Big, Angry, Fast Dogs! What should you do?

alfablue

Yes, I was, badly.

Old beagle on canal path, owned by narrow boat owners. I went past slowly so as to not alarm it, it silently strolled over and grabbed my leg in its jaws as I went past. Tore bib longs and skin and badly bruised. Owners offered me an apology and savlon (refused). I said, please secure your dog, I am cycling back this way in an hour, and also many children use this path (part of NCN route 4). On return an hour later the dog was still wandering about the towpath, I stopped some distance away and waited till I saw owners and called out asking them to take the dog in, which they did. When I got to them I said that I was amazed that they still let the dog roam after what it did - after a brief "blame the cyclist" tirade, the owner offered to throw me into the canal.

I went off to hospital for injections and antibiotics, then to the police "sorry, we can't tell whether that bit of the canal is Avon & Somerset or Wiltshire police - good bye" :evil:

This dog undoubtedly bit before and will again, and it does so with powerful jaws. B*stard owners! I could accept it as a one off, but the owners clearly have no concern about keeping it safe.

fred1star

You need to speak to local council dog warden... Unfortunately there is a saying " a dogs allowed one bite" lets hope its a small one ah... The dog warden will be able to issue a warning and if it happens again, then take action.

Dr worm... its amazing you would have thought you could outrun a dog especially downhill, however as you found out, some dogs are bl@@dy fast. I sometimes go for a ride over dartmoor and take my dog with me, 40Kg collie/german shep cross thing.... he keeps up with me pretty much all they way round, even down the hills and as you said 25-30 mph.

.blitz

dave_hill wrote:

That's the thing with dogs, you need to be assertive with them. They're pack animals after all and you need to be their alpha male. Stand tall, advance on the dog and make more noise than it is.

Ain't that the truth. Shouting SIT or STAY or F*CKING MOVE in a really loud voice always works.

papasmurf.

the problem whizzing past on a bike presents is that this will in variably trigger the dogs chase instinct, so you may be better stopping and putting your bike bewteen you and the dog and fronting it

bagedntaged

^^ happens to be spot on. i've only encountered a couple of dogs, one of which was friday. big border collie. (was loos on the farm) got of the bike put it between me an him an shout sit, which he promptly did, then told him to f off to bed, an away he went tail between the legs. (happens to be similar results any time i've encountered a four legged portable slaughter house) when i came past two hours later, the barking started he came pounding up sat next to me an just wanted petted.

farmer comes out an says he'll lik you to death before he'll bite you.

wish i had know'n that the first time tho.

DrWorm

fred1star wrote:

Dr worm... its amazing you would have thought you could outrun a dog especially downhill, however as you found out, some dogs are bl@@dy fast. I sometimes go for a ride over dartmoor and take my dog with me, 40Kg collie/german shep cross thing.... he keeps up with me pretty much all they way round, even down the hills and as you said 25-30 mph.

Ah but I've never owned a dog and seeing other people's run after sticks you don't get a sense of how fast they do actually travel! I know now though!

It would be hard to report them as I don't know which house it came chasing out from. I'll just take the law into my own hands next time, Batman style!

projectsome

my dog used to chase bikes when he was younger but he would never actually bite them. I think it's just curiousity at something spinning around or something as he never bothered if the bike was stationary. It's the same with hoovers. he'd never actually bite it, just chase it.

DrWorm

I won't bother attaching a vacuum cleaner to my bike as a deterrent then!

fred1star

DrWorm wrote:

It would be hard to report them as I don't know which house it came chasing out from. I'll just take the law into my own hands next time, Batman style!

:idea: Just harpoon it Jaws style… follow the yellow barrels and see where the dog runs to… Hay presto..

Daddyking

i Take mine with me, she can't pedal that fast but looks damn scary in Lycra!

Sorry Luv.

whydoesitalwaysrainonme

I had the same thing but with a Jack Russell, like you i was fortunate enough to be going down a hill so could accelerate quickly.

mudcovered

I've been chased by dogs several times when riding along the towpath. In many cases with either no owner in sight or with the owner trying to get it to stop usually just by calling the dogs name.

In most cases I find a looking at directly at the dog and shouting stop usually has the desired effect. I've gotten good enough at this now that I don't even have to slow down much to do it.

Mike

llamafarmer

My cousin used to have a couple of big German Shepherds that roamed around the grounds of their house with those electric collar things that stopped them crossing the perimeter. They used to bark like mad and jump up at the car when you drove into the drive, but as soon as you (nervously) got out the car they were as soppy as you like.

I definitely think riding faster would make most dogs want to chase you more, whatever their motives, so I'd try to avoid fleeing if at all possible.

DrWorm

llamafarmer wrote:

I definitely think riding faster would make most dogs want to chase you more, whatever their motives, so I'd try to avoid fleeing if at all possible.

Fight or flight my good buddy and I love collecting Air Miles!