Payton1221

I have an 11 mile loop that starts and ends at my house. I live in the country and there aren't many roads, and hence, not many riding options, so this loop is a ride often (literally over 100 times this year alone). There's this one dog that likes to chase me. He had been satisfied with just barking besides me. Fine. But now he's been darting in front of me too.

I had some success early on by squirting water from my bottle in his face, but that ceased working. I'm not opposed to pepper spray, but I wanted that to be a last resort so I recently bought Safety Sport's Dog Horn XL (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It's a loud horn. A VERY LOUD horn.

Immediately upon hearing the horn (I waited until he was ~6' or so from me) he dropped his ears and changed direction to get as far from me as possible. I'm hoping that--other than showing him the horn a time or two--I won't have any more problems with him again. I'll probably get a chance to ride tomorrow, and if so, I'll provide an update here.

P.S. He has a kennel mate that I've seen just once but I might get a chance to try it on a second dog too

Digger Goreman

My airzound is refillable and 115db, and I don't have to take my hands off the handlebar....

Good to know an airhorn is useful for this... thanks!

BobbyG

+100

BobbyG

Airzound FTW!

indyfabz

Subscribed.

Payton1221

I rode by today and the dog was playing in the yard with another dog that I think is much more aggressive than the first one. I could have ridden by without incident, but I wanted to see how the original dog would react (I knew I could beat them to the beginning of a hill where I'm sure to lose them). So I wait until I'm ~40 yards past them and then ring my bell. With this, the original dog chases me with his mate about 10 yards behind him. I hit the horn and the first dog peels off. I would have preferred that the first exposure would have stopped him, but my next hope is that I can demonstrably show him the horn to keep him at by. Time will tell.

His mate continues to chase and is gaining ground and he looks pissed. I hit the horn and it DOESN'T MAKE A NOISE(!!!). And I notice my finger feels like its burning, so I think I must have tilted it and the liquid must have trickled out of the cap/horn area (its contents include one of those liquids with super low freezing point when pressurized that quickly becomes a gas when the pressure drops, as in, when you press the button causing the liquid to become a pressured gas that then makes the noise).

So what I've concluded so far is that it is a viable tool for many (perhaps most or maybe all) dogs but it's relatively expensive. I'm guessing that I probably have just one or two blasts left, and I've only blown the horn ~5 times (two at dogs and ~3 just to show me--and later my wife and son--how loud they are).

Troul 

so what was the outcome when the second dog was chasing you with the problematic horn?

pdlamb

I read the title and thought you had turned the tables, and the bicyclist was chasing the dogs.

Oh, well.

Unca_Sam

Why are you training these dogs to chase you??

livedarklions

Science!

Unca_Sam

Witterings

That song (if you could loosely call it that) would scare any dog away .... in fact anything with a pulse would try and get as far away as possible .... terrible noise!

rumrunn6

dogs are afraid of loud sounds, so this sounds like a legit (& harmless) tool. wonder if works on wolves

Ald1 

Have you called animal control in your area? Isn't it the owners responsibility to keep the dogs out of traffic? Might be doing someone else and the dogs a favor.

Payton1221

Not yet but I might have to one day. From the appearance of the house I know the owners are poor, but that's no excuse.

Here's an update, I rode both yesterday and today. They weren't in the front yard yesterday, but they were today. The horn has been VERY SUCCESSFUL with the brown dog. This is the one that LOVES to chase me and has probably chased me no fewer than 30 times this year. Today, he broke off the chase as soon as he saw me pointing the horn at him

The newer dog, I think he had been penned up until recently, has not gotten a real "earful" of the horn yet. He was about 10' behind me when I gave a quick blast. This broke his rhythm but he then he resumed the chase. I knew that I was going to lose him as I was almost to the part of the road that slopes downhill so I elected to save the air (actually a liquid) in the horn and didn't sound it again.

shrtdstncrdr

How stealthy it would be if they made one of those giazmos in the sound range only the dogs could hear. I bet there would be people who would wonder what sort of magic you used to stop their dogs from chasing you.

If such a horn worked, it would be a bicyclist's indispensable stealth tool.

Payton1221

I rode yesterday, and the dog stood up when he saw me and gave one pathetic bark. It was mournful as if to say "I'm sorry that I can't chase you any more."

The air horn is now a permanent part of my riding gear. Since the small horn is nearly empty (that cost ~$12 and was only good for a few blasts), I purchased a refillable one: https://www.amazon.com/SeaSense-Ecob...5088600&sr=8-1 This one is equally as loud but refillable with my bike pump (Shrader valve). It's larger but I added a drink holder to my handle bars and it fits perfectly in there and it instantly accessible. You could put it in a bottle cage too.

Payton1221

More confirmation that these air horns (and btw, my horn is EXACTLY like the airhorn except that the horn is mounted rigidly to the refillable bottle . . . not separate from it) WORK! I was riding on a street that I hadn't been on before and was chased by a dog. Coincidentally, it was near the halfway mark and after passing the dog, about two minutes later I turned around and went past the same dog. This time when he approaches me and is barking aggressively, I hit the horn for about two seconds and the dog's reaction was comical. It was as if he hit a force field and stopped himself immediately AND whimpered.

And the one dog that chased me on each and every ride has not attempted a chase in months.

The loud horn works!

Troul 

an intangible newspaper smacking lol

Barry2 

Had similar issues on the Sunday morning club runs.
My favorite old school solution was a full sized frame pump to the nose.
They catch on quick, don’t chase bikes.

My current mini Leyzne is not going to help in the least.

Barry

Payton1221

My friend's brother was a mailman. He used to hit unruly dogs with a rolled up newspaper ROLLED OVER A BLACK IRON PIPE!

Buzzkill53120