I am sure you’ve all been there – you’re riding along a long straight road at a reasonable rate (it IS downhill afterall) and the muppet couple walking along the pavement allow their labrador to step out into the road. (This was at a popular cycling spot and I was on a public road so it’s not like I took them by surprise!?)
You slam on the brakes and pray to every known deity that you stop and don’t end up in a bloody heap – the gods answer and you skid to a near halt inches from the dog ( slightly sideways and I didn’t put my feet down, I just rode around the hound) and the owners just say “TRIXIE!” (That’s the dogs name, not mine, just in case you wondered…)
I did not have the wherewithall to say anything but a “Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus” as I was grabbing the brakes otherwise they’d’ve got both barrels.

(On the plus side, I had doubts about my brakes until this point – confidence restored now!)

So assuming this has happened to most of you, on numerous occasions, how did you deal with the owners or was it a case of not having time to think? I know it isn’t the dogs fault so there was little point in my getting annoyed at the ever so slightly stupid Trixie…

I was kind of hoping to see them again on the second lap, but unfortunately they’d gone.

Humourous anecdotes and complete lies are equally welcome. 🙂

When my dog gets in bicyclists way, its entirely her fault. Shout at her.

I normally just swear at them and carry on.

were they walking towards you or away from you? seeing as you were going at a ‘reasonable rate’ behind them I assume you rang your bell?

on the other side i would of said ‘are you aware its illegal to walk yur dog without a lead on a public footpath’

I use a stem-faceplate mounted Gecal 50.

TBH – given that the dog was loose, I would probably have slowed down/given the dog a wider berth on the off chance that it wandered across the road

once had a st bernard hit me sideways on. i bounced it looked as though it had swatted a fly. owner suggested i be more careful and not git in it’s way, obvious really.

I like to slag off dog owners as much as the next person. BUT sometimes i think cyclists ride around looking for high horses to jump on. Granted this dog may have not been under the level of control it should have been, but it also sounds as if you may have had time to go around it (Sounds like you had time to stop before hitting it so why not just move out).

With regards to the owners, well ok they should have had it closer to heel, but then i suppose a dog is an unpredictable animal and you should have been more aware that you were passing an animal. Would you have shown more caution passing a horse?

Just think we look for the slightest oppertunity to segregate ourselves from joe public

Once, whist riding down a technical section of CyB (The Beast) a walker came onto the trail with his loose dog and on trying to negotiate them at speed, I lost it on a rock and ended up on my face with bike atop.

He didn’t even ask if I was okay, never mind apologise.

It took me about 15 minutes for my sight to come back (everything went really high contrast and yellowy-black) and I couldn’t breathe properly for the remainder of the ride.

Commuting home on Friday, I was heading towards a chap with 5 black labs, all running around in typical black lab type way…
As he saw me coming towards him he said one word to the dogs and they all froze on the spot and sat upright exactly where they were. I was then able to weave around them at ease…. I just wish all dog owners (inc me) could do that.

I stopped to praise the chap for being considerate and a bloody good dog trainer….

I was riding toward them on a long, straight road, they were on the path at the side of the road. I was unaware until it stepped into the road that the dog was not on a lead as it was walking behind them.
I agree that if it had occured to me that the dog was not on a lead I should have slowed down, that was obviously my mistake, but I was stunned that in such a place they were not more aware of the hazard their dog could cause.

BUT sometimes i think cyclists ride around looking for high horses to jump on

Not sure about all cyclists, many stw dwellers? For sure.

if it was on the CyB beast trail, its clearly not a place for dogs or walkers so he would of gotten an extreme piece of my mind for being in the wrong place at the wrongtime. Utterly disgusting owner in that situation.

I find a silenced MP5 does the trick. Hollow point rounds of course, as you wouldn’t want to hurt the owners.

if it was on the CyB beast trail, its clearly not a place for dogs or walkers so he would of gotten an extreme piece of my mind for being in the wrong place at the wrongtime.

I did mention it to someone back at The Hub but they said there are some existing footpaths and rights of way that criss-cross the route and that there is sometimes problems, but there is nothing they could do about it. No idea if that was fact or just a fob-off.

TN, maybe it was as much of a surprise to its owners. Its like having kids, you think you have them under control and then **BAM** they have caused WWIII

If you look at a OS map of the area you will see that is correct. There are loads of them!

Moral: Ride with respect for others at all times.

I have had the loose dog coming the wrong way up a man made track before. I managed to do an emergency stop etc.

This was on 7 stanes route so i am not sure with right to roam etc of situation.

I also rode with Trekster at Dalbeattie once and came across some dude walking his donkey the wrong way round as well 🙂

Moral: Ride with respect for others at all times.

If that is directed at me – I wasn’t riding disrespectfully – I was riding down a trail when the walker and his dog came towards me walking UP the trail – even if there are footpaths (which I can well believe), I am sure there are none that actually follow the exact line of one of the cycle routes….

FWIW – it was around the ‘Addams Family’ series of descents…

TheLittlestHobo – you make a good point, I have seen the fallout from a ‘normally well behaved’ child going nuts. 😉

I accept I could have been more attentive, and I definitely will be in future, but equally so could they. I was riding on a public road – if I’d been in a car the dog could have been injured or worse… If they had been walking along the path next to the A57, for example, I am certain they would have had the dog on a lead. Some dogs are just not that bright (I used to own one of those – she was always on a lead when we were out in public) and surely it is the responsibility of the owner to try to protect their dog from harm if nothing else?

As the OP said he was on a road, what would have happened if said mutt had stepped out in front of a car?

If that is directed at me – I wasn’t riding disrespectfully

It was a general statement, thanks for biting though 😉

Maybe it’s because my formative riding was mostly down at QE Country Park “Trail Centre” – I have become very good at spotting and adapting to the presence of dogs!

Once whilst out riding this bloody stupid Boxer came flying out of nowhere, hit my front wheel & sent me straight over the bars leaving me lying in a heap on the floor.He then turned round jumped on my chest & started licking my face like something gone mental.I finally got him off,shouted at him to sit,he did this straight away & just sat there good as gold.I would have given the owner a right mouthful & maybe even a slap,had the bloody stupid Boxer not been owned by me….. 😳

thanks for biting though

Not biting per se – just setting things straight 🙂

dog owners mostly don’t see it from the riders point of view, perhaps it’s because the mut is part of the family or by almost killing their puch, you’ve pointed out that they are bad owners. Mostly though I reckon that owner don’t care, are thick and are controlled by the dog not the other way round. Any body notice that the 1st 100m of any trail near a road sticks of dog sh1t? Rub the owner face it, that would stop it. Almost all dogs are good and most owners could do better.

Her comes the doggy and doggy owner defence league.

TheLittlestHobo – Member

I have had the loose dog coming the wrong way up a man made track before. I managed to do an emergency stop etc.

This was on 7 stanes route so i am not sure with right to roam etc of situation.

This is unclear at the moment. It could be seen that the walker has the right to roam on that path, or it could be that the trails are ” built for a specific purpose” and thus right to roam does not apply. The example given is that of a horse training gallop on which right to roam does not exist

The one time I was at Dalbeattie I was amazed at the numbers of folk walking on the trails

It will take a test case to clarify this IMO

I always slow down on trails for dogs, I dont mind I like dogs, as you say on a road its not expected I would no doubt have done what you did ie nothing and then seethed about it later on here. From the other point of view I was in some woods last week with my lurcher pup (nearly six months) saw some bikes coming and and called the dog over she came and I held her collar, however the speed the cyclist came past at was quite scary and shook me up a little, inconsiderate tossers. Mind when they went past and I let go of the dog she tore off after (wouldnt have done that had I expected it to happen, lesson learnt) them which seemed to scare them as the faster they went the more she chased.

mind you had one of them hit the dog when they came past I’d have torn there **** throats out which could easily have happend if she’d been spooked by them approaching and hadnt come up to me.

EDITED! One funny and one not funny story!!!

First one isn’t actually funny. I was driving along the dual carriage way through East Kilbride a few years ago and there was a trail of stopped cars in the other direction. All cars on my side stopped to rubberneck. Sitting by the side of the road was a woman who was obviously very distraught and was being comforted by several people. In her hand she held one of those retractable leads. On the other end, in the middle of the road was (you’ve guessed) a very dead dog. Total stupidity on her part but felt sorry for her.

Second one. On my commute a couple of years ago through Paisley a guy had two labs on one of those leads at full extension. They spot me and jump out at me and very nearly knock me off the bike. I get angry quite quickly and I did then with the owner screaming at him about what if there was a car there. He didn’t say anything and went very white. I cycled off. As always happens with me 10 mins later I felt terrible. Cycled the same way the next day and saw him and stopped to appologise, explaining about all the stupid things that happen to cyclists on the road. He was was very appologetic too and we had a nice chat. Saw him almost every day for the next year and always said hello and had a chat!

Doug, I had an encounter with the ‘invisible extendible lead’ phenomenon. Riding along cycle path, owner on one side, little terrier-type dog on other. Brain FAIL, and forget to consider the possibility that the two may be connected in some way… The lead caught my bike across the headtube, the dog flew into the air, and the owner failed to let go, so the dog carried on being flung through the air whilst I screeched to a halt. I found it too funny to be angry – the owner did not, nor did they see the point that any lower or higher, it would have been me flying through the air. I gave up arguing and rode off. Still tickles me the look of horror on the owner’s face, and the very surprised expression of the flying pooch’s face!

I have very nearly killed a terrier that almost always jumps out onto the road at the bottom of a descent I’m usually on the DH bike for. I’m not sure I’d even feel the bump at that speed on that bike. As it seems intent on suicide, i’m sure one day Darwinism will take its course…

I had a dog incident a few years ago whilst driving my car. I had my 9mths pregnant wife in the passenger seat and i was driving home at 30mph down a very badly lit piece of road (Since had all the lights upgraded due to homeowners complaining). Anyhow i always make doubly sure on that piece of road that i am safe because it was an accident waiting to happen and this was an early winters evening so quite dark.

I swear out of nowhere a set of eyes lit up in my headlights. No warning, no noise kust a set of big eyes, and then a tongue, huge it seemed. I slammed on the brakes and the wife nearly hit the windscreen. There was quite a bang and i papped myself.

Got out of the car to find a woman crying by the side of the road (I still didnt know what the hell i had hit). I went to see if she was ok and she started shouting for her dog. It came bounding over, this huuuge black labrador. I gave him a gentle stroke and he was a bit tender around the back legs but he seemed to be ok. The woman was still crying away. I offered her a lift home etc but she refused. There was no point in lecturing her about the dog being off the lead and from what i could see, no harm done to my car. It deffo woke me up though.

I actually found a load of dog hair stuck in my bumper the next day 🙂

Moral of the story, there isnt one. But i dont think anything would be achieved lecturing the owner. Oh and on a dark night with limited vision, with .00001sec notice i managed to avoid killing a dog with a death wish 🙂

not adding to any comments, i always take a wide line near dogs and find “most” owners, to at least attempt to control their dogs, things happen, we as bikers screw up, we are not infallible (unlike some of the STW trolls want to make you believe) and sometimes owners screw up and do not take into account the situation and their pet.

my worst experience was at Coed Llandegla of all places. as we minced along down a fire road decent and were turning off to a rare piece of single track 😛 we encountered a pair of walkers and a collie dog. at which point we nearly ended up 5 in a pile as the first guy tried to stop to avoid hitting the walkers and their pet in tow.. only to have some silver surfer berate us for going so fast (on a “MTB only” marked trail) and then one of our group was bite by the over excited dog due to raised voices and all the squealing of bikes, tyres, brakes and voices 🙂 .

reality of the situation was the walkers were stupid and “the signs do apply to us” attitude nearly caused us to go into each other, caused a friend to go get a jab later (to be fair he is a lawyer and most likely deserved it) and general upset in the group when we were in the right and were annoyed to have a pair of people who should know better kicking off at us…

truth is we all have tails good and bad.. just be respectful of the animal. yes the owners could be better or worse but end of the day they are animals and as people will react differently to situations. As some people will freeze and panic if you cycle towards them, same can apply to animals.

>Granted this dog may have not been under the level of control it should have been

If it’s liable to stray onto the public road, it *should* have been under control. Off the lead’s fine if it’s obedient enough, on the lead if it isn’t. I’m pretty sure the owner is liable for any accidents it causes, and that not in the recent ambulance-chasing sense, IIRC my mother had 3rd party insurance for our dog and that was 40+ years ago.

Yup:
http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/pet_insurance_guides/pets_and_public_liability.html

emac65 – Member

Once whilst out riding this bloody stupid Boxer came flying out of nowhere, hit my front wheel & sent me straight over the bars leaving me lying in a heap on the floor.He then turned round jumped on my chest & started licking my face like something gone mental.I finally got him off,shouted at him to sit,he did this straight away & just sat there good as gold.I would have given the owner a right mouthful & maybe even a slap,had the bloody stupid Boxer not been owned by me…..

I was almost ready to shout at ya for slating boxers when I saw the twist that it was yours! heh! its so true tho, i very occasionally walk maddy to our lane to walk on my road bike with her trotting along side,slowly and always on footpath and i always stop for people but shes started to get an aversion for loud lorries as they roarrr past us on main road, i generally hear or see them coming and can counteract it but i missed it this particular time n happened to have both hands on bars too, she dead anchored cos of lorry thus my bars went a swinging and i went a flying. lol.

and the muppet couple walking along the pavement allow their labrador….

OK so you seen the dog and never thought to your self that the dog mite just step out in front of you and take a bit of a wide berth or maybe just slow down just in case?

emac65 as for you it would have been a better story if you said the dog started to hump you

OK so you seen the dog and never thought to your self that the dog mite just step out in front of you and take a bit of a wide berth or maybe just slow down just in case?

Given that it would have been a different story if he were driving a car, I’d have said it would be in the owners’ best interests to ensure said dog was sensible enough not to wander, or have it on a lead. Making that assumption, there’d be no need to slow down or change direction, seeing as he was on a road…