Lonestar1

Yes. I had 1/2 of a pair of socks ruined to a nip @ the ankle. Could have been worse I suppose. The bite didn't break the skin. Seriously pissed me off though. Guy & his son were walking 2 dogs with the around 9 yr. old boy "controlling" the larger of the 2 animals. It was obvious the dog was physically more than the boy could handle. I turned around & confronted the man. He told me he'd buy me another pair of socks. I told him to learn how to control his dam* dog. I shortly thereafter purchased some dog spray & I don't hesitate to use it. I'll add this though. If you ride repeatedly in one area, seems most of the dogs get accustomed to you & aren't quite so bad. You can tell which ones are "playing" & which ones want a piece of your skin.

Al1943

I got 5 stitches and two scars, dog never made a sound, snuck up behind be at an intersection. He'll never do it again though.

Al

Guest

I was chased quite a bit while touring in Greece. There were so many stray dogs in Greece it wasn't funny, and they were persistent, rabid little critters too. I never got bit, but I sure was scared sometimes.

Koffee

jhglaw

When I was about 10 a Weimaraner bit me on the ass and held on dragging me and my balloon tire Schwinn to the payment. The bike and I crashed on top of the dog who let go and ran away.

forum*rider

I have been bitten by a dog, but not while on the bike.

On the bike, most dogs seem to be attracted to you because you are a big, spinnging, fast-moving, brightly colored object. Once you stop, you cease to be so interesting and they go away. A few dogs have gotten a kick from me when they get to aggressive though(nipping is to aggressive for me, I don't enjoy crashing at 20+ mph.)

ManBearPig

All these war stories are great.

I've thought about the pepper spray idea - mounting it to my frame like CO2 perhaps. Zefal should make a carbon pepper spray mount.

mooncricket

i sprayed a pack of four dogs with pepper spray. it put them all down. i was touring and had full panniers and riding a rutted dirt road. no way i was going to out run the mutts.

i sprayed a german sheperd that broke away from a family of four sitting on their porch, and chased me, full set of gleaming white teeth. he crossed forty yards in a blink. i gave him one squirt right in the mouth. lovely instant action. and the whole family ran after me, screaming and yelling at me!

i've sprayed dogs on at least half a dozen occassions, not much considering how long i've been riding. all i can say is it works. just wished they make a cool little handlebar/frame mount for the canister

by the way, i love dogs

blsecres

I was riding in a rural section of southern North Carolina when a small Jack Russel looking dog started chasing me. He wouldn't give up after me yelling at him or his owner calling him back into the yard so I reached down for my water bottle to squirt him. As I was doing this, another Chow-like mutt silently ran out of the yard and clamped down on my calf. I fell over but luckily the dog decided to move on. I managed to ride a couple of painful miles to a gas station and call for a lift. The teeth punctures were fairly deep so I went into urgent care to get them cleaned properly. The doctor cleaned everything out but said there was a risk of rabies in the area and that the dog would need to be quarantined and monitored. I called the local animal control who went out to the house only to find the front door wide open but no one home. Animal control stopped by daily over the next week, never finding the owners. The owners were finally located and claimed they'd decided to go on vacation but no, they didn't have any dogs and didn't recall any incident with a cyclist. Animal control had information that the people were shuttling the dog between locations to avoid responsibility, but since they couldn't locate it before the rabies incubation period expired, I'd have to get shots. This was bad news for someone with a fear of needles although I took slight comfort in the fact that they were no longer administered via injections in the abdomen. I had a total of 12 shots into the glutes over a months time at a total cost of nearly $3000. They weren't that bad painful, but I didn't really feel like doing anything physical for a day after getting a set. After talking to several other riders in the area, I found that the dog is/was a regular nuisance. Many offered to take care of him if the owners won't, and I haven't seen him in a while.

CPcyclist

One of my regular loops takes me by a house were a dog comes in to the road to chase. It is at a flat spot just after a downhill. My problem is that my buddy ussaly makes it down faster (gravatationaly gifted) he makes it by with out a problem and the dog turns around for me.

On the lighter side a few weeks ago was out on a small group ride and we had 2 dogs (a std. poodle and a boarder collie) run along side us for 1/2 mile or so at 20+ mph. Never felt treatened by them. It was nice to have the ride boken up with some fun.

{edit] I have only been bitten as a paperboy in pant leggs or paperbag[edit]

jakemoffatt

When I was about 8 years old I got run down by a pack of wild dogs and bitten 3 times. Once on the ankle, once on the butt and once on my calf. Thankfully I had jeans on and although the skin broke, their teeth didn't make it through my jeans. Talk about traumatic... 8 years old, pedalling as fast as I can and get almost EATEN by dogs!

Olebiker

If a greyhound starts chasing you, just stop. He probably just wants to be petted. They are really sweet, loveable dogs.

As others have said, most dogs will chase you to the end of what they perceive to be their territory then go back, lie in the shade, and congratulate themselves on disposing of the intruder. On the rare occasion that I do get a dog that appears to bent on mayhem, I ride straight at him screaming and yelling the whole time. I have never had one fail to retreat. YMMV

In over thirty years of riding I have been bittn once... by a toy poodle. I split his scalp with a Zefal the next time he tried it.

TheKillerPenguin

...Dude...you killed a toy poodle? How could it possibly do more to you than break some skin? That's a bit extreme.

Please, tell me i'm overreacting and you didn't kill it.


Edit: forget it, i'm a moron

AllieP

GRRRRRRR damn dogs. It makes me sooooo angry that so many people around here just let their dogs have the run of the front yards around here...no fence, no leash. These dogs just lie there, waiting for the slightest sound, so they can then get their daily exercise by growling, slobbering, barking, running and trying to bite me as I ride by their house!

The worst? About 2 months ago a scruffy, long-legged dog about 80 pounds or so came tearing across its yard and crossed the road to chase me as I was pedalling for my life! I don't have a clue as to how fast I was going. One second I was in quiet bliss listening to my breathing and the next my heart was pounding so hard and fast that if the dog didn't kill me a heart attack would. The dog did catch up to me and I felt his hot, loud breath on my left ankle...how it didn't make contact with me I will never know. It must have been millimeters for me to have felt its breath. Just when I thought that's it - I'm not gonna get away it turned and went back to its yard. It took me a good mile to recover from that.

Logically, in most situations, I am not afraid of dogs. But I never quite know anymore if I can really pedal fast to get away. This one took me by such surprise that I've come to plan my routes more carefully just to avoid loose dogs. And that sucks! Why can't people just be a little more thoughtful and careful with their pets?

BTW, I own a dog, and she is NEVER allowed in the front yard without a leash.

Is it really legal to spray them with pepper stuff if they're just chasing you? I don't want a lawsuit or angry dog owners hunting me down too.

Allie

powers2b

Search the forum there are several threads on this subject.

Enjoy

sunninho

I seem to get chased only when running. This pint sized mutt stopped every time I turned around to face it, then would chase when I turned to run. I got tired of the game and finally chased IT away.

theden

Spraying them with pepper spray is the best idea. Even if they mean no harm, they can cause a future cyclist to become injured or even killed if they cause an accident. One dose of pepper spray and the mut will likely associate that pain with all cyclists. If we all carried spray, I bet the number of dogs running at us would drop considerably as they all learned! Now the treat idea works at the time, but that would actually train them to chase cyclists, looking for food! Rewarding the dog for running into the street and potentially injuring you or itself isn't a good idea.

Olebiker

Well, lemme tell you what happened. This was nearly 20 years ago in Knoxville. This poodle lived at the top of a hill in a double-wide within a mile or so of the end of my ride. He dashed out from behind a bush and caught me on my left ankle.

I made it a point to ride the same way the next day. As I approached the double wide I pulled my pump out and held it in my left hand. Little Cujette ambushed my from the same bush. No barking or snarling, just a mad dash across the road toward my ankle.

My timing was a little off. I swung too soon and a sharp edge of the nylon spacer on the pump caught him right in front of his left ear and sliced his scalp open. He yelped and ran under the steps.

I took a walk down that road the next day and talked to some of the kids in the neighborhood. Seems that the dog had to get a couple of stitches.

stub

On my 1st time out last year, a known nuisance dog (but unkown to me), doberman, came out from a blind driveway at the top of a small rise and ran in front of the rider in front of me, whom I was following about 10' behind. She swerved and braked and I locked up the front wheel and went down on my right hip. It never quit hurting. Turns out I had a cracked greater trochanter (femur). 5 weeks on crutches ain't much fun. I called the sherrif, she came out and scribbled down something on a little note pad and said they'd talk to the owner. As far as I know they never did, according to the owner, who I had a friendly talk with later. Seems it's not his dog - he's just keeping it for somebody else. Funny thing is there are several lawyers in our club who get harrassed by this dog. Seems like one of them might find the time to write the guy a letter. I guess the conclusion is 1) cops arent gonna do anything until the dog kills somebody, 2) dog doesn't have to bite you to kill you, 3) owners don't see the problem because they haven't been on a bike or walked anywhere for 20 years, 4) it's really hard to deploy and hit anything with a pistol while you're riding a bike - I know - I've been practicing...probably applies to pepper spray too. I don't know what the solution is but I'm pretty sure the wind won't blow a bullet back in your face...

gattm99

I live in Redneck World where everyone has a dog and belives they have the right to let it run free, so I have had some encounters.

At the young age of about 12 on my paper route I was attacked by Chiwawa, it was so funny, the old man who owned the dog had a stroke and could only walk the dog around in a slow shuffle. The tiny little dog would pull him around. The Dog would go nuts when he saw me and one day pulled the leash out of the old man's hand. IT came right at me and just dived at my leg, it got a mouthfull of jean, and just kept biting, I fell off the bike trying to dodge.

At 15 me and a friend were going down a hill and I was on the outside, a dog saw me and came from behind some bushes right into the path of my friend, he ate the first dog up with his chainrings, the next dog though caused him to go down hard. My friend jumped up off the road, he wasw cut up and rashed. The dogs both layed there and twitched.

For a whole new world of fun, try chasing the dog, they freak out and run.

Finally I reccomend kicking the hell out of any dog that gets to close to you, just make sure your away from anyone, it is ver satisfying to here them yelp and turn tail. Just make sure the dog isn't as big as you.

DieselDan

Two stories:

First one happned back in 1992. A minature daschaund came running out from behind some bushes barking. Little thing ran right in front of, causing me to endo and create the biggest yard sale I've ever seen! Every single thing I attached to my bike came off except the bottle cage. My body stopped in a sitting position, helmet busted and laying behind me, water bottle rolling down the hill, seat bag in the ditch, frame pump across the ditch in the soybean feild, and a serious case of road rash on my back. Then the little ***** comes running toward me and bites my shoe, clamping down and not turning loose! I stood up and kicked it over the ditch into the feild. Fortunatly, my Dad came by on his way home from work and took me to the ER.

Second on was only a few months ago. A loose pit bull on Hilton Head Island came running at me full speed. I shifted up and hammered, but this thing was keeping up at 25mph and gaining on my left leg. I yelled, "SIT!" as loud as I could. The dog stopped and sat down right there in the pathway as his owner came and got him, who promptly started beating the dog with a broom handle!

meme

I've never seen any dogs on the paths I go on. However, last weekend while heading home on a semi-isolated road (near the city dump), I saw a dirty, wet, black dog seem to come out of nowhere and started chasing (and surprised) me. I didn't see any tags on it, so I was afraid it might be a "wild" dog (think rabies). I was cruising at 18mph and it kept up with me me w/o any problems. I was too tired to sprint (after climbing San Bruno Mountain several times). So I shouted "No! No! Go home!" and the dog immediately stopped chasing me. A couple of cars passed by, so I had to turn my attention away from the dog, however, when the two cars passed and I looked back, the dog disappeared as soon as it appeared...

ridey b

Last winter I went riding with my wife through rural neighbourhoods in Manchester Jamaica. We were chased by dogs from close by homes on more than one occasion.
All I had to do was stop and face them down. In every case they retreated.
It's just a game they play.
Maybe North American dogs are more serious.

rubiksoval

I've been chased hundreds of times. I've been bitten three times.

I've gone to court twice to show video evidence of packs of dogs running amok to no avail.

Dogs running on the road suck. I have a taser I carry when I commute. Sound scares them from getting closer. I really want to get contact, though...

Jim from Boston

"Of all the dog threads on all the Forums, @ridey b walks into this one." (from 2005).

I have replied so often to ones that when I read the title, I thought to my self, "Not again."

shelbyfv

Astonishing! Approaching 15 years after first reported, dogs are still chasing and biting cyclists.