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Nope. Dogs ain't dangerous. Nothing to see here.
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Yep. Did you read my attack story? A gun would not have prevented the inital attack, but without one I could have been killed had the attack continued.

chuckybrown wrote:My ancestors did not climb to the top of the food chain so that I might *consider* animal rights over my own. Nope. Dead dog, every time.

My .02 cents.

That might be the one-liner of the year!

JJVP wrote:

chasfm11 wrote:

philip964 wrote:I would carry pepper spray, no offense, but shoot my dog and I might decide my life for yours would be a fair trade.

I hope you don't take offense about what I have said, but I care a great deal about my dog.

..and I suspect that you would not be one of those who allowed your dog to bite someone who was just passing by. I love my dogs, too, but it is my responsibility to control them. There is absolutely no excuse for someone who has a dog out in public that will be bite and not having the owner control it.

This isn't about dogs...it is about owners.

I agree that the owner should control the dogs. However, brown stuff happens. You might have the dog in your fenced backyard with the gate locked. Someone, a visitor, the gas guy, water guy, etc could come into your yard while you are away and leave the gate open or unlocked. I had a golden retriever that could open the gate on the backyard fence. I had to put a slide lock on the outside of the fence to keep him from opening the gate. If someone came into the backyard and failed to close the outside lock, he could be a mile away before we even noticed. In the case of my dog the worse you could get was slobber all over you. He was very friendly. Many times we got a call from a neighbor that had found him running around. Bottom line, the owner could have done everything right and the dog still got loose.

It sucks, but its the price of ownership. I've been riding a while and I am pretty much able to tell when a dog is just playing or racing, or has ill intent. I'm not usually dawdling along, either, so it usually takes serious intent to give that kind of chase.

Pedaling away sounds easy. When I was chased the other day I was already at between 18-20mph and was able to sprint up. Being on my road bike helped, those speeds aren't as easy to achieve on a hybrid, cruiser, or mountain bike.
When I was bit, I had just come out of a public bathroom. I needed to turn left onto the public street. I was nearing the end of a very hilly 60 miler (living in Utah at the time), so I was tired. I also had to wait for traffic to clear so I could cross and turn left.
Across from the park where I was, there was a stand of trees. Behind the trees were the backyards of several homes. Maybe 60 yards. Those homes mostly had fenced back yards. One of those had the gate open, and several kids were in the woods playing. That is where the dogs that attacked me lived, and they had followed the kids into the woods.
The park and the woods were situated in a deep draw.
After turning left, I was faced with a short and steep hill. Normally, with the momentum of coming down the other side I could clear the climb out of the saddle at sprint speeds.
Basically, I was a sitting duck. The dogs came out of the woods and confronted me. My speed was probably 5mph. At 5mph I couldn't have outrun an attacking tortise, much less a black lab and a ridgeback mix.
I attempted to dismount and put the bike in front of me as a shield. When I did this, the ridgeback lunged and took a chunk of my gluteus maximus. The dog was approximately 110 pounds. A hundred and ten pound dog could easily kill an adult male. And there were two dogs.
Luckily, the dogs backed off after I began yelling. The kids associated with them called them into the woods. I was able to make contact with the local PD, and the dogs owner. The dog was later put down, as this was the SECOND un provoked incident in which it bit someone.

Dogs will be dogs, and are often only as bad as their owners. But that doesn't exuse the fact that a dog on public property, loose, and trying to separate me from chunks of my flesh, may suffer a case of lead poisioning.

I'll have to look into that brand spray. Most pepper sprays do the fogger thing and that sucks on a bike. A good reliable stream product might be the extra ticket and keep me from having to shoot a dog.

chasfm11 wrote:

philip964 wrote:. The easiest way for an owner not to have his dog in that kind of situation is simply to maintain control of it.

There is also usually a legal obligation for someone to do so as well.

philip964 wrote:I'm just saying shoot my dog and you better be ready to shoot me.

Those of you thinking that shooting a man's dog is a wise move, better think again. You would be better off shooting the owner first then the dog.

I AM NOT ADVOCATING SHOOTING THE DOG FOR NO REASON.
Didn't I already say that?
If your dog is on a public road chewing on me, he stands a high chance of getting shot. Get after me while I'm bleeding in the middle of the road, and you will recieve the same treatment as the dog.
I'm not sure how you have such a big problem with that?
KEEP YOUR DOG ON YOUR PROPERTY.
I'm not sure how you're trying to value the dog's life over my life? Dogs do what dogs do. Crappy owners let them out to prowl the neighborhood. If your dog is off your property and attacks me, it is a threat and I will do what I need to eliminate that threat.
HOW IS THAT SO TOOTIN HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

How on this earth do you think that letting your dog chew on me is somehow an acceptable outcome? Your logic escapes me.
Unless you're one of those people who lets their mutt run around the neighborhood and menace people?

I'm sorry, but nowhere in my post did I advocate shooting a dog for running loose. I'm really, really not sure how you read that into my post, and I'm really, really trying not to be incensed.

What I did advocate is being prepared in case of a dog attack.

Oh, and as for the pepper spray....

Ever try to deploy it from a bicycle moving at 20mph? I was in a group bike ride once, when a dog came hauling out at us. Some bright girl at the front of the pack whipped out her spray and tried to hose the dog down. It was more effective against the riders in her draft than the dog, who was more interested in racing than biting anyways.

philip964 wrote:I would carry pepper spray, no offense, but shoot my dog and I might decide my life for yours would be a fair trade.

I hope you don't take offense about what I have said, but I care a great deal about my dog.

What, would you advocate I just lie there while your dog tears me apart?

If your dog attacks or attempts to attack me, I will do just that. Unknot your fruit of the looms and keep your dog on your property or on a leash. Menacing and attacking dogs will be dealt with accordingly. Menacing or attacking owners, well then, I do carry a spare magazine for a reason.

I have been attacked by a dog and it is not a pleasant experience.


I would not have outdrawn the dog that attacked me. But if I had been armed and the attack continued, I'd have been able to defend myself.

My experience is the little dogs go after the bike. They are a hazard because they can cause the rider to crash.
Larger dogs, however, go for the rider. I've had plenty snapping at my heels.

No, not a real rule. One of my rules.

Always have a gun (when legal)

Backstory:
I like to bicycle for fitness and fun. Yes, spandex and everything. In 2005 I was bit by a dog while road biking in the suburbs in Utah. Loose family pet took a chunk out of my sitting muscle. Ouch.
Since then, I carry a Kel-Tec P3AT in a fanny pack on most rides. I say most, because once I know a route I usually don't carry unless there are dogs.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Well, lately I've been getting in shape. Yes, round counts as a shape. The little missus insinuated sunday night that I was achieving that status. So, feeling quite like I might need to get into a less round shape I grabbed the bike for the first time in 4 weeks and headed out yesterday.
Took a quick route through some semi-rural areas near Fresno. Pretty much a figure 8 from my house.
Sure enough, I hear a woof over the sound of my panting. Look over my shoulder and see a dog on an interept course. Full missle lock. But, with fence in the way, I figure on completing the mission intact. No gate. NO GATE? Crap.
Too close for missles, going to guns.
I drag my extra girth out of the saddle and sprint. 20. 22. 24. 25. 26. 27 and holding. My body begins to rebel and I can feel the last hundred Shiner's trying to find their way out of my fat cells. Not good.
So the dog is one of those black and white Sheep dogs. You know, the ones that are real smart. Like smarter than most of the members of Congress. He does a quick caluclation in his head that his intercept speed and my current velocity aren't going to allow him to remove a portion of the gristle in my kiester, and subsequently he backs down.
I put my body back into coast, hoping my heart rate comes back from "jackhammer" and I don't puke up lunch. Sure enough, more dogs. These ones are the little white fluffy ones, the ones if you kick 'em hard enough some Latino will yell "gggoooooaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!". These ones, though, are in the street. In front of me. Okay, fine, probably no need to bust a cap in the little buggers. A few harsh words get them scurrying back to the trailer they crawled out from under.

Moral of the story?
Had any of them been a large dog, like say the 110 pound ridgeback mix that thought my hind quarters were a chew toy, well, that may have been an issue.

Always
carry
a
gun.