Bloody dog owners

Fion_McCool wrote: »

Judge Judy solves the problem...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/cyclist-injured-by-dog-gets-his-day-in-court.php

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I enjoyed that, Shirley Temple looks like a real weapon.

I've an old copy of Richard's Bicycle book where R Ballantine gives some interesting advice to those faced with an aggressive dog on the road. He recommends shoving your pump down it's throat. If you don't have a pump, he suggests sticking your arm down the dog's throat until it suffocates. According to him, you should do this with a clear conscience, since all blame lies with the irresponsible owner who placed their dog in the position where it could endanger both you and it.
Seems a little bit extreme, and it was removed from later editions. Still, if I'm ever faced with a crazed pitbull, I'll let you know how the arm trick works out.

BTW - I see Maplins have an ultrasonic pet deterrent on promo at the moment. Looks like a raygun and, in bold print, carries the rather arresting boast "No More Pussy!" Save your money folks.

Over the years I have tried various intimidating (or so I thought) methods of "discouraging" dogs that have chased me on the bike, including swinging my foot at them, swinging a pump at them, shouting at them, etc. Mostly I found that the dogs were very good at avoiding being hit, but even when I did connect it often just mad the dog more aggressive (shouting at them had this effect too - I suspect that several of these dogs were abused by their owners and were used to being shouted at). The one time I did get bitten was just after I had successfully hit one determined dog on the nose - it obviously never read the dog training manuals that said it should have backed off at that point

The only consistently successful method that I have found is to spray them with my water bottle, or spit at them if you don't have a bottle or can't reach it in time. Few animals like being sprayed and as they probably don't expect it, the shock of a blast of water is often enough to stop them in their tracks. It doesn't seem to make them more aggressive either which can only be a good thing, and of course it causes them no physical harm which is a good thing too as, as already mentioned, such behaviour from a dog is almost certainly the fault of their owner as dogs are rarely aggressive by nature (bringing out their aggression usually requires the careful, or careless, "nurturing" of a human).

As for sheep, usually a startled sheep will run towards other sheep so if you see a sheep at the side of the road you can often predict which direction it will run in based on where the other sheep are hanging around.

Think I'll stick with spraying water. Apart from the personal objections I have to spraying a dog with pepper spray, getting close enough to it to hit it reliably in the eyes is just putting yourself too close to the dog's business end.