Annoying Beagle encounter

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

So I was doing my usual 21 mile ride this morning, minding my own business, on familiar roads. I was on a back country paved road with a few fields nearby and farms, with pretty woods on either side of the road. Everything nice and pleasant...
Suddenly out of NOWHERE there is this shrieking beagle barking at the top of his lungs about two feet from my pedals. SCARED THE LIFE OUT OF ME!!!! Never heard a peep, never saw him before, didn't hear him coming, don't know where he came from. If there had been a curb in front of me my bike would have hopped right over it, I jumped so badly. Didn't have time to react or do anything but keep riding, and a dozen yards further I looked in my helmet mirror to see the little sh*t standing in the middle of the road back there looking all full of himself.

I got mad.

I turned around in the road and started riding back towards him (my mace in easy grabbing position just in case, though I didn't think I'd need it). He looked a bit worried then and backed up just one dainty pooch step in the middle of the road. That's when I knew I had him. I got within 15 feet of him and then got off my bike and started stomping towards him, hiking boots, bike and all, hollering in my most frightening deep bellow "BAD DOG!!! YOU BAD DOG!!! NO!!! BAD DOG!!! GO HOME YOU BAD DOG!!!"

Oh man you should have seen him! He got this look of total SHAME and HUMILIATION on his face, tucked in his little Girly Tail and ran off into the woods like the devil was after him. I loved it!

On the ride back I kept my eyes peeled for him at that spot but I think he was probably off at a therapy session or something.

[mimitabby]

Good Work Lisa, that dog will think twice the next time he sees a bicyclist!

[Chile Pepper]

Too funny! I hate dog encounters--there are so many dogs running loose here. I've been known to get off and walk past them, rather than risk an attack on the bike.

Last week on an ascent there was a German shepherd on the right and a pit bull on the left. Neither made a move as I slowly passed them, until a cocker spaniel came flying out of nowhere, yapping at my heels. Then the pit bull decided it had better watch the cocker's back. My scary bellowing didn't do a thing for the dogs, but it did get the owner out of the house.

[pooks]

Hysterical, Lisa! (You ride in hiking boots?)

I've had close encounters with a pit bull, a mastiff and a chihuahua. The only one that decided to attack me was the chihuahua. (Which was scary because he was darting at me too close and I thought I was going to run over him.)

[SouthernBelle]

Lisa, you backing down that beagle is such a funny picture.

A couple of weeks ago I had an encounter with a couple of big dogs. It was the first time I have ever stopped the bike, gotten off and put it between myself and the dog. Since then I got a can of Halt, just for that one dog. Normally I use a milder citrus spray.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hysterical, Lisa! (You ride in hiking boots?)

Yep, when it's 36 degrees out and snowing i do!

I would not have gone storming back after a german shepard or pitbull hollering like I did, that's for sure....but beagles, labs and goldens seem to respond well to reprimands, at least for me.

[pooks]

Oh yeah, my lab would scare the britches off anybody who only heard him bark, but as soon as they saw he was just a big old goofball lab? They'd know him for the pushover he is.

I've often wondered if he'd defend me. He only seems to be territorial about other dogs and even when I asked a friend who was coming over to bang on the front door and make a lot of racket, and I cowered and acted afraid, Jake just kind of stared at me with his tongue hanging out, tail gently wagging, trying to figure out if there was a game afoot and where was the ball?

[divingbiker]

Good Work Lisa, that dog will think twice the next time he sees a bicyclist!

As the owner of two cocker spaniels who HATE bicycles, I doubt that this is true. I have tried for 10 years to sensitize my dogs to bikes, they see me riding mine every day, and still every time we encounter one while out for a walk they freak out. It's quite embarrassing, but I've resigned myself to their bad behavior and I just control them as best I can. Of course, they're never off leash so they're literally "all bark, no bite."

[li10up]

It's quite embarrassing, but I've resigned myself to their bad behavior and I just control them as best I can. Of course, they're never off leash so they're literally "all bark, no bite."

As dog owners we should never resign ourselves to their bad behavior. ALL dogs can be trained...but usually it is the owner that needs the training first in how to train the dog. If I may offer a bit of advice...you must correct the dog's behavior BEFORE the outburst happens. You can see when a dog becomes fixated on something. That's when the correction is needed. A pull of the leash and a verbal correction at that point, done on a CONSISTANT basis, will correct the dog's behavior. Please don't give up. The people they are "attacking" don't know the dogs are "all bark, no bite." I think all dog owners should watch the TV show "Dog Whisper." Cesar Millan is amazing! He really KNOWS dogs! You'll learn a lot from that show. I'm in the process of rehabilitating my dog's fear of thunder. It was a lot easier to just lock him in his crate...but instead this last time I worked with him and he actually eventually went to his crate and laid down on his own...nice and calm. It was amazing. I lost some sleep that night but it will be better for him and me in the long run.

[DebW]

While a dog chasing a lone cyclist will tend to stay behind or to the side of the bike, generally allowing you to keep pedaling and outrun the dog, I once had a different situation. I was pedaling with a group and the dog went for the bike ahead of me. I couldn't avoid it, hit the dog, and went down. My bike and I weren't hurt, but my wool Stil-long long underwear pants (worn under my shorts) were torn at the knee. Given that these were expensive wool long underwear and I was a poor student at the time, I actually went to the home that the dog came from and knocked on the door. My attempts to get the owner of the dog to pay for a new pair of Stil-longs were unsuccessful, and I later was able to patch them. Just a note that dog encounters don't always end as positively as Lisa's.

Then there are the country dogs that will wait for you 1/2 way up a hill...

[mimitabby]

Then there are the country dogs that will wait for you 1/2 way up a hill...

Yup, that's the kind I get off the bike for and start purposefully walking towards and tell them to GO HOME.

[divingbiker]

As dog owners we should never resign ourselves to their bad behavior. ALL dogs can be trained...but usually it is the owner that needs the training first in how to train the dog.

Thanks for the advice, but I've been through obedience training with both dogs, had a specialist come out to work with us, and one dog got Canine Good Citizen certification and was a therapy dog in a nursing home till his arthritis got too bad.

It might be easy to yank on the leash and train one dog when a bike comes by, but when two (or three, before one of them died) go berserk at once, I'm happy to just be able to keep them under control. People who have walked multiple dogs understand this...it's a whole different ball game than walking one dog.

We hide behind parked cars when I see a bike coming, and I manage the situation. As I said, they're always leashed so the situation Lisa encountered can't happen with my dogs.

(I am hesitant to post this because I don't intend to get into a war of words about dog training, but I don't care for the insinuation that I haven't trained my dogs.)

[li10up]

divingbiker, I'm not insuinuating that you haven't trained your dogs at all. YOU said you resigned yourself to their BAD behaviour, not me. Dogs can be trained but still have an area or two that they need work in. That doesn't make the owner a bad person. Sometimes we just don't know what to do to correct the problem. Maybe working with one at a time would help. For years I didn't know what to do about my dog's fear of thunder. But after watching the show I mentioned I've come up with another thing to try and it worked. I've seen him take dogs, sometimes 2 or 3, which were nearly impossible to take for a walk because they would lunge at every passing person\bike\skateboard\dog or whatever and get them to walk with each other - plus he'd throw in a couple of his dogs. So, I think there is always a way to help our dogs.

I meant my post to be in no way an attack on you or your dogs. Just to say we have an obligation to not give up when it comes to our pets and to offer a possible solution.