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.
Dogs have crazy-sensitive smell. They can smell your fear. Clearly Idlux lives in a place with a lot more loose dogs than most of us encounter. My assumption is that Music City is Detroit (Motown), though Motown moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, so he could be from there. Or is he in Tennessee somewhere?
I haven’t noticed being chased by a dog in years. Mostly I ride in on my local bike path, which is parkland, in which most people with dogs are obeying the rules; nearly all dogs are on a leash. When I ride remote trails, I often encounter people with unleashed dogs (legal or not; I’m not sure), but those dogs are almost always well-behaved. Some will run up to me, but I always make friendly noises and continue to ride predictably.
Dogs like to chase. If you keep riding, you’re keeping it interesting for the dog. Stopping can put a quick end to a lot of chases, though you don’t know if an aggressive dog will try to attack you. Note that this is recommended for bicyclists as well, though they are easier to hide behind.
When I was learning to ride, my friend had an English Sheepdog. This nutty dog always wanted to bite the whitewall tires on our old Schwinns. We just figured if she accidentally got her head run over, it would make an impression and she would maybe stop trying to do it. But we knew she was basically playing, so we weren’t too bothered by it. It helped us learn to feel confident on our Schwinn Giraffes earlier.
Sadly, all dogs can bite, but only a few bite with regularity.
I have been bitten a number of times, one instance resulted in 200 stitches.
I have given up three dogs for human aggression and one dog (recently) for dog aggression.
I have been chased on uni, bike, tandem, and on foot. I have also been packed on by a group of dogs running free, a few of whom I knew.
Water squirting works if you get them in the eyes and nose, so you really gotta aim and wait for the white of their eyes.
In all reality, you are just as likely to crash when trying to avoid or scare off a dog, so your best bet is dismount and threaten to throw something at the dog.
I was just in Guatemala and I had a bunch of dog problems, in my neighborhood and in the city, pretending to throw something or yelling did nothing, so I resorted to carrying a two foot length of flexible plastic pipe.
Now that worked like a charm, crack it couple times on the ground and wave it around, and the dogs were out ta there!
I love dogs, but any dog can bite, be especially aware when passing a dog and their owner!
I wonder if any sort of weird loud noise would do the job. Would a clown-type horn be playing the stereotype too much? They sell them at the £1 shop in town, complete with bike fittings… Could make a sweet dog repellent
When I was a child, I was bitten in the face and subjected to the rabies series of shots by a dog that “doesn’t” bite so I appreciate statements by people who feel the need to defend themselves. It is also true that most dogs are not so aggressive that bites actually occur; however, owners who let their dogs roam freely are not being considerate of their fellow earth mates.
While training & socializing my dog, Max bolted from my grasp with his leash dragging behind. He knocked over a 50ish woman riding a bicycle and caused her great pain. It cost me a bouque of flowers and much embarassment. I still feel bad that my dog hurt someone else.
For dogs, eye contact is threatening, especially if it comes from a towering one-wheeled monster. Sometimes it even elicits eyeing / stalking behavior. If you see a dog intently watching you on your uni, and he begins to approach in what looks like a stealth posture, looking away can help to de-escalate the situation.
Mail carriers often have pepper spray for handling situations like these while they work. There’s nothing wrong with defending yourself, especially from aggressive carnivores, though I’ve never had to do so while unicycling and don’t own any pepper spray, and actually most of my dog confrontations have been pretty entertaining. Watching someone’s dog go ballistic as I roll gently past is way better than hearing yet another “Look, honey, it’s a u-ni-cy-cle!”
I actually like dogs a lot, but unicycling is not a good way to make friends with them.
I ride a lot in a local area that’s infested with off leash dogs (mine included), and I have noticed that the dogs seem to have no idea what to do with a unicycle. On foot or on bike, they ignore me. On a unicycle, they lose their mind. Most seem to want to just check me out to figure out what I am, and a few want to play with this new “creature”.
One thing that I have found really helpful (and a trick I learned from horse packers while I was backpacking) is to simply talk to the dogs as they approach. The horse packers explained to me that the horses don’t recognize people with big backpacks as “people”, but as soon as they hear you talking normally, they get it. I’ve found the same to work with the dogs - especially those barking or engaging in stalking behavior.
I don’t yell at 'em or even give 'em a command. Rather, I just try a friendly, “Hi, pup!” or “Hey, buddy. Let’s go. Out of the way.” Even talking normally and calmly to their owners works.
It doesn’t always stop the need to dismount, but generally I see a lot more normal and friendly behavior from the dogs after we’ve established I’m a person.
Actually, the other day, as the sun was setting, I came across a raccoon who was up early. Even though he was closer to me than raccoons usually like to be, he stopped climbing his tree and stared at me on my unicycle with what I could swear was not a look of fear, but of extreme confusion.
