from my dog trainer friend:

[mimitabby]

When a dog is in "prey" drive saying anything to the dog is probably pretty
useless. Yelling will always kick the dog into higher prey drive which is
why screaming at barking dogs is so ineffective. Now using something like
telling the dog to stay or you git home as they are coming towards you but
not in a full out run can help. I've told dogs in a deep, mean sounding
voice to GIT HOME NOW, not yelled but threatening and 99% of them stop and
don't advance. I just came from the older lady's home where I evaluated the
dog. She's having all kinds of problems and one of the was loose dogs
approaching her when she was walking her dog. Now she's carrying a small
water bottle that she hooks to her pants loop. We got a chance to try my
suggestion out on the walk and it worked beautifully.

If I was on a bike I
would take my water bottle and blast the dog in the face with a nasty GIT
HOME voice

[Geonz]

... except some of the dogs I know LOVE water on their faces...

MOst of the dogs I go by are in "defend my territory" mode, so as soon as I get outside that, they lose interest.

Some of them are in "oh, gosh, a human to run with, yippee!" and hollering when they're too close sometiems works.

[bcipam]

In a past life I used to train dogs. Some were fairly agressive. The best derrent to to take control, stand, face them and in a sharp, firm voice say "NO" All by the craziest dog will stop, turn and run away. Now for the 1 crazy dog not even water in the face is gonna work. Take your pump or your camelbak or anything you can swing off and be prepared to wail away.

[mimitabby]

In a past life I used to train dogs. Some were fairly agressive. The best derrent to to take control, stand, face them and in a sharp, firm voice say "NO" All by the craziest dog will stop, turn and run away. Now for the 1 crazy dog not even water in the face is gonna work. Take your pump or your camelbak or anything you can swing off and be prepared to wail away.

of course standing and facing the dog might be the best way to go BUT if i am on a bike going 15 mph i am not going to stop and face the dog!!

That pump is a great handy weapon though, i like that idea.

[Lenusik]

I don't quite understnad where you ride to get attacked bya dog. All our dogs are at home in the back yards surrounded by stone walls.
I have three dogs and one of the is a Rottweiler. None of them are even closely interetsted in a cyclist - this is how they were trained. Any dog responds to a firm and strong "NO". There is no reason to hurt the animal.

[mimitabby]

I don't quite understnad where you ride to get attacked bya dog. All our dogs are at home in the back yards surrounded by stone walls.
I have three dogs and one of the is a Rottweiler. None of them are even closely interetsted in a cyclist - this is how they were trained. Any dog responds to a firm and strong "NO". There is no reason to hurt the animal.

you sound like you live in a nice area. There are a lot of parts of the state of washington where people let their dogs run free, and big dogs at that.

if a big dog is at your ankles you have every right to smack it with what ever you've got. More than one person I know has been bitten.

True, some dogs are not interested in biting but they get in the way of bikes
causing accidents. remind me to tell my favorite pitbull story..
unfortunately leash laws are not keeping dogs off our streets here.

m

[tprevost]

dogs do get out of their yards and in rural areas, sometimes they aren't even fenced in! I had two little terriers chase me one time; they weren't very big but they startled me because they jumped out of a field very quickly. Yelling didn't work so I ended up grabbing my water bottle and squirting them and they went away. I had to go back by there on the way back though so at that point I was mad and actually stopped when they popped out and chased them! I probably looked like an idiot but I did it anyway!

Trac'

[DrBee]

In a past life I used to train dogs. Some were fairly agressive. The best derrent to to take control, stand, face them and in a sharp, firm voice say "NO" All by the craziest dog will stop, turn and run away. Now for the 1 crazy dog not even water in the face is gonna work. Take your pump or your camelbak or anything you can swing off and be prepared to wail away.

While this sounds like the way to go - I'm more likely to crash if I start trying to remove things from my bike and then try to hit something that is nipping at my heels. My fear is that I'll try to get the water bottle out and in my panic of trying to get away from the dog, I'll lose my balance and crash and then the dog will chew my leg off. I've used the threatening "git home" trick a few times and it worked. BUT - that dog that caught up to me when I was going 12 and stayed with me for 1/4 mile while I was going 20 (on a hybrid) would have chewed my leg off if it I hadn't outraced it. At least now on the roadbike, I think I can outrun them. I think I can...I think I can...