. This was the first time I've ever had this happen where I had one dog attack me out of nowhere and the other dog try to circle around to get behind me. I'm not sure if it's common or what. Has this ever happened to you? What do you do when encountered with multiple dogs? How about when they sneak out of nowhere - no bark, nothing - and attack?

Machka 

Here's what I do:

1. Talk to them in a calm human voice to help them recognize that I'm human and not a deer or something.

2. Play virtual fetch. I act like I've got a ball in my hand, "show" it to the dog, and then "throw" ... often the dog(s) will go running off in the direction they think the "ball" went.

3. Stop and get off the bicycle, standing with the bicycle between me and the dog. If there's more than one, this is a bit more risky, but it works very well with one dog.

4. Yell at the top of my lungs so the owner might be able to hear me.

And yes, what you describe with two dog is common. It's a method dogs (and wolves and coyotes) use to take down deer, etc. One dog attacks openly with the goal of steering the deer over into a place where the deer will be cornered. The other dog sneaks up behind to be in the right place to take down the deer. The obviously barking dog is usually not the one you have to worry about ... it's the silent dog. And yes, I have been in that situation.

In my case the silent dog was in the ditch and the noisy dog was herding me over toward the ditch with the goal that I would fall into the ditch. I realized what was going on and started screaming toward the farm house up the road (to no avail), and swerving my bicycle back and forth to get me away from the edge of the road. Through swerving I got in front of the herding dog .... and sprinted for a cross road which had a bit more traffic.

BTW - it does help to know your breeds. Around here we've got a lot of border collies. Border collies are very intelligent dogs and aren't out to hurt you ... they just want to herd you. That's what they are bred for ... herding. They see a lone cyclist and think that you've got to be herded. Talking to border collies and getting off the bicycle to talk to them works well for them because they are smart enough to realize that you're human when you separate yourself from that contraption you're on.

Other breeds may indeed be out to hurt you.

andym123

The virtual ball sounds like a smart idea - though don't they bring it back?

staehpj1

In Missouri and Kentucky we often were chased by one to several dogs at a time. The primary defense was to outrun them while using various tactics to keep them far enough away to not be bitten. It is amazing how fast they can go for a short ways, but while they seem to be able to hit 40 MPH or so, they don't last too long at anything over 20 before they lose interest.

I actually found it fun to outrun them. One in my party was especially afraid of dogs so I hung back baited the chasers and tried to keep them occupied until my companion got down the road a bit before I sprinted. It was great fun, I actually looked forward to the next dog encounter.

Outrunning them is tough to impossible on a steep uphill, but strangely we were seldom chased on an uphill of any consequence. The only exception was two little rag mops that ran home when my daughter kicked them.

Tactics to keep them back a bit:

1. Yelling "BAD DOG" ("GO HOME" didn't seem to be nearly as effective).
2. Spraying with a water bottle.
3. Spraying with HALT!
4. Pretending to spray with an empty bottle or even an imaginary one. On the TA the aggressive dogs seemed to know what HALT! was and just reaching for or brandishing the can got them to back off a bit.
5. Blowing a loud whistle worked well once. A rotweiller skidded to an abrupt stop and looked puzzled when his three buddies caught up and passed him. By then we had a big lead on them and traffic coming the other way shielded us. I stopped using this tactic when a boxer pit bull mix acted like the whistle was the dinner bell and I was dinner. That was the one time in 30 or so different chases that I was actually a bit concerned that I might be bitten.

Be careful of having a dog cause you to crash. That may be a bigger danger than being bitten. Good bike handling skills and some care help a lot. Experience with MTB racing is a big plus here.

Hofweber

frame pump.

Machka 

Sometimes they do come back, but by then I'm well up the road so I've got a head start, and a lot of dogs will only chase you to the edge of their property. Sometimes they get distracted, while trying to find the "ball", by something else out in the field that is more interesting than you.

And at least with the virtual ball idea, you don't hurt the dog.

Speedo

Most effective when used on the dog's owner.

Speedo

Booger1

If it's a dog that I think can do me bodily injury,I stop,remove Buck Knife,kill dog if I have too,throw on porch of house it came from,call the cops.If it's a little dog,I'll out ride it.

I don't let dogs or owners intimidate me.If they were worried about their dog,it wouldn't be chasing me.

Machka 

I hope you're just making a [very bad] joke here.

Booger1

You think i should let it attack me? It's no joke.If it bites me and I can find the owner,they will be paying some hospital bills also.

robow

In many cases there will be an Alpha male, stop him and often the pack will be restrained. I may have mentioned this but to those who poo poo dogs as not really dangerous, on October 1, 2005 my partner and I were chased by 2 Saint Bernards. I've never seen such large animals move so fast but luckily for me I was riding in the lead and had just enough angle and sprint to get away, my partner was not so lucky. He got hit hard and was bitten. He broke two ribs, lung was punctured, and sustained two cracked vertebrate. End of tour and several weeks out of work. I don't play around anymore because even the small ones can get caught up in your wheel and cause a fall. I yell loudly and if they don't respond then out comes the good stuff.

Booger1

I don't mean to sound like an a**hole,but I'm not going to stand there and let the dog attack me.If the dog comes running out with it tongue hanging out,ears standing up and tail waging,chances are good I'll end up just petting it.

If the dog is running at me snarling/barking,ears pinned back to it's head,and it's tail standing straight out,chances are good it's going to have a bad day.

b_young

I am really not trying to flame up this, but Wasp Spray is about the best I have used. A big can is around a dollar. It fits in the water bottle cage and with duct tape it doesn't rattle. A 1 second shot will stop a dog in its tracks no yelping, just puts its nose to the ground and runs around a bit. A 1 second shot will not cause any permenant damage. Based off a dog in the neighborhood that chases a lot. I hit it 5 to 6 times 3 years ago. Now it just comes to the edge of the road. I am good with that. It has a 30 ft stream that is highly accurate. I have 2 dogs of my own, I love animals but this works.

Machka 

You'd better do some research and get to know your dogs ... and know what is and what is not an attack!

A border collie, for example, will come out at you like that (one did that to my father and me today) ... but it does not intend to bite you, it wants to herd you back into the herd. That's how they approach sheep, to more or less, scare them back into the herd. When they realize you're human and not a sheep, they'll leave you alone.

Young dogs will sometimes come out like that ... they're the ones that will be doing a lot of noisy barking ... but they just want to play, and they'll often lose interest if you don't stop and play with them. They are the ones the virtual ball trick works the best with because they think we're playing a game.

I've had other dogs come out like that, and all they want to do is to run along beside me in the ditch ... they'll run flat out with ear back and tail straight out, but they'll rarely actually come very close to me.

Sometimes it's something about the noise the bicycle makes that sets dogs off, so if you stop the bicycle, the noise goes away (and you reveal yourself as human) and the dog just wanders off.

staehpj1

Dogs that really intend to bite are in the small minority. It can be hard to tell which ones they are even for a dog person. The ones that usually worry me are the ones who come out silently and with their heads down. They usually seem to intend to bite.

In 50 years of riding and having been chased by scores and maybe even hundreds of dogs, I have only met one dog that I thought needed killing (the owner did too). Still I didn't take it on myself to kill either.

BTW: In places like Kentucky and Missouri, don't expect help from local law enforcement.

Machka 

+1

Only mine is about 35 years of riding, and I can only think of two times where I was actually frightened (as opposed to startled) by the dog situation ... and both involved two dogs in pack hunting formations.

It's the quiet dogs that worry me too. I worked for Canada Post for a couple years, and we did a day of "dog training" (training us about dogs). We were told that the ones that come out barking up a storm are usually all bark ... it's the quiet ones that seem more likely to suddenly turn on you.


My father and I were approached by three dogs on our ride today ... loose dogs are common in this part of the world. All three dashed out onto the road, barking frantically, and the third added growling to the mix. The first two just wanted to play ... the third was a border collie (very common breed around here). It didn't take much to send them on their way. "GO HOME" seemed to do the trick.

bicycletouring

I don't understand why there is so much talk about dogs. I've crossed the country multiple times and while I have been harassed by dogs at times, I've nver thought of it as such a big deal. You just slow down a little bit, stop moving your feet in a circular motion (which I think attracts the dogs in the first place), and coast past until the dog looses interest. It's never failed for me. No big deal.

Cyclesafe

Occasionally, dogs really do try to hurt you. And if they don't get to bite you, they can make you forget about traffic enough for you to get whacked. I have absolutely no sympathy for dogs while touring and will do anything legal to protect myself from them.

Booger1

Threats from stray dogs are real,and I pray that no one here will have to find out the way I did.I have nothing else to say about the matter.

robow

Not on a tour but a young woman that I used to frequently ride with was bitten a couple of years ago at the base of her calf muscle by a not so large dog. It left two distinct punture wounds that took forever to fill in and heal. (A derm guy needs to tell me why that is, is it the shape of the wound or the bacterial toxins and crap in the dog's mouth?) But anyway, this woman was the second person this dog had bitten but in this county, it took three documented strikes before the enforcement agency could do anything about it. Now that's nuts!

djwid

Agreed. My terrier is silent when he is hunting squirrels until he loses out due to a tree, then he barks in frustration. I know he will kill the first squirrel he catches. OTOH people he just barks at if he doesn't like them. Same with skate boarders, etc.

Robert_in_ca

I've used the Delta Air Zounds horn to stop chasing dogs. Also works well to get the attention of drivers who are about to pull right in front of you. I would bet that it would also scare away a potential dangerous animal like a bear or mountain lion. I've used it to scare away deer and rabbit when mountain biking. All of my bikes have one mounted.
https://www.deltacycle.com/product.php?g=1

IntoThickAir

I've ridden a fair bit and yet have not been bitten, so I tend to downgrade the danger of dogs and enjoy Machka's many remedies. They work (I favor the squirt from the water bottle). On the other hand, if I'd been attacked (as Booger seems to have been, perhaps because of his delicious name (I'm betting booger is a male)) I would doubtlessly care little for the dog's health, and more for my own. So I sympathize with both points of view. I love them, and on very rare occasions I would like to kill them.

JohnyW

Hi,

my bike was once attacked by 4 Rottweilers. My recommendation by multiple dogs.

1. Stop
2. Place the bike behind you
3. Push your bike slowly while facing the dogs
4. If necessary throw stones/water in direction of the dog. (In general if they see that you have a stone in your hand they increase the distance by 1 meter - works only if they are used to stones)

After 100 m everything is fine.

Don't try to cycle away. A dog is about 50 km/h fast...(tested twice)

Thomas

tourdottk

Machka, sorry but you must not yet have ridden in Turkey or Greece or even the slums of Italy,
because then you wouldn't be so sympathetic towards these ghastly beasts.
Some of the shepherd dogs in these countries are as big as my bike and really mean to rip you to shreds

I have been bitten once and let me say I'll do anything to save myself from the same experience again.
In all my years of cycle touring, only 14, I have been chased, hassled and my flesh threatened hundreds of times.
I have learned to hate these animals with a vengeance.
Nonetheless, I need to remedy the situation each time and here are some of my tips.

1. Stop and get off and walk with your bike between you and the dog.
Beware this doesn't always work with a pack of them.
2. Buy a dog dazer: this has saved us many a time (including once in our tent) and my husband carries one in his handlebar bag.
They work from about 7 metres. Animals with poor hearing like older beasts and those who have received plenty of whacks around the head won't always react, but they are the minority. This would have to be is one of the best purchases we have made.
3. Bark back: loud and hard. Sounds stupid but has worked a few times
4. Bend down to pick up a stone and pretend to throw it. If this doesn't work: actually throw it!
5. If a car is coming, flag them to slow down and shepard you away from the dogs
(have had to use this one many times in Greece and Turkey.)