My post yesterday about the Chinese dog who followed a group of cyclists more than a thousand kilometers made me reflect on my own dog-bike interactions.
Typically these have been negative.
I’ve never owned a dog and so I’ve never been particularly fond of them.
I’m also scared of them because when I was living in Argentina I used to cycle around (on the oldest, heaviest bike in the world, but that’s another story) and one of the many stray dogs that infested the city ran up and bit me.
It wasn’t a bad bite – hardly left a mark but it was still scary, particularly because the risk of getting rabies seemed much higher from a stray in Argentina than in NZ.
The other day I was on the North Western and there was a couple walking their dog. The dog ran up to me and snapped at me, it actually touched my leg with it’s teeth.
It wasn’t seriously trying to bite – just scaring me.
But as I was just turning off the North-Western onto a very steep ascent at the time I lost my balance and had to do a rather rapid dismount.
What kind of shocked me about this was the couple’s reaction. They didn’t scream at their dog “Lassy down!” or apologize profusely to me or actually do much of anything at all.
Instead they just called out in a kind of disinterested way, “Get down.” If I was the dog I wouldn’t have felt like they were telling me off. They didn’t even say sorry to me.
What do you think? Is that normal behaviour? Do you have many problems with dogs snapping at you on bikes? Are there any areas of Auckland where this is a real problem?
I have always had fears about dogs after all the years of being chased around Ponsonby’s back streets when I was young and doing a paper round. Owners also get extremely indignant if you mention anything to them when they have their dog off its leash on beaches etc when they shouldn’t. It’s the same the world over though, people with dogs see them as members of their family – so they can do no wrong.
I was once attacked by a dog when riding on the beach. He was barking, snarling and trying to bite me so I jumped off the bike and used it as shield between us. The owner called him back but made no apology at all! I was kind of in shock and let it go because there were two dog-owners walking together, two large dogs off the lease and I felt a little outnumbered.
I do think dogs react to cyclists differently than walkers. Not sure why, maybe its the extra speed and height spooks them. Pretty sure all ‘off leash dog exercise areas’ which combine with cycle routes could be problematic, definitely get the feeling that owners consider these as let the dog do what it wants spaces. Can’t help wondering if its a case of familiarity though, I wonder if dogs in Holland get jumpy around cyclists.
It’s the dog owners that are the problem not the dog’s the owner’s haven’t trained the dog properly ,the owner’s let there dog run free when it should be on a lead, owner’s not knowing were there dog is at all time’s .Dog owner’s MUST HAVE CONTROL over there dog’s at all time’s .Dog’s are great it’s just a few owner’s of dog’s the give’s them all a bad name (have you ever seen S&R cat ,Police cat or a seeing eye cat ?) Yes I have owned dog’s in the past .
I agree it is the owners not the dogs. Our pup Tui thought bikes either wanted to play or were trying to attack us (she feels the same about lawn mowers). But we did a lot of work with her to make sure she respects other path-users space… now if we could only train everyone so well
While riding on cycleways, dogs and their owners seem like the biggest problem, and they usually look at you like you shoulnt be invading THEIR dog walking path with your stupid bike! I am so suprised that I havent been attacked (yet) as I spend alot of time on cycleways and avoiding dogs/dog owners, I have had some close calls when I have had to go off path to keep from crashing in to them, sometimes I prefer the cars!
It would be nice (for us cyclists anyway) to have dedicated cycleways that have no dog walking alowed!