WTF…what are you doing…dousing yourself in ‘eau de sausage’ before you go out?
Sounds like you shouldn’t leave the house…or that you live in an area where everyone breeds dangerous dogs?
All the trails I ride are popular dog walking spots and I’ve never been chased by one. You sure you’re not just a bit paranoid?
I meet lots that aren’t really paying attention and get in the way, or who have never seen a unicycle and want to come up and sniff it (difficult when I’m trying to ride past them). If I think a dog is going to put itself in the way I dismount and walk past…the owners usually apologise but the dogs are just mooching about…they don’t understand. I had one earlier today step confront of me to sniff something and had to do a tricky bit of off road to get around it…the owners apologised and said, “sorry, she’s a bit of an obstacle”. No problem.
If all the dogs in your neighbourhood (sorry, English spelling) are chasing you and barking at you I’m sorry to hear it…and frankly amazed.
…seriously dude?!!
UL…in inch away from having my face torn off by the looks of it
Dogs don’t understand words, but they understand tone of voice. Say something dismissive in a dismissive tone and they will often become embarrassed and pretend they weren’t being aggressive. Yu think I’m joking, but I’m not.
“Get down you daft bugger!” or words that effect have worked for me many times.
Failing that, dismount and put the unicycle between yourself and the dog, then speak to the dog firmly but nicely. Half the reason it reacts to you is that it does not know what a unicyclist is. They recognise ordinary people but they think that the wheel is not part of you until you dismount and behave like they expect a human to behave.
And when the owner is nowhere to be seen, or, in the case of dogs running wild, doesn’t exist? The goal here is not punishment, it is to get the dog to back off so I can continue riding without fear of injury. Naturally, I prefer less radical, yet effective, methods. Mace is actually less radical than some.
I’ve had dogs run behind or aside me in a non-threatening manner. No problem. Running in front is a problem, but only in that it requires me to dismount to keep from running over the dog. Jumping or biting at me is a problem. A line has to be drawn somewhere to facilitate timely decision making, and physical contact seems to be one reasonable place to draw it. On the other hand, once an attack has begun, it is really kind of too late to prevent it. I also probably wouldn’t have deployed mace in any of the encounters I’ve had thus far if I had it. It is like a helmet in that when you need it, you need it, and if you don’t have it when the need arises, it’s too late. I still don’t have it. I do almost always wear a helmet when riding, even though I haven’t landed on my head yet. There have been a few exceptions, but when I have forgotten my helmet, I went back home to get it, rather than ride on without it.
Even the dog that pushed me was probably playing, but it was really close to the line of what constitutes a threat. I am glad it backed off, I was not looking forward to trying to fight it. I don’t speak dog, but the barking it was doing didn’t exactly sound playful.
Most is not equal to all. I do keep riding. That’s not going to work every time, though. It almost didn’t work when a dog tried to push me off.
Your experience is not the same as everybody else’s. Also, you are confusing an exercise in (nonfiction) creative writing with a large issue. Many of us do different kinds of riding. Mine is road riding through the city. I was sharing a slice of life, not griping or even venting.
Maybe I encounter more dogs than other riders do, and maybe I don’t. If I do, it’s probably attributable to demographics, and maybe exacerbated by the recession. Or just the fact that I ride a lot. I mentioned mace in an offhand way, once, because it is a valid piece of safety equipment, and you totally ran with it. Even though I stated quite clearly that I don’t even carry it.
When I come up to a dog on the trail, I dismount and let it walk by, same as I would a horse, for the same reason - they get spooked by strange things coming at them, especially if it’s a narrow trail where they feel trapped.
If I blithely ride past a dog and it freaks out, it’s not the dog’s fault, it’s not the owner’s fault, it’s my fault, because I know better.
A dog off leash may be in technical violation of some rule, but I’m in violation of the law every time I ride my “play vehicle” in the street here. Doesn’t mean somebody in a car has the right to roll down their window and mace me, or throw something, or take a swing at me with a handy car antenna. Even if they find me annoying.
And getting upset at a dog barking when you come up into its territory is silly. That’s thousands of years of dog breeding in action. Barking at strangers is one of the reasons dogs even exist.
When I read your post I, as well, found it amusing and well written. I find your arguments well stated and fair. I don’t think you are intending to begin a one-man vendetta against all of canine-dom.
I agree that it is prudent to protect yourself from animals and people for that matter. My oldest boy took 15 stitches to his eye (he’s lucky to still have the eye) from a dog that “Has never bittten anyone. I don’t know how this could have happened”. My youngest boy was bitten by the dog of a friend of mine who, god knows why, brought her dog to my house uninvited. I knew that dog was skitchy and so did she, but she brought him anyway and my son took the brunt of her decision. I have been bitten and had flesh torn by a different dog that had never bitten anyone.
On a leash dogs are controllable. Off the leash it’s anybody’s guess. By the way, I’m a dog person. I like dogs and have owned dogs throughout my life. Unfortunately, many dog owners are convinced of the saintly nature of their pets and believe them to lack the capacity to harm other living things. Curiosity is different than aggression and can, sometimes, be discerned, but not always. I agree with Idlux. Carrying mace or a stick is not the same as using them pre-emptively on every dog you see.
As for the comments re: kicking the poo out of someone for macing their dog, I doubt that would happen very often either. Bravado isn’t usually translated into action, it often diminishes into finger-pointing and angry words. After all, there might still be mace in the can.
Some information about dog bites in the US from the CDC.
Nearly 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs each year, half of these are children.
One in five dog bites results in injuries serious enough to require medical attention.
In 2012, more than 27,000 people underwent reconstructive surgery as a result of being bitten by dogs.
More from bewelllivelong FACT: Dogs and Cats carry bacteria and germs on their paws, fur and mouths.
The number of germs a dog will bring into a home from a walk around the block can make you, your family and friends quite ill from salmonella to e.Coli and MRSA.
I’m not one to dismount for a dog, if it chases me I’ll evade and give a blast of pepper spray towards the ground in the dogs general direction, if that doesn’t deter it then it gets a full shot in the face.
Perhaps a face full of pepper spray will teach the dog not to chase people and maybe save someone else or their child from being attacked in the future.
Wow, so since they’re all such dirty creatures, the 62% of people in the US that have a pet should be disease ridden and sick all of the time.
Excuse me while I go don my haz-mat suit to play with my dog.
To the OP, by all means, mace every dog you see, since you seem to live in a neighborhood full of free-range, rabid timber wolves. I’m not going to come and stop you :). You’re right, there are worse alternatives out there. I suppose you could just carry a Glock and deal with it that way.
Seriously though, do you really think you could mace this?
Killian the human body has evolved to deal with germs, bacteria and disease but it is not perfect at handling these things especially when young, elderly or when one’s health is compromised.
Cute puppy, is that a Chow Chow? They are considered the most aggressive breed and are listed as the 8th most dangerous dog.
Take note that in my posts I have always referred to dogs that act aggressively
If a dog keeps it’s distance it can bark it’s head off for all I care but when one is acting in a threatening manner and keeps coming its time for action.
There is truth to the saying the best defense is a good offense (when warranted)
Wow, so you actively pepper-spray dogs? I usually just shove my wheel/foot in their direction, not to hurt them but to (hopefully) scare them off. This is obviously pointless if the dog jumped under my wheel/foot at the last second, as I don’t have that sort of spider reflex.
& MrImpossible, over here unicycles are just as ‘road-legal’ as bikes, and have exactly the same rights (and responsibilities). So if any dog owner tells me I shouldn’t be there, I simply point at the numerous cycle route signs and tell them to get their dog leashed or I’ll happily report them.
That puppy has evil eyes. The nicest most gentle dog I ever owned was a springer spaniel named Patch. But that puppy posted by Killian, I’d mace him and ask questions later lol.
Seriously though, there are well behaved dogs and badly behaved dogs out there just like humans. Dogs carry germs and viruses so do humans (google ‘Typhoid Mary’)
You deal with what’s in front of you. If a man attacks me I’ll defend myself and likewise with a dog.
P.S. I just read up on ‘dog mace’ and seems to be safe and effective.
What do you do if a dog is chasing you on a unicycle? Stop and take his unicycle from him. lol.
Ldlux - appreciate your perspective of a non-dog owner, especially as its expressed w/o anger and with a sense of humor.
As a unicyclist I ride a lot on trails in a park where the dogs outnumber the people. Most are off leash. I find that I can ride around the majority of the dogs, and the ones I can’t are just curious; a quick dismount and a pet and we’re all happy. But this is an ideal environment - the dogs here are being taken out for exercise, they are primarily off leash, and they are under very little stress. Dog fights in this park are rare to nonexistent.
Problems arise with dogs when they don’t get excercise, are bored, or under stress. Unfortunately, it sounds like you live in a community where many people who only want pets for part of the time buy them and pen them/leash them/leave them unattended for the rest of the time. You’re a solution to their boredom and lack of exercise: novel, and not too slow, like a pedestrian, or too fast, like a bike or car. Perfect entertainment. If you stop and make friends with them you may make the problem worse. But then at least you’ll have a friend.
Re the mace - for most dogs any distraction works fine. Try a squirt bottle of water.
Was trying to write an appropriate reply (within my limited knowledge of the english language) to express what i think about the situation and the thread itself for some time now.
Today fortuna was nice to me and Samstoney wrote a reply that did express all i wanted to say very nicely.
I usually have no problem with dogs in town, but further I go outside into the villages, more often some dogs start to chase me. Usually dismounting is enough, but it depends on situation. We had some unpleasant encounters in Romania, but there you can find big packs of wild dogs. You can read more under Animals here: http://www.romuni.eu/post/55772254187/summary-part-2-last
You can have also some more reading on dogs on this forums: Dog Bite UnPlanned Dog Dismounts Dogs... is it just me?
Some people wrote that ultrasonic dog repellers work. I was using just a whistle, which was not enough for some dogs and barely better than correctly timed shout.
