I rode yesterday past a farm with a dog sat outside, quietly gauging my approach, so i just thought, head down don’t look, just keep going…

dog goes a tad wild, barking, tried to have a nip at me, darting around me, trying to jump up, it wasn’t quite a full on teeth out attack, but it seemed intent on shitting me up….

i put the hammer down whilst shouting ‘Get In’ at it, but may as well have been saying, ‘eat me i’m your dinner’, for all the effect it had!

..i outsprinted it in the end after it chased me for about 100 yards or so…

anything i should have done differently, or anything to shout that would render it momentarily lifeless, gratefully appreciated?

Tell her to lighten up, let’s face it, she’s not getting any younger, (or thinner), so she needs to learn how to take a joke.

Ignore or kick in the face

You choose

head down don’t look, just keep going…

From the dog’s view: no eye contact, head down in subservience, running away = chance to assert dominance and show off hunting/territory skills.

Thumbs in eye sockets- works like a charm.

A good swipe with a Zefal HPX will have most farm dogs gas at a peep, made of metal don’t you know. Pump of champions, not only does it deliver excellent high pressure it doubles as a cosh.

once, sat round a table in the mess at work, three coleagues discussed how to tear a dog in half with your hands. The med student sat at the next table was quite pale over it all. so, rip it in half? or ride like fugg, treat it as a finish line sprint training opportunity?

you shouted ‘get in’ at it? like a fist in the air type ‘get in’ when your bets come in winners or ‘get in’ as in a typo auotcorrect of ‘get off’ ? if not, why were you shouting ‘get in’ at a barking dog? congratulating it on a fine row of teeth?

After getting my ankle nipped, I found getting up a bit of speed and then firmly pushing its nose sideways with your foot has the desirable effect.

Dog fell on its nose and then ran back home with its tail between its legs 🙂

Sounds like a “dangerous dog” to me a call to the local Police may help, it may be a child it attacks next time. 😯
Edit Of course farmers are quite often above the laws that apply to us mere mortals.

With a working dog a good firm ‘Lie down’ with a bit of emphasis on the down does the trick as long as you adopt the local accent. Dog thinks ‘bugger, now the boss is riding a bike, better not chase him’. Wearing a flat cap and wellies may help too.

Why is STW always so keen to inflict violence on dogs?

Seriously, did none of you ever learn to deal with them without resorting to violence?

When I have mountain biked in Italy in rural areas with many farm dogs I found that getting off the bike before the dog has started approaching you (with the bike between you and the dog) and casually walking past ignoring it works easily the best.

It is very difficult to cycle faster than the average dog (mine just unties my shoelaces as I’m going downhill at full speed regardless of how much I try an kick and shout at her….)

Unclip and kick!!!!! Simples !!!! ( unless its a big dog ( best not to p1ss them off))

Had it twice today on the way to work. The one was a massive rotty thing built like a horse. Thing should have had a muzzle on.

The dog is just being territorial. it wants you ‘orf its laaaand!’ Speed, away from the mutt is the answer. Kick it if you want but if it the dog is truly after you it will likely see this as no deterrent and just a challenge. Result? It chases you more. If it thinks you have been ‘seen off’ it will back off.

That’s just short term though. I would be reporting it as a dangerous dog as my next port of call.

Why is STW always so keen to inflict violence on dogs?
Seriously, did none of you ever learn to deal with them without resorting to violence?

This!

Also amazed that some people consider this a “dangerous dog” that needs to be reported so it can be destroyed 🙄

No discerning taste has the right answer.

Kicking a dog is not really acceptable. A lot of farmers (me included) keep dogs loose as it does act as a deterrent against less scrupulous folks who wander onto the yard ‘lost’ and end up peering in all the sheds looking for quads, saws, trailers etc. Collies are bad for chasing wheels, ideally farmers should keep them chained if they are a genuine danger, but many are not, just seem a bit wild. The biggest problem in rural areas, believe it or not, is not farm dogs nipping ankles, it’s the theft of machinery and vehicles which causes worried farmers to then leave dogs wandering.

Thisisnotaspoon does have a good point!

Kicking an out of control dog is not very pleasant (for the kicker or the kickee), but you can’t reason with an unfamiliar dog guarding it’s patch. Sometimes it is a last resort.

Once when I was younger, I passed a farm on a remote fireroad and was chased by 3 dogs.
A few hundred metres up the road I got off my bike, and they surrounded me, snarling.
Thankfully at that point, my mate caught up and launched a rock at them- which sent them all scampering away.

So maybe throw rocks at them instead?

I have the same issue on part of one of my trails. The trail takes you through a farm yard and the dogs ar mental. One did nip my missus on the ankle once. They tend to chase and circle the bike.

I think they should be restrained on a public right of way or a farmer could find himself in a world of pain if one of them seriously hurt someone.

Yup indeed, I’m sure I read that there’s a legal requirement for footpaths & bridleways have to kept free from dogs which would hinder a member of the public.

Edited …. To frustrated to comment.

Just ignore them. Most dogs aren’t anywhere near as threatening as what they look. The chances of actually being properly attacked by a dog are very slim.

My dad tells a great tale of a farm dog that used to chase after him and his mates on their motorbikes back in the 60s. 1 day one got too close on a tight turn and my dad placed his fort out, caught the dog under the chin and flipped it over. After that incident it would never chase my dads bike. If he rode a mates it would still go for him and leave his mate on my dads bike alone. Recognised the sound as his mates ride very similar looking bikes.

If a dog is chasing you. Stop, get off the bike with it as a shield and usually they will stop. If need be shout at it. Lie down as above can be very effective. Spent quite a bit of time on farms and usually the nasty buggers are tied up. Watch for the little buggers circling behind you though.

There’s a little ankle biter at a farm on one of my local trails. I use it as a challenge. Depending on which way I’m going, its at the top of a mega steep hill so i always stop at the top to get my breath back before heading towards the farm and then doing my best impression of Cav

It never goes too far from its land, and will stop before getting to the road so its good fun outrunning it.

Much better than the rottie at the next farm which is mostly tied up but I have met up with it twice once in the snow and I really did panic a bit coz there was no way I could have got away with all that snow but it turned back into the yard.

Agree with those suggesting stopping and getting off and keeping the bike between you and dog until it calms down a bit. If it doesn’t calm down, walk calmly away until you are clear. Dogs have a very strong chase instinct and trying to run or cycle off at speed will trigger it and almost certainly get you chased, sometimes even by a dog that would have ignored you if you were walking.
The reverse of this effect is why as a dog owner you should never chase after a dog that’s running away from you. You run the other way and it’ll chase you and soon catch up whereas if you chase it, you won’t catch it at all.
Also, as someone mentioned, a fit farm dog will be able to touch 30mph in a sprint along the flat, you won’t outrun it on an MTB without a steep hill to go down for a minute or so to tire it out. If it is just behind you nipping at your wheel/ankles it’s because that’s what it wants to do, not because it can’t go any faster than that.
Edit:

The chances of actually being properly attacked by a dog are very slim

This, the dog just want you to go away and in the past showing aggression has got that result for it, so it acts agressive. It’s extremely unlikely that it wants a fight, it’ll know you are a threat to it if pushed so it just wants you to go away. Just do what it wants quietly and calmly and it should calm down pretty quickly

Thisisnotaspoon has a point. Lots of talk here of aggro which can only be a last resort.
Mate & I make a point of talking to the puppies that yap at you. Usually calms them fast and can set them for life.

If it’s a South American dog – unlikely in the UK, but probable in, say, Peru – just miming picking up a stone will stop it in its tracks usually. The locals throw them and they know what’s coming to the point where you don’t actually need the stone at all in most cases.

Not much help I know, but if some slavering Bolivan farm dog charges across half a mile of altiplano to bark at you, you’ll know what to do…

Also amazed that some people consider this a “dangerous dog” that needs to be reported so it can be destroyed

Yep there’s some right Mail reading morons about. It was obviously a farm collie that was trying to round you up. That’s what they do, give a nip to make you go the way they want. I find it quite funny when they do it but then I’m not a moaning little pussy. If it really wanted to bite you it would rip your calf off quite easily.

There’s a little ankle biter at a farm on one of my local trails. I use it as a challenge. Depending on which way I’m going, its at the top of a mega steep hill so i always stop at the top to get my breath back before heading towards the farm and then doing my best impression of Cav

It never goes too far from its land, and will stop before getting to the road so its good fun outrunning it.

That’s the spirit!

I think kicking is a cowards option, particularly now everyone is riding flats. You need to dismount and go toe to paw for the punch in the face or head butt. Or as above you could talk to it, perhaps help it get to the route of it’s anger issues, maybe take it for a meal or to the pictures, get to know that puppy.

I’d still like to know why the op was shouting ‘get in’

Dr Dolittle thisisnotaspoon may have a point and even be correct but many have no experiance of dog ownership. I was certainly wagging ( :-)) school the day dog whispering lessons were being given. Some people are intimidated by certain types of dogs, some dogs have poor owners with animals that have been encouraged to believe its their job to scare you. Unless you are very confident in your abilities around dogs it not so easy to calm an animal down, especially if as mentioned above, it’s a totally nutty farm collie. So my point is, give us a lesson in doggy calming rather than accusing people of doing the very natural fight reaction, especial if Fido is to big run from.

Farm collies are not dangerous. I’ve never been chased by one. If you go out in the countryside it might help keep your life relaxed if you didnt dissolve into tears of fright at the first sight of a normal countryside experience. Stick to the bike parks. Its a scary world out there.

You need to come up here then. We have some poor bloody farm dogs that are as mad as mad collies can madly be. Reasonably effective at detouring the most scum looking to nick stuff as the the poor bloody animals put up a right racket. One of them I’d never go near and neither do the owners, but some the scariest are your best mate once they know you.
“Normal countryside experiance”. Now then.

Barbara Woodhouse to the forum.

what to do if a dog takes offence…

Take it back.

working farm dogs that the owners wont go near, yeah right! 😆

Remove bottle from cage (or take a deep glug from camelback)

Squirt in dog’s face

Pedal gently away from confused yet subdued animal

Works every time for me.

working farm dogs that the owners wont go near, yeah right!

There was one on my Granddad’s farm when I was a kid no one could go near not even my Granddad, he was the best working dog on the farm though and my Granddad reckoned one of the best dogs he owned. Instinctively worked most of the time with very little input and kept the other dogs right. Just a very bad tempered dog he never went for anyone but you couldn’t approach him without him warning you and then snapping.

I get the impression that cyclists in the USA tend to use a product called ‘Halt!’ which is a pepper-based aerosol spray. It’s unpleasant for the poor dog, and is supposed to stop even the most determined in its tracks, and is rumoured to prevent them from ‘attacking’ other cyclists in the future.

I’ve not really had a problem with dogs – most of the ones which want to chase aren’t intent on attacking. I did have one experience with a barkin’ mad dog which on one occasion definitely grazed my ankle, although it didn’t bite. I got off the bike, and tried to walk past, but by then its beer-drinking owners came out and tried to call it off. What ensued was 10 minutes of what probably felt like a game to the dog, and probably an encouragement for it to do the same the next time the cyclist came past. It was bounding up and down the lane while it’s owners leapt around trying to catch it, and in the end they started hurling stones at it! It did eventually go into their garden, giving me an opportunity to ‘get away’. The owners called after me, “If he ever does that again and we’re not here, just tell him to stop – his name’s Stuart”!

So a working dog no one could go near, I call bullshit. Any dog that aggressive couldnt be worked and would rapidly recieve a bullet in its head. Maybe just, maybe your grandad wanted you to keep away from this dog and might have exagerated a tad?