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barstoolguru wrote:if you just stop the dog will stop, all they are looking for is a chase; be big and show some kindness.

With all due respect, that is not good advice.

1. Dogs are not all alike.

2. The situation is not clear. Dogs run and chase for many reasons.

3. Never bet on what a strange animal will or won't do.

4. Upset, scared, and/or sick dogs can do serious damage.

Even if the dog that runs into the street to chase bikes just wants to play, stopping and playing with it encourages a very bad habit.

Think about the little kid down the street, just learning to ride his bike. Get clear, call it in.

MSF Handbook, page 42:

"
Dogs sometimes chase motorcycles. The danger is not so much from getting bitten,
but from the animal getting under the wheels. Once an approaching dog is spotted, a
good rider response is to slow, including a downshift, then accelerate past the point
of interception. Don’t kick at the dog
because it will make controlling the
motorcycle difficult.
"

WildBill wrote:

Oldgringo wrote:

tommyg wrote:I was riding my motorcycle to work today.... a large black dog ran at my bike and tried to bite me
I hit the throttle and out ran the dog.... As soon as I got a safe distance I used my cell phone to
call the Animal control ............Would I have been justified if I had shot the dog????????????

How loud is your bike? Maybe it hurt the dog's ears?

Why is it that every one wants to know about shooting dogs? IANAL, and IMO a jury of your Texas CHL Forum peers would give you 99 years in the state pen for shooting their dog. If you can outrun it on your motorcicle why would you stop and shoot the dog?

A good dog is hard to come by; another tailess biped with, or without, a motorcycle...not so much.

threoh8 you are right I did a simple manuver to get away
from the dog then I used my cell phone to call the dog catcher.
... It is very dangerous to approach a strange animal and the dog was big

When I started riding in 1965 there was no such thing as a motorcycle class

I have been told that it is part of a motorcycle class to handle a dog chase the way I did it

I have never had any formal motorcycle training but I have been riding successfully for 47 years

I don't think there is a dog on earth that can out run my 1200cc sportster

but sometimes you can't out run a dog like approaching an intersection with a lot of on comming traffic or
a lot of loose gravel on the road
Then you have to fight the dog off no choice

barstoolguru wrote:if you just stop the dog will stop, all they are looking for is a chase; be big and show some kindness.

I followed that advice once and it proved to be a terrible idea.

threoh8 wrote:

barstoolguru wrote:if you just stop the dog will stop, all they are looking for is a chase; be big and show some kindness.

With all due respect, that is not good advice.

1. Dogs are not all alike.

2. The situation is not clear. Dogs run and chase for many reasons.

3. Never bet on what a strange animal will or won't do.

4. Upset, scared, and/or sick dogs can do serious damage.

Even if the dog that runs into the street to chase bikes just wants to play, stopping and playing with it encourages a very bad habit.

Think about the little kid down the street, just learning to ride his bike. Get clear, call it in.

so you got mad skills that you can ride a motorcycle and shoot a charging dog? What happens when you miss and hit the little kid on the bike you are so worried about? I have 40 years of riding and MY experience is to stop the bike and yell NO at the dog. Your right calls it in but don't try and shoot a dog while riding. I have 5 dogs and I can tell you they love a good chase, some live for it. Most dogs are bread for hunting and that you can't breed out of them

don't take my word for it here is an expert:

Many riders have found that shouting an authoritative "NO!" or "BAD DOG" will make a dog give up. Frequently dogs have no intention to bite, and are just acting fierce, trying to get you to move out of their territory. If you can trigger a little submissive behavior with a loud voice and an authoritative glare, many times they will turn back and go home.

http://bicycling.about.com/od/howtoride ... _bikes.htm

keep the rubber side down

ghostrider wrote:MSF Handbook, page 42:

"
Dogs sometimes chase motorcycles. The danger is not so much from getting bitten,
but from the animal getting under the wheels. Once an approaching dog is spotted, a
good rider response is to slow, including a downshift, then accelerate past the point
of interception. Don’t kick at the dog
because it will make controlling the
motorcycle difficult.
"

As I recall, this is actually one of the MSF Basic Rider Course test questions.

flechero wrote:

barstoolguru wrote:if you just stop the dog will stop, all they are looking for is a chase; be big and show some kindness.

I followed that advice once and it proved to be a terrible idea.

I ride a mountain bike not a motorcycle. I had a incident last week where two chocolate labs came after me. Labs are just playful and friendly, right? I dismounted my bike and, standing on my feet, held the bike between me and the closest charging dog. The other went into pack attack mode and tried to circle around behind me. My immediate reaction was " Oh shucks" what have I gotten myself into?

I still have scars from the bite marks in my right calf from a previous dog attack where I was nearly stopped. I have a lot of trouble showing kindness under those conditions.

WildBill wrote:Why is it that every one wants to know about shooting dogs? IANAL, and IMO a jury of your Texas CHL Forum peers would give you 99 years in the state pen for shooting their dog. If you can outrun it on your motorcicle why would you stop and shoot the dog?

Exactly!

also to clarify- those of us saying don't stop, aren't necessarily saying to shoot.

Many riders have found that shouting an authoritative "NO!" or "BAD DOG" will make a dog give up. Frequently dogs have no intention to bite, and are just acting fierce, trying to get you to move out of their territory. If you can trigger a little submissive behavior with a loud voice and an authoritative glare, many times they will turn back and go home.

That will often work for any dog that is used to someone else being the pack leader. Where it fails is when you run across a dog with a really strong "alpha dog" drive. Then, a challenge to its alpha status can and usually will trigger full on attack mode.

Problem is, you don't really know which kind of dog you are challenging before you issue the challenge.

I spent a lot of times on bicycles. Always carried handlebar-mounted pepper spray. I've had to use it, too. Backup plan was shooting. Never had to do that.

barstoolguru wrote:

threoh8 wrote:

barstoolguru wrote:if you just stop the dog will stop, all they are looking for is a chase; be big and show some kindness.

With all due respect, that is not good advice.

1. Dogs are not all alike.

2. The situation is not clear. Dogs run and chase for many reasons.

3. Never bet on what a strange animal will or won't do.

4. Upset, scared, and/or sick dogs can do serious damage.

Even if the dog that runs into the street to chase bikes just wants to play, stopping and playing with it encourages a very bad habit.

Think about the little kid down the street, just learning to ride his bike. Get clear, call it in.

so you got mad skills that you can ride a motorcycle and shoot a charging dog? What happens when you miss and hit the little kid on the bike you are so worried about?

I said nothing about shooting. That would be a last resort.

barstoolguru wrote: I have 5 dogs and I can tell you they love a good chase, some live for it. Most dogs are bread for hunting and that you can't breed out of them

True. But some dogs don't stop when the chase does.

barstoolguru wrote:don't take my word for it here is an expert:

Many riders have found that shouting an authoritative "NO!" or "BAD DOG" will make a dog give up. Frequently dogs have no intention to bite, and are just acting fierce, trying to get you to move out of their territory. If you can trigger a little submissive behavior with a loud voice and an authoritative glare, many times they will turn back and go home.

http://bicycling.about.com/od/howtoride ... _bikes.htm (Emphasis added)

keep the rubber side down

Lots of weasel words in the "expert's" quote. He put them there intentionally.

I have used the stop, face, and yell technique to stop dogs when on foot. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. De-escalate when possible. In the situation described by the OP, distance via motorcycle was available as one de-escalation tool. Your mileage may vary.

I'm worried about the kid that a loose, aggressive dog can catch.

Ride safe.

I had two very large, aggressive dogs come after me this morning while on a long distance bike ride.

For the past week my voice has been out of commission. I can't speak above a whisper and not even that for very long, just a few words. So, a commanding yell can't be done by me. Though, I doubt if I sounded like a 747 on take off would've deterred those two...

One of the dogs was a Rottweiler and the other a mixed breed of what looked like Pit Bull and something very big. The mixed breed was bigger than the Rottweiler.

The mixed breed came after me first. He wasn't just chasing me. He wanted to bring me down off the bike and tear me to shreds. It was very scary. He darn near got me too, but I sprayed him in the face with some Freeze +P and he backed off, momentarily. After five or so seconds, he shook it off and resumed the chase with him on my left side and now the Rottweiler on my right. Both were acting like revening demons from Hades. I sprayed the Rottweiler and he promptly stopped. All the while, I'm pedaling as fast as I can, which isn't all that fast as I'm on a mountain bike.

At this point, I hear "Get back here" from a man standing in the front yard of a house I was now parallel with. Fortunately for me, the dog still chasing stopped and I just kept pedaling as fast as I could.

So, all you well meaning folks certain all one has to do in my predicament is yell or stop or in some way be kind and reasonable to dogs like I experienced today - reminds me of those certain we can reason with the unreasonable...

ghostrider wrote:Once an approaching dog is spotted, a
good rider response is to slow, including a downshift, then accelerate past the point
of interception.

I had a close friend who practiced just this method regularly. One time it didn't work. (The manual didn't have instructions for two dogs with two interception points.) His ended up laying his bike over.

The dogs in his way weren't aggressive, just nosy country dogs that were in the way. He got a nice pavement burn on his hand, but the rest of his equipment did exactly what it supposed to do.

chasfm11 wrote:

flechero wrote:

barstoolguru wrote:if you just stop the dog will stop, all they are looking for is a chase; be big and show some kindness.

I followed that advice once and it proved to be a terrible idea.

I ride a mountain bike not a motorcycle. I had a incident last week where two chocolate labs came after me. Labs are just playful and friendly, right? I dismounted my bike and, standing on my feet, held the bike between me and the closest charging dog. The other went into pack attack mode and tried to circle around behind me. My immediate reaction was " Oh shucks" what have I gotten myself into?

I still have scars from the bite marks in my right calf from a previous dog attack where I was nearly stopped. I have a lot of trouble showing kindness under those conditions.

I ride a bicycle, too. I've been chased countless times by loose-running dogs. Some are so fast, I cannot outrun them no matter how fast I go until they eventually get too tired and give up. Others try to get in front of my bike, almost causing me to run into them and endo on to the pavement. NONE have ever stopped chasing me when I've yelled "No!" or "Get away!" or any other kind of firm exclamation. Many stopped charging and backed off just a bit when I slowed down to "end the chase," but NONE ever just walked away, and a few actually kept on wanting to charge and attack me, prompting me to just book it as fast as I could on my bike with them chasing me right behind me. Although I haven't been bitten yet while on my bike, I've already been bitten twice on my back calf muscle while jogging down the street, both times after I slowed to a walk and told the dogs to get away. I don't intend or ever want to shoot a dog. However, I've had to use pepper spray a couple of times to protect myself at the last minute, and I'm amazed how well it worked both times when they wouldn't stop charging me. I suppose if I were on a motorcycle, I'd do the slow-down and then speed-up-real-quick trick to get away. Kind of hard to do on a bicycle, though, unless you're Lance Armstrong.