Conference noted::bicycle

    	For more dog stories, see the latest "Bicycling." They have
    	three or four pages dedicated to dog stories. I happened to
    	read them during the last night of the Winter Olympics while
    	the women's skating was going on. My wife finally jumped up
    	and said, "Stop laughing; give me that magazine."
    
    	Because I was in no imminent danger (she's half my size), I
    	just kept laughing.
    
    	Scott 

	A friend of mine broke his toe clip while sprinting from a
    doberman.    The dobie stopped at the edge of the owner's
    property like there had been an invisible wall.    To late for
    the toe clip though.
    
    	Wait til the dog gets right up within a few feet, then spray
    with your water bottle, right up the dog's nose.   The dog will
    stop to sneeze.    But this does take good aim and a fairly full
    water bottle.    In the winter, just hitting any part of the dog
    with the cold water will do.    After a few friends watched me do
    this once, they thought it was so great they went out looking for
    dogs to challenge.   8-)
    
    	Alan.

    
    Here's my "dog storie"...  A couple of years ago, a friend of mine
    and I were riding our bikes cross country.  We were on some back
    road God know's where, when this dog suddenly decided that we were
    lunch.  We had full packs at the time and the road was a slight
    incline so sprinting away was out of the question.  The dog was
    right next to me in a minute, so with nothing left to do I 
    decided to get off my bike and keep my bike between the dog and
    myself.  So to get off the bike quick I throw my right leg over
    the back of the bike so that both feet should be on the "left" 
    side of the bike and the dog would be on the right.  The only problem
    with this is that my left foot got stuck in the toe clip and I 
    proceded to fall flat on my face, over the bike, right in front
    of the dog.  This scared the hell out of the dog and he took off
    like a shot and we never saw him again.  
    
    I took me a while to get up..... I was too busy laughing!!!!!
    
    Stew
    

    RE .0
    I really think some dogs know what a dog pump is and what it can
    be used for.  Last summer while riding my bicycle, a dog charged
    after me from behind a house.  As I usually do in such situations,
    I grabbed my pump and prepared to bash the dog with it.  As soon
    as he saw the pump he put on the brakes by digging his paws in.
    The dog must have skidded about three feet on the pavement!  He
    then turned around and went home.
    
    Regards,
    Denis

>    I really think some dogs know what a dog pump is 

	Same goes for dog mace.  I got a little can of Halt! dog
	repellant about a year ago and havn't had need to do more
	than show it to the dogs.  The dogs that looked like they
	might want to charge will suddenly back off.

    Most dogs don't have enough motivation to qualify as interval training
    coaches, but they're good for improving your jump.

    I was touring in Nova Scotia when a couple of behemoths took after
    me, on the uphill with full gear.  A quick spray with HALT! stopped
    them cold (it doesn't harm them).  Their looks said, 'hey, wait, uh, that's
    not in the script!'  
    
    What was the most relief (at the time) was the immediate quiet.
    I think a lot of the bravado was in the bark (I DO know about the
    'strong, silent' types, too...).

     That HALT stuff works great, and so does squirting them with water.
    I'm not a very good shot with either but have found that even if
    you miss, the dog(s) will usually stop and sniff the goop on the
    pavement.

     Another trick is to simply yell at them.

I was out riding a short one last night when in unfamiliar territory a
scrangly BIG mut came after me. Unfortunatly I was in first gear climbing
a short but steep hill. I reached for the pump and in the process drove 
myself into the shrubs. The dog stopped at that imaginary fence at the border
of his owners property. I think I would have felt better if the dog came after
me and I could wack him/her in the nose to relieve MY frustration.

Tale of the Story: All the prevention you bring with you can't help if you
 can't reach it!!!!!

mano_who_wishes_he_took_his_bike_out_and_not_his_brothers  8-).

I found one!! On advice from a coworker I get a water pistol and using some
small pieces of velcro adhesive I attach the gun to my top tube. There it
is easy to get to and FAST! Now I fill the gun with a mixture of water and
a small amount of amonia (sp?). Now I can grab the gun in an instant and
have a reasonable amount of accuracy. It is also safe for the dog if you 
just use a little amonia. I think I may try that same route again real soon!

Good Luck

mano
 

A number of years back, a woman I met said that her husband had 
accidentally sprayed her with HALT! and that based on that, she felt it 
would be real effective on dogs/anything. Last I heard, the two were 
seeing a marriage counselor, presumably about something else :-).

The effective ingredient in HALT! is a derivative of cayenne pepper 
(basically the concentrated active ingredient).

                                             ken

    
    	I gotta 12 guage flare gun that I'm REQUIRED to carry on the
    boat.  I s'pose a coupla velcro pads on the side of the top tube and
    corresponding pads on the gun would give me quick draw capability,
    wouldn't attract too much attention from the awefowities either,
    "Oh, just another bikie with an ammonia squirt gun, they're all whackie,
    think they can hit dogs in the eyes or something."

    	Reg
    

    That flare gun could come in handy the next time you get side-swiped
    by a pickup truck.  
    
    MATT

    	Riding a recumbent, my encounters with dogs tends to be more
    'on their level' than the rest of you tall bike riders.  My one
    dog bite (not a nip, a broke the skin - worry about rabies bite)
    was on my elbow, not my legs.  When you are looking eye-to-eye with
    a large doberman, it's a bit more scary.
       I can testify that Halt is not 100% effective.  A German Shepard
    in Goffstown took a full blast up the snout, sniffed, and continued
    chasing me up a hill (they don't have a chance on downhills). I
    use the waterbottle squirt now.  [Reminds me of a ride at GEAR
    International in '86.  A couple of kids were water pistol squirting
    riders as they would go by.  A following pack got out their water
    bottles and doused the kids.  SURPRISE! ]
    	I seriously am looking for a short bull whip that I could carry
    coiled under my (large, since it's a recumbent) seat.  I think the
    noise would keep 'em away.   Has anyone found a source for those
    impact caps that go POW when you throw them against pavement.  I'd
    like to try them too.  - Chris

    I remember it as if it were only yesterday ...
    
    It was a warm summer day, breeze blowing thru my hair, on a liesurely
    ride thru the beautiful countryside of Harvard, Mass.  My brother
    and I came to a familiar stretch of road we had fondly nicknamed
    "chihuahua pass", and as always, the growling, snarling, 8 inch
    high chihuahua came tearing after us! We continued along, laughing
    hysterically at the dog's "attack", since of course, the only thing
    within reach of it's vicious (ha, ha!) jaws was my dangling toe
    strap!  The chihuahua kept chasing and barking, but alas, it's 4
    inch legs were no match for finely tuned machines, like me & my
    brother...and we left it in the dust.   But... a few seconds later
    we heard an unfamiliar petrifying WOOOOOOOFFFFffff, WOOOOOOOOFFFff
    and we spotted the huge german shepard that the #!@z&*! chihuahua's
    barking had alerted. AAAArrrrgghhhh, I started sprinting (luckily
    the road was flat), dropped into my 52x13, and dropped both my brother
    and the german shepard! ... so I thought ... The barking ceased,
    and I slowed a little, but I could still hear footsteps over the
    pounding of my heart. I turned around to look for my brother;
    he was about 100 feet back, but the german shepard was 5 feet behind
    MY rear wheel, and closing! I turned around, and started sprinting
    as if my life depended on it. The beast kept coming up on my right,
    facing straight ahead, never barking or growling; it was racing me! 
    I kept sprinting, my lungs bursting, but it kept gaining, and gaining, 
    until ... it passed me! Just then, it looked up & back at me, then
    veered RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FRONT WHEEL, and STOPPED running! SLAM-
    I crashed into the animal, went sailing over the handlebars, and
    scraped along the pavement. As I lay dazed on my back in the middle of
    the street (with my twisted smashed bicycle on top of me), the german
    shepard came over, sniffed me, then calmly walked (unhurt) away!
    My sympathetic brother braked to a stop beside me, and after he
    caught his breath from laughing so hard, and cleared the tears of
    laughter from his eyes, he let me know that it was the funniest
    and best crash he had ever seen!
    
    As I attempted to make my bike ridable again, I could hear the 'bark'
    'bark bark', 'ggrrrrr' of the chihuahua coming down the street towards
    me. I pedaled away, with the chihuahua at my feet, not laughing
    at all this time...
    
    Mark Reid 

OK, Just to let you know that I do have some sense of humor (see
note 575), I'll enter my ditty here. 

It was GEAR-UP '82 in Shippensburg PA, my first bicycle rally.  A
lot of fun in a beautiful farming area.  (A CRW member even got
married there with 2000 cyclists at the wedding, but that's another
story). 

It was the nice sunny day, I was on my bike on one of the arrowed
rides admiring the farm scenery.   I heard a strange noise and
glanced to my right, slightly behind.  It was catching up to me
running along the shoulder of the road.  It had 4 legs and BIG
horns.  It weighed about 2 tons more than I did.  It was a very fast
bull.  Yes, a bull! 

The adrenaline flowed, but I just couldn't outride it.  I was sure I
was dead meat.  How can an such a big animal run so fast?  What can
I do, do I have to just surrender and become part of a steak? 


Then, in an instant, the bull was gone.

[Turns out, it was on a chain, and the bull came to the end of its
length and suddenly (very suddenly) came to a halt.]

The whole episode probably only took 10 seconds, but it felt like a
lifetime. 

And yes, I swear, it really did happen.

	~Mike  

    	Sounds mighty similar to the letter in the last
    	BICYCLING. Maybe bulls are attracted to moving
    	objects (as opposed to red)
    
    	Scott

    RE .14
    I know what you mean about the Halt sometimes not being effective.
    While riding with my wife on a half metric, a big brown mutt came
    chasing after me.  I was up front and my wife about 75 feet behind.
    I reacted to the mutt by blasting him with some Halt.  This seemed
    to surprise the dog, but otherwise didn't seem to bother him.
    
    Now comes my wife.  The dog starts chasing after her, too.  She
    breaks out her halt and really soaked the dogs head with it.  Now
    the dog looks *REALLY* mad.  His hair was standing straight up on
    his back!
    
    At that point, I turned around to help my wife.  I grabbed my pump
    and got ready to nail that dog like never before!  Fortunately,
    the dog decided he wasn't having any fun and ran off.  Whew!

    
    Regards,
    Denis

For odd incidents, a chap I once met touring across country was attacked 
in western North Dakota by a HAWK. He said he felt this WHAP on his 
helmet and saw a hawk circling with clenched talons. It hit his head 
several more times - finally the guy noticed that the hawk had 
UNclenched his talons and they were now fully extended - he immediately 
flagged down a pickup and got a ride to the next county...

    		< ^ Bi directional titles for replies ^ >    

    	"ONLY LAST NIGHT", I left work a little early (well, I deserved
    it and dec kinda owes me lotsa time) and took the Marlborough to
    Hudson via the loop around Wachusett reservoir route home.  As I
    was climbing out of Clinton on 62 going up toward the dam, I saw
    a dog in the road ahead of me.  Since I wasn't sure if he had seen
    or heard me I called out, didn't want the mutt getting startled
    at the last moment and doing something stupid like sticking his
    head in my front wheel.  He looked but didn't move, since I was
    climbing I was reluctant to slow down and lose momentum, so I called
    again.  This time he decided he disliked me, but since I was bearing
    down on HIM, he ran.  I chased, and chased, and chased... I caught
    him right near the top of the hill and he yelped as I passed, then
    he decided to tag along, but I had some spin going by then and there
    was no way he could keep up on that gentle down grade.

    	Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have.  THAT dog wasn't to blame for
    the dogs that have chased ME, but the role reversal was fun and
    the training benefit had to do me some good.
    
    	Reg
    
    BTW, record time ride for that route last night.

    re: .17
    
      I know this isn't a dog story.  Bulls are attracted by motion.
     The red capes are for the dumb humans.  Bulls are color blind.
    
    	Dave

    Last weekend I was on one of my typical "Where does this back road
    lead to" weekend rides.  We had just crested a hill, and were starting
    on a slight decline.  These 2 dogs were sitting in front of there
    house, and the house was on a slight uphill from the road.  The
    edge of the yard was covered with a little bit of brush and last
    year's leaves.  These 2 dogs decided that they wanted to chase us.
    The larger sized dog runs down the slight hill, hurdles all the
    crap on the edge of the yard, and went straight for my riding
    companion, who promptly pulled out his pump, making the dog turn
    and run home.  The other dog was one of those daschound things.
    This dog slipped on the edge of the yard, and landed on his face
    in the road.  It was the funniest sight.  Needless to say, he decided
    not to chase us.
    
    

    A two foot section of PCV (plastic pipe) does a great job on dogs.
    It's kind of like polo. You can tape it on with masking tape to
    the frame. That way it breaks away easily when needed to adjust
    a dogs attitude.
    
    d.c.

here's a bicycle/dog situation to mull over; i'll try to present both sides 
equally.

   i'm riding a bike and have a confrontation with a rottwieler.  it's a 
country road with houses, i'm going uphill (equals slow), feet tied in with
toe clips and slotted shoes - suddenly i'm approched from the front by a
good sized rotty (probably 100 lbs).  the dog is obviously interested in
ME.  he is not running but trotting, is not barking, but is coming straight
at me with no apparent nervousness and looks VERY serious. 
   at this point i'm nervous.  now don't get the wrong idea, i know dogs 
fairly well, i've got a husky, i just avoided another dog 5 minutes 
earlier.  i usually do pretty well with the standard dog evasion technique; 
act submissive, move latterally, look sideways often, move a constant 
speed, and in general act like you're just moving on.
   mr. rott is still advancing and this is all at time = 2 seconds.  so i 
stop/start/stop (feet straped in) trying to get my foot on his side out so 
i can get on my side of the bike.  this spooks him and he starts acting 
worse, now he's barking and growling at me.  i start acting worse.  in my
panic of getting my foot out i fall down, to the side away from him.  he
immediately starts lungeing at me, in and out.  i am only keeping him from 
me by lunging back with the bike.  realize, i am feeling pretty vulnerable, 
on my butt with the bike still tied to my feet.
  so, i get my feet out and we've got a mexican standoff.  me standing with 
a bike for defense, and mr. rott barking, growling, and acting for all the
world like a serious threat.  we are now at time = maybe 20 seconds.  seems
like 20 minutes. 
  i start yelling for help.  i'm serious, HELP..HELP, as loud as i can 
yell.  to my surprise this startles him and he scoots back a good 20 feet.  
then he keeps checking me as he keeps going, to his house.  (i remember 
now, yelling is what you are supposed to do next.)
   i'm happy to be here.  after a minute or two i get going and in a few
minutes am getting madder and madder.  i go home, get the car, and go back.
i drive right up to the house and beep.  a nice lady comes out and i ask
her, "has your dog ever bitten anyone BEFORE?".  clever huh?  she is
noticably shaken.  well he hasn't.  i tell what happened as she apologizes
profusely and assures me he will be tied up from now on.  i won't ride that
road again, she doesn't seem to have to have a really good feel for wether
the dog would actually bite or not.  i finish by telling her that i was
going to continue to the police unless she acted decently, which she did.
so have a nice day, i'm going home. 
   with complete 20/20 hindsite i believe the dog would have let me pass
without incident, but i don't know how i could have known that then.  it
was ridge road, off upton road, westboro; or westboro road, upton (the same
road either way). 

there is no real reason for writing this, it  makes me feel better.  
everyone who reads 'dogs', hopefully, is a better owner.  everyone who 
reads 'bikes' will understand.  so either way, as a warning, or for
discussion, here it is.  and i'm getting tired of crossing roads off my map
because of loose, bad, dogs. 

craig
posted in both in dogs and bikes.