Update on my recovery.

[arielmoon]

Anyone have any thoughts on overcoming any dog phobia I may have??

[kermit]

I would tell you that Murphy's law has struck hard but I know where you ride and everybody has dogs. My mom lives off of SR 40 and we ride around the Double Diamond farm area, lots of dogs. Can you find something in the forest a little more open and less residential/horse farm? Nothing wrong with the trainer for a while. Glad you are better.

[arielmoon]

I would tell you that Murphy's law has struck hard but I know where you ride and everybody has dogs. My mom lives off of SR 40 and we ride around the Double Diamond farm area, lots of dogs. Can you find something in the forest a little more open and less residential/horse farm? Nothing wrong with the trainer for a while. Glad you are better.

And the sad thing is that riding through the horse farm area is one of the appeals here. I think I mentioned to you before that I ride that area around DD/ Live Oak Stud quite regularly. It is so beautiful!!

And you are so right though because there was an older guy that had the same thing happen to him 3 weeks before me (at a different location). 2 dogs ran out and he fell, shattered his pelvis, was knocked unconscious and still has another month in a wheel chair.

[redrhodie]

I wonder if a bike clinic could teach dog avoidance techniques? I did a search for FL, and found this list:

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/6213/fl.htm

I don't know if this is at all helpful, if any of these places are even near you, but I hope it is

I was hit by a car door when I was a teenager, so I know how hard it is to get back on the bike. At least in my case, avoiding a car door was easy to learn. They take up so much room, and you don't ride in that zone. But with a dog, I don't know....is there anything you could have done to avoid it? Would some kind of repellant have helped, or where you were on the road, or speed?

If there was nothing you could do, then can you ride where there are no loose dogs? Do you have a safe route until you get your mojo back?

I'm really glad to hear you're so much better! You rock!

[arielmoon]

I wonder if a bike clinic could teach dog avoidance techniques? I did a search for FL, and found this list:

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/6213/fl.htm

I don't know if this is at all helpful, if any of these places are even near you, but I hope it is

I was hit by a car door when I was a teenager, so I know how hard it is to get back on the bike. At least in my case, avoiding a car door was easy to learn. They take up so much room, and you don't ride in that zone. But with a dog, I don't know....is there anything you could have done to avoid it? Would some kind of repellant have helped, or where you were on the road, or speed?

If there was nothing you could do, then can you ride where there are no loose dogs? Do you have a safe route until you get your mojo back?

I'm really glad to hear you're so much better! You rock!

Thanks for researching that! Only one in my area and I have never heard of it. I have talked to the gang at the bike shop since I ride with them quite a bit and I think it would be worthwhile to try and talk to some of the dog owners along the Monday afternoon ride route. Other than that I dont know.

Unfortunately, in this case I never saw the dog until he was about 5 feet from me. I remember diving for the drops/ brakes but I dont think I even had time for that. He had misjudged his angle and/or my speed (18-19mph) so badly that he slammed into my front wheel. I can clearly recall the moment when he realized his mistake! There would have been no time to reach for pepper spray or anything else people have suggested to me. I know the ideal thing is to speed up but in this case I think he would have hit me in the middle or the back tire at the very least. Any other dog (including this same one) has come from behind more or less where speeding up did help.

[kermit]

Have you thought about a letter to the paper/media? Just a friendly heads up to all dog owners to be aware of their puppies. I imagine that the Ocala paper would be interested in keeping the peace between the growing cycling community in Ocala and the residents. Just a thought. Once again, glad you are healing.

[TxDoc]

And you are so right though because there was an older guy that had the same thing happen to him 3 weeks before me (at a different location). 2 dogs ran out and he fell, shattered his pelvis, was knocked unconscious and still has another month in a wheel chair.

And still the police does not take those dogs away??? What about a mandatory leash law? It's unbelievable that those dogs cause accidents and no one seizes them or fines the owners.

[arielmoon]

I drove by the scene of the accident today to see if the dog owner had done anything. The gate was wide open and the dog was resting in the driveway, 20 feet or so from the entrance, watching the cars going by.

[redrhodie]

That's really maddening, but I'm not surprised.

I hope you got a picture.

[arielmoon]

Sadly I only had my cell phone and when I turned around to try and get a pic the dog had wandered off somewhere.