What to do if a dog attacks

[fossyant]

Dog warden advised me to carry anti-dog spray. Been attacked twice in the local park - the cycle lane runs to the far side of it, yet the bloody owners insist on bringing their dogs near. Labrador on one occasion - proper nasty, then a GSD made contact with it's teeth and my gloved wrist. Been quiet all winter as it's been dark, but it's getting lighter in the morning, so the gormless OAP's will be back out - been older owners that can't control their dogs. Also on my route is chav's ville, and I did see a Bully attack a spaniel. Wasn't a great year in 2023 for dog attacks.

 

[oldwheels]

When I was a postman there were several houses where if a dog was visible they got no mail and had to call at the office to collect it. This was officially approved and was part of my daily routine.
On my trike I have not had many problems but small dogs trying to catch my moving feet were a problem until I told the owner I would “ accidentally “ run them over unless they were controlled.
I do have a heavy stick on a quick release beside my seat for legitimate use as I have walking problems. Only once has it been needed for anti dog use and the owner was not pleased that their precious got a hefty whack.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I do have a heavy stick on a quick release beside my seat for legitimate use as I have walking problems. Only once has it been needed for anti dog use and the owner was not pleased that their precious got a hefty whack.

Besides the shouty stuff, and if forced to stop 'bike between treat and rider', an immediately accessible staff/stick/frame pump (as recommended by the late Richard Ballantyne) is attractive for self-reassurance and deterrence. Only carried by a few and must be quickly accessible, without stopping.

 

[Sixmile]

My last two chases have been staffies, the most recent one more rabid than the first. The first chased me for at least 1/4 mile until I stopped, got off the bike and walked the bike between us. Once I got a little distance between, I rode the other way and disappeared around a corner. That dog was far from home at that point. The 2nd was in the countryside when again chased for a while, a lot more growling and nipping, which was mostly caught on my Fly 6 camera and sent to the dog warden. To be fair to the council, he went out to the road within a few days and tried to find the dog/owner but didn't but I appreciated his efforts.

 

[Sixmile]

Dog Attacks: What can you do to protect yourself

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68228780

 

[ColinJ]

Dog Attacks: What can you do to protect yourself

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68228780

A link to that article was in the post which started this thread!

 

[vickster]

My last two chases have been staffies, the most recent one more rabid than the first. The first chased me for at least 1/4 mile until I stopped, got off the bike and walked the bike between us. Once I got a little distance between, I rode the other way and disappeared around a corner. That dog was far from home at that point. The 2nd was in the countryside when again chased for a while, a lot more growling and nipping, which was mostly caught on my Fly 6 camera and sent to the dog warden. To be fair to the council, he went out to the road within a few days and tried to find the dog/owner but didn't but I appreciated his efforts.

There shouldn't be any rabies in the UK. If the dogs were indeed rabid, I hope you reported asap!

 

[Dogtrousers]

IME it seems the trigger is often the bike. Someone up the road has a trio of sausage dogs that go mental when I ride past; while I had another one have a go at me recently when out on the MTB; yapping constantly at me while criss-crossing in front of the bike.

I wasn't going to stop in case it had a go at my leg, so just kept going on the assumption that getting run over would be a situation only of its own making..

When she was a pup my sister's dog (a border terrier) had a great hatred of bikes. The problem was that if I was walking her, on the lead, and she saw a bike, she would get so angry that she would bite me.

Fortunately she grew/was trained out of that behaviour.

 

[Sixmile]

There shouldn't be any rabies in the UK. If the dogs were indeed rabid, I hope you reported asap!

I did thanks. That was the council bit.

 

[Time Waster]

When she was a pup my sister's dog (a border terrier) had a great hatred of bikes. The problem was that if I was walking her, on the lead, and she saw a bike, she would get so angry that she would bite me.

Fortunately she grew/was trained out of that behaviour.

I suspect that's a fear response not strictly aggression. Our border terrier has the same reaction to vacuum cleaners and yard brushes. There may well have been a cause behind why that response developed. Border terriers were bred not to be reactive to humans and dogs. Whilst not guaranteed they're possibly the best terrier breed for behaviour traits, but they're still dogs so you have to know your stuff with handling them.

 

[Time Waster]

I was once working on a footpath repair as a volunteer. It was between a chsinlink and barbed wire field boundary with a couple of vicious horses in and the river Wyre. A dog owner had his GSD on a lead but it went aggressive towards me. Lunging forwards with flashing teeth and thunder before backing off and repeating it. This was before I owned a dog so I had very little experience to fall back on. My instincts was to stand my ground until it calmed a bit then moved to the side to let it past with the owner between us. That meant turning sideways effectively making myself smaller. I wasn't going to do that until it got the fear response out,

Funny thing was it walked past my mates without any fear After passing me.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I think I've told this one on CC quite a few times, but it's always worth a repeat. A bloke thought he'd take a short cut through a farmyard while out walking and saw a hand painted by the farmer sign saying Beware Of The Dog!! On seeing a big snarling German Shepherd dog fastened to a chain he thought "Oh, I'm ok it can't get to me" and feeling very confident he made snarling noises at the dog, trying to wind it up, knowing it was unable to reach him. While the German Shepherd was 'going ape' trying to get to this bloke he heard a yapping sound then saw this little snarling Jack Russell charging at him, then reaching him, biting his ankles causing serious damage. The farmer heard the commotion and ran out to see what was happening. When the bloke with the Jack Russell jaw wrapped around his ankle saw the farmer he shouted "I saw the sign then the dog on a chain and thought I was safe"! The farmer replied "The sign is to alert folk about the Jack Russell, not the German Shepherd"!!

 

[Dogtrousers]

I suspect that's a fear response not strictly aggression. Our border terrier has the same reaction to vacuum cleaners and yard brushes. There may well have been a cause behind why that response developed. Border terriers were bred not to be reactive to humans and dogs. Whilst not guaranteed they're possibly the best terrier breed for behaviour traits, but they're still dogs so you have to know your stuff with handling them.

She has grown/ been trained by my sister into a pretty placid adult dog, but when young she had some weird quirks and phobias.

And still does do some strange stuff: when she has finished eating she picks up her dinner bowl, takes it out of the kitchen, plonks it in the middle of the living room floor, then returns to the kitchen. Why? Who knows.

 

[T4tomo]

She has grown/ been trained by my sister into a pretty placid adult dog, but when young she had some weird quirks and phobias.

And still does do some strange stuff: when she has finished eating she picks up her dinner bowl, takes it out of the kitchen, plonks it in the middle of the living room floor, then returns to the kitchen. Why? Who knows.

Is this the dog or your sister or both, did the dog copy the behaviour from your sister?

 

[Time Waster]

Off topic but a farmer's sign I once saw made me chuckle. It's in the lakes where there's a popular walk starting point. One circular route comes back down the other side of a hill spur. Walking around the bottom is a bit of a drag but you reach a point where there's a modest depth field you have to cross but the path skirts it towards the farm then same distance back to the parking spot. No rights of way through the field, which often only has one animal in it. Plus a farmer's sign.

Now I'm paraphrasing it here:

'Beware of the bull! It takes a fit runner 90 seconds to cross this field. The bull can do it in 45s! Please stick to the footpath around the field!

I liked that a lot. Apparently it stopped people trying it. Mind you I never actually saw the bull, there were high dry stone walls with gateless openings between each field so it could have been around somewhere. It was fun hearing a group stopped while they thought about it. They never did the shortcut.

We rented a farm cottage out if holiday season once when I was a kid. Speaking to the best doors farmer's daughter about the dog outside her cottage door that was a handful jumping up she told me to give it a hit on the head. I did but I was instinctively lifting my knee up to fend it off, the tap on the head sent it falling into my rising knee. I felt the blow hard, the dog must have felt it more so. Anyway. It was nice as anything before and after, just be never jumped up at me again. Lovely big collie but only 9 months old.

The farmer's daughter told me about the other dog. A huge, black beast. Only a Lab but it was rottweiler in size and a snarling, barking beast on a chain near the entrance to the farmyard. The daughter told me it was really soft. She had to convince me. Being about 12 or 13yo I was just stupid enough to find out. I got to just outside of it's reach when lunging at me on read legs snarling viciously. I put my closed hand out for it to sniff. It immediately dropped to all fours, stopped snarling and completely changed. I got closer and it slobbering all over my hand. It was a real softy and never barked at me again that way. It did bark occasionally if I tried to walk past without saying hello. I mean it was soft as anything once it met you. I bet it scared so many walkers passing through and was a very good deterrent.