Re: Dog psychology 101
"Kim Alan Waggoner (Home)" <meteorologist-+wRDtsSxdS/[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.recreation.bicycle.touring.phred |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
If I'm headed downhill on a level road with no headwind, dogs pose me no problem. Otherwise it depends on the dog and what it's doing. Of course, I think doglets can just be ignored in all cases. For the rest, if I see the dog before it see's me, staring at it as I peddle past normally keeps it from giving chase. When it sees me first, it is normally running toward me barking and gives chase. I used to stop and call for the dog to come. The dog would then stop and stare at me for a while, maybe sniff the bike, then walk back where it came from. Lately though I just slow down, point at it and shout NO because this doesn't take as long. I can only remember being chased by a pack of dogs a couple times, both times I was able to just speed up and leave them behind. I've never thought of avoiding eye contact, guess I can give that a try! I've have heard that they can sense fear and that increases their aggressiveness. I've never come close to being bitten, so I they don't strike much fear in me. kw. On 11-02-11 09:10 PM, Olivier Germain wrote: > First of all, I love dogs and rarely had problems with them on a > tour...but I've been following a number of tour journals that refers > to being followed / surrounded by packs of dogs...in Alabama, in > Nepal, in Georgia...all over the world. > > Any thoughts based on experience to share on what would be the best > defense strategies to prevent attacks from a pack of aggressive dogs ? > > From my experience / understanding of dogs, my behavior in the advent > of a threatening situation whilst riding would probably be (of course > it all depends on the context), get off bike immediately, stay calm, > walk with a firm pace next to the bike, avoid direct eye contact with > dogs, speak in a loud affirmative voice, hope that they loose interest > in me eventually, use pepper spray (yes, the kind made for bears with > 2-3 % capsaicin !) directly in the eyes only if things gets really out > of control...but I'm sure this strategy could fail miserably in some > situations... > > Thanks for sharing your experience, > > Olivier > > > > _______________________________________________ > Touring mailing list > [email protected] > Browse and search the archives: http://search.bikelist.org > Unsubscribe or list settings: > http://www.phred.org/mailman/options/touring > -- Sent from my ol' Inspiron 9100 notebook running Ubuntu now because Windows got too big for it.