What do YOU do abt dogs?

Do you carry heavy duty pepper spray? If yes....what
brand?

What other strategies to deal with dogs on country
roads when touring alone?

wrote:
Do you carry heavy duty pepper spray? If yes....what
brand?

What other strategies to deal with dogs on country
roads when touring alone?

If I'm being chased, my standard response is to get off the bike fast
and stand with the bike between me and the dog. I try to look and sound
assertive/aggressive/dominant and shout "NO!", "GO AWAY", "BAD DOG" and
other phrases intended to intimidate the dog. So far it's been 100%
effective. Usually this confuses the dog, who thought he was chasing his
prey and found himself confronted by an irate human who sounds like his
owner sounds when the dog has just done something wrong.

I've learned to distinguish between a dog that's just defending its turf
(loud barking, head and tail up, more erect posture) and a dog that
really does intend to attack me (snarling, staying low to the ground,
sprinting straight at me really fast, ears back and tail close to the body).

A few years back when I was cycle touring in France I went for an after
dinner walk near the hostel I was staying in. A ways down the road, a
big dog (German Shepherd size) came charging out from behind a house
barking loudly and aggressively. The dog jumped at me, still barking
loudly, and I put my arm up in front of my face just as the dog reached
me. When his jaws hit my forearm I pushed my arm back hard enough to
send him over backwards. I moved fast enough that the dog never got a
chance to clamp down with his jaws, so I think the encounter scared him
about as much as it did me. No damage to me or my clothing, so I think
the dog was trying to scare me away and ended up "biting" me by accident
when I didn't turn and run as expected. The dog's owner came out and
apologized profusely and I had a tough time explaining in my lousy
French that I wasn't really hurt.

After some kids in a Lincoln Navigator through an egg at me one night, I
bought a can of Mace (full strength). Sometimes I carry it, sometimes I
don't, depending on whether or not I expect to get hassled. I've never
felt the need for pepper spray for dogs, though.

mark

Once, when I was riding a motorcycle, a barking dog came after me. I was
wearing boots, so I felt that a dog bite was not going to be a problem, and
I stopped. The dog got really confused. His "prey" was not running away,
so HE stopped. Then he approached slowly, alternately wagging his tail and
growling. Then I rode off, and left him standing there. I'm not suggesting
this for bicyclists--just an interesting observation on dog psychology.

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:08:24 GMT, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:

Once, when I was riding a motorcycle, a barking dog came after me. I was
wearing boots, so I felt that a dog bite was not going to be a problem, and
I stopped. The dog got really confused. His "prey" was not running away,
so HE stopped. Then he approached slowly, alternately wagging his tail and
growling. Then I rode off, and left him standing there. I'm not suggesting
this for bicyclists--just an interesting observation on dog psychology.

I've done stuff similar on a bike -- just stopped for a moment and
then the dog stopped running. And I've also yelled loudly and sharply
at dogs, which often gets them to hesitate for a moment.
--
JT
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"CHOPPER SIC BALLS !!!"
-tom

writes:

Do you carry heavy duty pepper spray? If yes....what
brand?

What other strategies to deal with dogs on country
roads when touring alone?

I just want to chime in and agree with the other respondants. If you
see something that looks like it's planning on chasing, first slow,
and than just stop if he doesn't hesitate, making eye contact. If
he's still coming, start yelling, both at him and his owner and the
neighbors. Raise bloody hell, in a nice way. Often very nice people
or children come out and are excessively friendly and apologetic.

Don't start carrying weapons, (except your bike itself, and a
waterbottle spray) otherwise the negligent dog owners who flaunt your
rights to the road have won a substantial victory by forcing you to
lug unnecesary things with you. This only gets tricky on roads that
eventually dead-end or the pavement runs out into dirt or trail that
get very little traffic. On those the dogs and even the owners
develop a squatters rights attitude, and it's hard to make a case that
I want to ride my bike another 1/2 mile past the vicious dog to the
end of the road on my "circuit", to explore, or just because it's a
fun dirt road not washboarded by excessive/high speed car traffic, or
excessively graded.

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:53:37 -0500, me wrote:

Do you carry heavy duty pepper spray? If yes....what
brand?

What other strategies to deal with dogs on country
roads when touring alone?

You don't have to outsprint the dog, just the other riders in the group.

:-)

Matt O.

On Apr 26, 11:50 am, mark wrote:
deleted
If I'm being chased, my standard response is to get off the bike fast
and stand with the bike between me and the dog. I try to look and sound
assertive/aggressive/dominant and shout "NO!", "GO AWAY", "BAD DOG" and
other phrases intended to intimidate the dog. So far it's been 100%
effective. Usually this confuses the dog, who thought he was chasing his
prey and found himself confronted by an irate human who sounds like his
owner sounds when the dog has just done something wrong.
deleted

mark

Someone I know like to use the phrase 'GET OFF THE COUCH', probably
the phrase they hear most of the time. And since they are not on the
couch, a bit confusing.

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:53:37 -0500, wrote:

What other strategies to deal with dogs on country
roads when touring alone?

I carry a small $3 compressed air horn, the kind that many
universities have banned from stadiums and arenas. You can find them
in the marine/sporting goods department of big box stores.

One blast usually stops charging dogs cold!

I carry one of these

http://www.dazer.com/dog-deterrent.jsp

It emits a very loud high pitch sound - too high for pople to here but
it is supposed to be very loud and uncomfortable for dogs.

I have used it only once when a dog came out of a house I was passing
barking and as far as I could tell behaving aggressively. When it got
within about 1m I pressed the button and the dog immediately stopped
pursuing me and turned away from my bike. The effect was
instantaneous - I was impressed.

Peter Damm