I keep on being chased by dogs whilst out on my mountain bike. Does this happen to other riders much or is it just muggins ‘ere? They haven’t caught me yet but have come pretty close. Am I within my legal rights to mace or cs gas them? It’s essentially an assault after all…

I’m riding on bridle paths through land and National Trust land which I share with horse riders, runners & walkers. I’m not a dog hater and I know it’s all to do with the owners; I just want to know other riders experiences.

wgaf

Well it’s against the law to carry pepper spray etc so I reckon nooo – you can’t mace ’em. If you’re gonna carry an offensive weapon anyway, why not make it one you can rely on? Get an extendable baton. If a dog comes near you dismount and beat it into submission then stomp on it’s skull until it stops yelping.

If nothing else it’ll make a great thread as opposed to all of the “I’m annoyed by dogs and I might kick them” style threads we see here. I’m a dog lover by the way but I advocate violence against unruly dogs and their owners. *insert random smiley here*.

I’m usually the one doing the chasing. My dog’s pretty fast.

Not the dogs fault, it’s the owner you need to batter…

carry a decoy deer in your camelback, bound to put them off

I’ve gota ssense of deja vu reading this thread.

I think you can get dogs whistles that make sounds that dogs dont like, you can attach them onto your bike, on the left side chain stay – Hope make em.

edit

check out these beasts – im sure all mountain bikers have ran into these cryogenically preserved then resurrected mutts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordoba_Fighting_Dog

Oh no, not again.

I forgot to add – you could try raping the dog…… They don’t like that. Especially the boy dogs.

what MMW said – works for me 🙂

This a common topic then?!! I’m new to the forum but certainly not new to MTBing; there seems to be a lot of nutter dogs/owners around this year. I don’t recall being chased before. Maybe it’s more people are out in the countryside walking than in town shopping. So guns, knives and toxic gas are out of the question. Meh.

“The breed had such strong aggression toward other dogs that the males and females would rather fight than mate”

sounds like my Mum & Dad.

You could try one of these, I’ve used one when running in the local ‘dog toilet’ woods and it really does the job.

http://www.mflshop.co.uk/product.php?xProd=1072&xSec=1

Or you could try what an American ex-NY bike messenger once recommended to me – make up a ‘spicy’ home brew and keep a bottle in the cage. Apparently a lemon juice and X-hot chilli brew works well (I can’t comment on whether it works) – just don’t rub your eyes after you’ve used the bottle!

You just know you’d end up drinking it by accident though….

Exactly why it’s not my ‘weapon of choice’ – but, by gum, I bet it’d make you pedal a faster!

I did have a sheep dog run at me in the Atlas mountains – when I say sheepdog, think the same size as a small pony, teeth the size of a lion, slaver dripping from its mouth and barking “I eat the bike as well”.

It ran away when I threw a small stone at it.

(There may be an element of exaggeration in that description, but Morroccan shepherds dogs are really rather large and aggressive…)