Hi everyone,

First off, thanks for the great encouragement from my first thread yesterday. Your enthusiasm is contagious!

I've been spending most of my day looking through the forums for information on dogs, but I'm a forum neophyte and I'm not sure I'm searching correctly.

I live in the country and I can usually count on five or six dogs chasing me on a 15 mile or so ride. Mostly I can outrace them, but a few of them are fast and keep up with me for a bit. I'm not so afraid of getting bit (well, alright, I'm petrified of getting bit) but some of these dogs are so fast that I'm afraid they'll run in front of my front tire. Not only do I not want to hurt THEM, but I really don't want to fall, especially at about 18 to 20 mph.

What I've been doing for now is squirting them with water from my water bottle. Seems to slow them down a bit (and the look on their faces is priceless), but I have read in a post somewhere about pepper spray. Where do you keep it so it's handy? Do you keep it in the pocket in your jersey? I'd love some advice.

Thanks!