Originally Posted by jppe

I was bitten by a black lab (I always thought Labs were friendly!) a few years ago. I contacted animal control and they visited the owner who was an older man. All their shots were up to date so I didn’t have to do the rabies protocol. I haven’t seen them running free since then.

In rural NC gravel roads we have about 1 dog per mile! All that I’ve seen recently are just chasers and often my bike bell stops them.

The worst issue I ever had was on a longish climb where I wasn’t going very fast. Off to my left was a young kid playing with two dogs in front of their house. When the dogs saw me they bolted after me. One of the dogs was a yappy small dog that was trying to run circles around me. The second dog was much bigger and beefier. He was darting back and forth in front of my front wheel and snarling. Then he starting biting at my tire and wheel and even grabbed it with his teeth now and then. I didn’t want to get off the bike fearing that they might come after me. But I was worried the bigger dog could actually take me down and I’d be even more vulnerable. Luckily I kept hollering and slowly pedaling and the dogs quit bothering me. I called animal control on those dogs as soon as possible. Plus I was supposed to take that road back to the start. However I found another way back but it required a 5-6 mile detour.