Country Roads & DOGS

Kyler Laird

"Dave Mayer" <dave4242@hotmail.com> writes:

>A woman walking next to me today had a hard time
>controlling her big dog. The mutt obviously wanted to take
>a chunk out of me.

How did you determine that?

I'm trying to figure out if all of this fear of dogs stuff
has any real foundation.

--kyler

Frank Krygowski

Kyler Laird wrote:

> "Dave Mayer" <dave4242@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>
>>A woman walking next to me today had a hard time
>>controlling her big dog. The mutt obviously wanted to take
>>a chunk out of me.
>
>
> How did you determine that?
>
> I'm trying to figure out if all of this fear of dogs stuff
> has any real foundation.

Depends where you are.

I know several people who were seriously bitten while
riding. At least one had to go through the rabies shots. As
I said, my son got bitten pretty badly while riding in a
residential neighborhood. One friend was knocked off his
bike twice, by two different dogs that got under his front
wheel. My wife had a dog bite her bike's panniers as she
rode. And I once stopped a charging St. Bernard with a side
kick to the nose.

Almost all those were in rural or semi-rural Georgia. I
quickly learned that dog defense had to be a high
priority there.

Most of the US is much better, in my experience. These days
my only preparation is to keep Halt at hand, and I rarely
have to use it.

--
--------------------+ Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove
rodent and vegetable dot com, replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Curtis L . Russ

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 12:40:19 GMT, "H. M. Leary"
<mikie357@forgedabit.net> wrote:

>Rhodesian Ridgebacks were bread to hunt lions.
>
Sorry, but the understandable under-the-spellchecker error
is kind of funny, but even if they are bread to hunt lions,
who the hell keeps hunt lions on their property any more,
now that the Raj's are so diminished? 8^)

>They may appear friendly, but I would not trust more than
>one at a time.

Actually, a lot of hunt breeds are considered pretty
sociable with humans. The Ridgebacks are sort of in the
middle of the pack, and not considered a real threat
(although they are pretty much all muscle). Pack hunters
tend to be more sociable than those trained to go out and
bring back the body on their own.

Curtis L. Russell Odenton, MD (USA) Just someone on
two wheels...

Booker C . Bens

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In article <e1dc304.0406301803.5b787ef8@posting.google.com>,
John <jkm4_72@tds.net> wrote:
>"TAT 57" <tatullis@ccrtc.com> wrote in message
>news:<10e5p4m7v2gq263@corp.supernews.com>...
>> After a 5 year absence from road cycling I am back on the
>> bike. I ride some great rural roads mainly in farm
>> country. It seems every house I pass has a large dog and
>> they all love to chase the bike. What's the best way to
>> deal with the dog???
>
>1. Strong verbal response. Loud "NO" or "GO HOME". I've
> never found this to work, but all the books say to
> do it.

_ It works 95% of the time for me, has to be as loud as you
can get. The dog doesn't go away but stops long enough to
give me a chance to sprint away. I think it really depends
on your voice. I have army drill sergents in my ancestry....

_ Booker C. Bense

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Booker C . Bens

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In article <jbfdr1-a9d.ln1@lairds.us>, Kyler Laird
<Kyler@news.Lairds.org> wrote:
>"Dave Mayer" <dave4242@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>>A woman walking next to me today had a hard time
>>controlling her big dog. The mutt obviously wanted to take
>>a chunk out of me.
>
>How did you determine that?
>
>I'm trying to figure out if all of this fear of dogs stuff
>has any real foundation.

- - I'd say it's just like anything else, it's the 1 percent
that's really dangerous. Most dogs that chase bikes are
only interested in running after stuff and can be easily
dealt with if you remain calm and remember that you
outweigh them and you have a pretty effective weapon in
your hands. On the other hand, I've had to face down a
poorly trained pit bull and would have been killed or
severely injured if the owner had not shown up. If there
had been two of them, I'd don't know how I would have
survived. In 30 years of running and biking, that was the
only time I felt truly threatened by a dog.

_ Booker C. Bense

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Claire Petersky

Brett Jaffee <NOSPAMjaffee@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<Xns95198FBA888BNOSPAMjaffeeearthlin@207.217.125.201>...
> Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@mousepotato.com> wrote in
> news:40e38bc0@news.ysu.edu:
>
> > 3. If chased, you can try an explosive, authoritative
> > and aggressive "NO!" Some dogs will repond to this.
>
> That works. A few months ago was riding on the singletrack
> near my house when out of nowhere comes "bark, bark,
> bark." I turn to see a small dog chasing my back wheel. I
> sped up for a bit to try and outrun it. Well, either I'm
> slow or the little dog was fast, because that didn't work.
> So, I quickly turned my head to face him and shouted "GO
> AWAY" in as mean a voice as possible. The barking suddenly
> stopped and the dog froze in it's tracks. When I turned
> and looked back a again a few seconds later, he had
> disappeared.

I learned from this newsgroup another useful dog command. I
was on a country road and had been chased by several dogs on
the ride. Finally I had one who had sprinting off of its
porch and was coming out at me from an angle -- here was
clearly a dog who *lived* to chase bicycles.

It got close enough to sink its teeth into my juicy thigh,
when I did the "explosive, authoritative, and aggressive"
command of GET OFF THE COUCH!

The dog paused briefly. Couch? Couch? What couch? I wasn't
on the couch! This hesitation was enough for me to gain the
speed advantage. I poured it on and successfully sprinted
away from the animal.

This wouldn't work on a dog trained to attack, but with your
average mutt, it seems to be successful. Use "sofa" or
"davenport" or your regional equivalent, as needed.

Warm Regards,

Claire "feet on the couch" Petersky

Tom Keats

In article <1a88718b.0407010942.4d3101e9@posting.google.com>,
cpetersky@yahoo.com (Claire Petersky) writes:

> Use "sofa" or "davenport" or your regional equivalent,
> as needed.

In my case, that would be "chesterfield".

cheers, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Brett Jaffee

cpetersky@yahoo.com (Claire Petersky) wrote in
news:1a88718b.0407010942.4d3101e9@posting.google.com:

> This wouldn't work on a dog trained to attack, but with
> your average mutt, it seems to be successful.

Maybe, maybe not. How do you say "couch" in German?

The Real Bev

Claire Petersky wrote:
>
> Brett Jaffee <NOSPAMjaffee@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@mousepotato.com> wrote:
> >
> > > 3. If chased, you can try an explosive, authoritative
> > > and aggressive "NO!" Some dogs will repond to
> > > this.
> >
> > That works. A few months ago was riding on the
> > singletrack near my house when out of nowhere comes
> > "bark, bark, bark." I turn to see a small dog chasing my
> > back wheel. I sped up for a bit to try and outrun it.
> > Well, either I'm slow or the little dog was fast,
> > because that didn't work. So, I quickly turned my head
> > to face him and shouted "GO AWAY" in as mean a voice as
> > possible. The barking suddenly stopped and the dog froze
> > in it's tracks. When I turned and looked back a again a
> > few seconds later, he had disappeared.
>
> I learned from this newsgroup another useful dog command.
> I was on a country road and had been chased by several
> dogs on the ride. Finally I had one who had sprinting off
> of its porch and was coming out at me from an angle --
> here was clearly a dog who *lived* to chase bicycles.
>
> It got close enough to sink its teeth into my juicy thigh,
> when I did the "explosive, authoritative, and aggressive"
> command of GET OFF THE COUCH!
>
> The dog paused briefly. Couch? Couch? What couch? I wasn't
> on the couch! This hesitation was enough for me to gain
> the speed advantage. I poured it on and successfully
> sprinted away from the animal.

I like that. Very efficient. You have to get off your bike
to do a proper angry bear imitation, which is a big
disadvantage.

> This wouldn't work on a dog trained to attack, but with
> your average mutt, it seems to be successful. Use "sofa"
> or "davenport" or your regional equivalent, as needed.

Trained attack dogs probably won't be running loose, and if
they are they probably aren't interested in you unless you
enter their territory. I hope.

--
Cheers, Bev
====================================================================== ===

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a
small country.

Zippy The Pinhe

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:53:57 GMT, Brett Jaffee
<NOSPAMjaffee@earthlink.net> wrote:

>Maybe, maybe not. How do you say "couch" in German?

Sitzenschlobben.

Lioninoil_a T_n

> It seems every house I pass has a large dog and they all
> love to chase the bike. What's the best way to deal with
> the dog???

The best way [that seems to work most of the time] is to
just ignore the dog, although that's not completely
foolproof: I nearly fell off my bike laughing at a pack of
Chinese Pugs in assorted sizes that gave chase in rural
northern Washington State.

For those times when ignoring the dog(s) seems unwise,
I use this:

http://members.aol.com/kingelpaso/liquidb.htm

--
Robots don't kill people -- people kill people.
http://www.irobotmovie.com/

Patrick Lamb

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 18:58:05 -0500, Zippy the Pinhead
<the_corporate_hose@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:53:57 GMT, Brett Jaffee
><NOSPAMjaffee@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>Maybe, maybe not. How do you say "couch" in German?
>
>Sitzenschlobben.

Wouldn't the dog have bitten you by the time you were
through yelling?

Email address works as is.

Benjamin Weiner

Kyler Laird <Kyler@news.Lairds.org> wrote:
> "Dave Mayer" <dave4242@hotmail.com> writes:

> >A woman walking next to me today had a hard time
> >controlling her big dog. The mutt obviously wanted to
> >take a chunk out of me.

> How did you determine that?

> I'm trying to figure out if all of this fear of dogs stuff
> has any real foundation.

Even if the dog only wants to bark uncontrollably and menace
you, but not actually bite you, it's still annoying and an
imposition on your right to use the sidewalk (or street if
riding) in peace. And you don't have any real way of knowing
if the dog will follow through.

Uncontrolled dogs were my #1 nemesis as a paperboy. Years
later, I got bit by a dog while walking, passing a woman
walking her dog. There was no warning or provocation. I
wasn't really hurt, because the dog bit me through a pair of
very heavy wool pants, but it was not amusing and could have
been pretty bad.

Too many people make excuses for their animals' behavior on
the grounds that they are animals and therefore it's
"natural."

Anonymous

Judging from the lenght of this thread, there must not
be a single biker out there that hasn't been chased by a
dog or two.

I once had a weanie dog that would come out of his garage
(door always left about 6 inches from closed) to chase me as
I rode by. One day he he was so determined to harrass me he
failed to see the car passing between us and he turned into
a weiner burger. Problem Solved!!!

They should all be that easy.