JamisJockey
member
Warning, its a little long:
I'm a fairly serious cyclist. It tops my hobby list. Yesterday, I was 4 miles from home on a 35 mile ride and had to pee pretty badly. I was in a residential/golf course community, and pulled into a little ballpark at the bottom of a ravine, hit the latrine. As I pulled into the parking lot, I had to circle to wait to cross the road and go left, due to traffic. I noticed a dog that ran back across the road and into the wooded backyard of a house. As soon as I crossed and turned left, the road started uphill. My speed was about 5mph, and I had 0 momentum. The dog bolted out of the woods, and didn't hesitate. My options quickly turned over:
A) sprint. Nope, uphill, i've got no momentum. The dog will drag me down and maul me.
B) Yell at dog. This has stopped way over a dozen dogs in thier tracks.
C) dismount and place bike between me and dog.
I opted for a combination of B and C. As I was yelling in my best DI voice "Bad dog, no!" I dismounted. I was about to get my right leg over the bike, but the dog had covered the 15' (this all happened in a second or two, tops) and came right up to me, biting me on the right butt check. I pushed down on the dogs head (almost a punch) and the dog backed up enough for me to get over the bike. The dog came back towards me, and I squirted it in the face with my water bottle. The kids that lived at the house got it to back off.
(Tactical mistake #1: I purused the animal into the woods, where it and another large dog (both were over 100lbs) were with the kids that lived there.I was pretty pissed...)
I circled around to the front of the house, contacted 911 and the owner. Ambulance checked me out, animal control came, Wife took me to the ER. No stitches, wound debrided, abut a 1/2" long 1/8" deep wound. Little blood loss, plenty of oozing.
After action: There is no freaking way I could have deployed a firearm or pepper spray from concealment in time this case. Once I got behind cover (the bike), I could have either shot or sprayed the dog. I would think that pepper spray would have been effective enough. As a compromise, I plan on carrying spray again (I used to, and then quit out of complacency). Concealing a firearm in cycling clothes isn't an easy proposition.
Lessons learned: Not all dogs respond to authority. Some are flat out territorial and want a piece of your arse (literally). Dogs are faster than you think. I barely had enough time to pick a course of action before the attack commenced.
I'm a fairly serious cyclist. It tops my hobby list. Yesterday, I was 4 miles from home on a 35 mile ride and had to pee pretty badly. I was in a residential/golf course community, and pulled into a little ballpark at the bottom of a ravine, hit the latrine. As I pulled into the parking lot, I had to circle to wait to cross the road and go left, due to traffic. I noticed a dog that ran back across the road and into the wooded backyard of a house. As soon as I crossed and turned left, the road started uphill. My speed was about 5mph, and I had 0 momentum. The dog bolted out of the woods, and didn't hesitate. My options quickly turned over:
A) sprint. Nope, uphill, i've got no momentum. The dog will drag me down and maul me.
B) Yell at dog. This has stopped way over a dozen dogs in thier tracks.
C) dismount and place bike between me and dog.
I opted for a combination of B and C. As I was yelling in my best DI voice "Bad dog, no!" I dismounted. I was about to get my right leg over the bike, but the dog had covered the 15' (this all happened in a second or two, tops) and came right up to me, biting me on the right butt check. I pushed down on the dogs head (almost a punch) and the dog backed up enough for me to get over the bike. The dog came back towards me, and I squirted it in the face with my water bottle. The kids that lived at the house got it to back off.
(Tactical mistake #1: I purused the animal into the woods, where it and another large dog (both were over 100lbs) were with the kids that lived there.I was pretty pissed...)
I circled around to the front of the house, contacted 911 and the owner. Ambulance checked me out, animal control came, Wife took me to the ER. No stitches, wound debrided, abut a 1/2" long 1/8" deep wound. Little blood loss, plenty of oozing.
After action: There is no freaking way I could have deployed a firearm or pepper spray from concealment in time this case. Once I got behind cover (the bike), I could have either shot or sprayed the dog. I would think that pepper spray would have been effective enough. As a compromise, I plan on carrying spray again (I used to, and then quit out of complacency). Concealing a firearm in cycling clothes isn't an easy proposition.
Lessons learned: Not all dogs respond to authority. Some are flat out territorial and want a piece of your arse (literally). Dogs are faster than you think. I barely had enough time to pick a course of action before the attack commenced.
I used the "crap your pants while sprinting away as fast as possible method".
