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I'm not afraid of dogs except for Rottweilers & some Pitties. I walk my Catahoula off leash in my neighborhood, however she is trained and won't leave my side even when she sees another dog. I would report this dog owner and perhaps tell him if the dog lunges at you again, you will have no choice but to hit it with bear spray.
I have pepper sprayed a charging approaching dog and it didn't deter them right away like I hoped. I eventually switched to a taser. It makes a loud crackling noise and a bright light. You can use it as a warning to stay away at a distance. They aren't expensive and you could try it on this dog before he even gets close to you, say as he is giving you a hard stare and see if it causes him to think twice. Dogs don't like the noise and probably not the flash either.
Bonus is you could use it on the owner if you need to.
Oh I hope your joking.. tasering the owner.. ... here in the UK were no allowed Mace or tasers.. and would be arrested if we did. We have well behaved dogs off the lead in the streets but I cant let my wee dog off as he would run at another dog ,not at people though.. so he ll never be off the lead apart from a fenced area or our back garden..
Oh I hope your joking.. tasering the owner.. ... here in the UK were no allowed Mace or tasers.. and would be arrested if we did. We have well behaved dogs off the lead in the streets but I cant let my wee dog off as he would run at another dog ,not at people though.. so he ll never be off the lead apart from a fenced area or our back garden..
Actually I'm not joking. People get pretty aggressive when you ask them to put their dog on a leash. I've never had to taser a dog yet. The taser makes a really loud noise and the dog and people go away. But if I ever did and the owner attacked me or my dog I wouldn't hesitate to taser them also.
I do have our two local police department's non-emergency numbers on speed dial and have called them as people are cursing me out for asking them to put their dog on a leash. I put it on speaker phone while I talk to the police and give them the location and the person's description.
The nice thing about the taser is for people all I've ever had to do is put my hand in my pocket and grab it. I haven't even had to show it. I think they think I've got my hand on a gun. This came in handy one time when I was walking and a pick up truck with a couple of guys in it was following along slowly and came by a few times.
I have pepper sprayed a dog on a trail. There was no owner in sight. The dog was circling and lunging at me and my leashed dog. It would not give up with me yelling at it so I sprayed it. My dog was well trained and stayed behind me while I sprayed. It took awhile and alot of sprays for it to back off. Then a park ranger came along and I told him about the dog and said it needed to get vet attention to have his eyes washed out. Then the dog owner came along so I left and let the park ranger explain the situation.
Yes to all dogs on leash and under control! When I was much younger I was hiking with my on-leash 50 lb non-aggressive dog. We saw a family with two parents and a 5 yr old holding the leash of a 100 lb golden retriever. The dog took one look at my dog and came charging down the trail. I stepped in front of my dog, thinking the golden retriever would stop as the trail was narrow. Nope the dog ran into me full speed. Knocking me flat on the ground. I dropped my dog's leash and the dog chased my dog about a mile up the trail. I got up dripping blood from my hands and knees and had to go find him. The stupid people never even apologized.
In the past 10 or 15 yrs I think I've had 1 person apologize when their dog came rushing at me with hackles raised and teeth barred. Mostly the owner is silent or yells at me that their dog has never done it before, or I should take my dog to a dog park (this was when I had a dog that was dog reactive on leash to off leash dogs) so they could get used to dogs rushing them. The first few times I don't use the police number but when it happens a third time I try to do it.
We had a neighbor (thankfully on the other side of the neighborhood) move in with a very aggressive black lab. They didn't fence their yard. The dog came rushing at me, my husband (who is big) and our dogs (two 50 lb dogs). The owner was standing in the yard and did nothing. The dog was barking and charging. My yelling at him did nothing. Eventually I chased him back to his yard. It was very scary. Later I read a thread on Nextdoor where a teenager had to kick this black lab in the head to get it away from his on-leash miniature dog. He told the guy (on the thread) not cool man! Several other people weighed in on their experiences of being attacked. The owner got on and complained that animal control had visited them a number of times and not found a problem. When I reported my incident on Nextdoor the owner verbally attacked me and complained that I had done nothing to calm his dog down. Just yelled at him which scared him. Sorry buddy, not my job to try to make friends with your barking snarling dog who is taking on two grown adults and two dogs. Ours were just standing there stunned as our leash reactive dog had already passed away and the most these two did was defend themselves when attacked but generally aren't looking for trouble. We try to practice getting in front of our dogs in these situations and that usually helps but as you can see from above, not always.
I'm not afraid of dogs except for Rottweilers & some Pitties. I walk my Catahoula off leash in my neighborhood, however she is trained and won't leave my side even when she sees another dog. I would report this dog owner and perhaps tell him if the dog lunges at you again, you will have no choice but to hit it with bear spray.
I'm not afraid of dogs except Goldendoodles, Labradoodles, Golden Retrievers, Newfoundlands and King Charles Cavalier Spaniels. And beagles.
Also more like a 15-20 foot range and wider cone of fire for the bear spray.
I wouldn't waste time with pepper spray trying to hit a charging dog. Pepper spray is only around ~6-10 feet and surprisingly wimpy. Basically it's like one of those cheap squirt guns you could get at a grocery store for 50 cents as a kid. It's not even all that useful against people. The one time I've had to use it, it did work. It just it took three blasts and some scuffling in between blasts. Dog moves a lot faster and I'd much rather scuffle with a person than a pissed off dog in case the wimpy squirt gun missed.
A few years back I was on a group ride in the mountains in AZ and some coyotes ambushed the ride leaders two australian ridgebacks. I now carry bear spray clipped to my camelback straps on the front where they are easily accessible.
You need to say something to the dog owner. I would and knowing me I probably wouldn't be very pleasant about it. If the owner got uppity with me I'd carry my Beretta next time and just shoot the dog but maybe inform the police of the situation ahead of time.
I have had this happen a couple of times and as the dog gets closer, I yell loudly and aggressively, "No" and "sit" and "go home". I raise my arms in the air and point. The dogs have backed off. Usually, they have had commands shouted at them by their owners. It might be good to have pepper spray in your hand too. Around here, people usually don't have their dog on a leash at all. I slow way down because they randomly run across the trail.
I love dogs, I’ll repeat it, I love dogs! I get along with all dogs, I’ll repeat it, I get along with all dogs. Ok, with that said, any dog that attacks me is a dead dog. I ride mountain bike in farm country and sometimes there are dogs. I know a dogs instinct is to protect its territory, I get it. But as the victim of numerous dog bites, I’m done with being mr. nice guy. I always carry a pistol on my rides.
I love dogs, I’ll repeat it, I love dogs! I get along with all dogs, I’ll repeat it, I get along with all dogs. Ok, with that said, any dog that attacks me is a dead dog. I ride mountain bike in farm country and sometimes there are dogs. I know a dogs instinct is to protect its territory, I get it. But as the victim of numerous dog bites, I’m done with being mr. nice guy. I always carry a pistol on my rides.
Fair statement, not sure what sort of karen would disagree.
I like many dogs, though don't crave their attention. An unruly dog may be a menace to people and livestock, and needs to be brought to heel. Dogs are pack animals and react to social hierarchy cues, end of story. Training methods are well-known. An untrained dog is an owner problem, and sometimes we need to deal with two things in-order: an unruly (or dangerous) dog, and an irresponsible owner. There are few packs of dogs in American life, fortunately. Other parts of the world, not so and they can definitely be dangerous...but I digress.
Personally, I run with an ASP baton. The only times I've deployed it are against dangerous dogs, and it comes up very seldom but one might be surprised. Wandering around w/o any non-lethal self defense isn't too clever anyway. Got bitten once, that was a bad day for all involved. I give them as wide a berth as possible, but sometimes "it isn't wide enough (the path)." I don't ride bicycles and think I can see why a dog might view that hurtling object as threat, which is not an excuse but a reason. In fact I watched two dogs get into it on the local trail (fairly heavily traveled and urban) the other day, I gave all an extra 10' berth and kept right on going. The owners can deal with each other in that case.
Glad to speak to law enforcement about the above, too, should they become involved. I haven't lately but wouldn't hesitate to calmly explain the what, and why. Much like the very few times I've deployed pepper spray (on homo sapiens), years ago: if my case is calmly explained, the situation...while unpleasant...resolves itself quickly enough.
Firearms are a use case of extreme last resort, but here's to hoping we each consider our own risk profile and response with reasonable force to threats. 'Nuff said.
Got a rep and realized I never updated this thread! I went out on a weekend specifically because I'd never seen them out on a weekend. I went out just fine, but on the way back I rounded the corner and there they were! The couple with the one not so nice dog. I called out to them, the dog had already seen me and was alert, but leashed. I got off my bike because I had to walk it through the gate, and the dog again lunged at me. Once I got through the gate, we were separated by a fence and able to talk. I asked if I could try to befriend the dog through the fence, and they were agreeable. I laid the bike down aways from them, took my helmet and glasses off and went over. We spent about 30 minutes talking but the dog would have none of it. Turns out it was rescued from an abusive situation and as we talked they realized they have a bike friend the dog is also not good with. So, somewhere in its past life, it had a bad experience with someone on a bike. They volunteered they would never let the dog off leash (and we DO have a leash law so this never should have been an issue, which some posters had a hard time understanding).
Hopefully I didn't jinx myself as summer is coming and I will be through there multiple times a week again. It's been a wet winter and my rides have been short for the past few months.
ps - I did get a spray but tend to clip it to my backpack, which I don't carry on long rides. Gotta work on that.
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