So you would mace an innocent dog because it was running beside you and you can't separate your fear from reality. Awesome. Maybe I can feel justified in strangling every cat I see because one bit me once and I had to go to hospital and get a tetanus shot. After all, it's only a cat not a human. That North Korea's looking pretty dodgy too and they've been warring with us once before. Let's just nuke the f*ckers shall we? Take out China too because they kind of look the same and they're a pretty big threat too. After all, they're people but they're not "us" people, they're "them" people. The concept is the same brother, you've just found a way to justify one more than the other. Disproportionate response.

We've got a debate going over here about killing sharks because a few people have been taken in the last few years too, so it's not just a US thing. People scare the $hit out of me sometimes. I have no idea what makes some think they are more important than everything and everyone else on this planet.

I have to admit that since starting to read this thread I have had the thought that it would be a fantastic scene for a low brow comedy. Some dude getting chased on his bike by a dog gets out the can of pepper spray and due to the wind or whatever accidentally gets it in his own face causing him to fall in a hilarious manner. The scene could end one of two ways: either the dog could start licking the pepper spray off the fallen cyclists face; or the normally docile pup could take offence and rip the offender's throat out. Probably the first one though. I'm not much of a gratuitous violence guy.

I really should have picked up on this point earlier. What the hell are you doing with dog poo inside of you? Do you eat it or insert it otherwise? Are you really a dog lover in the most carnal sense of the word?

This place is sick man...just sick!

 
OK, you started to lose me once we reached the tetanus shot. Once we got to North Korea, I pretty much tuned out.

My apologies for not realizing you were just bat-shit crazy. Carry on.

My experience encountering thousands of dogs over a lifetime of dog ownership serves me well.

    I've found over the years that the loud command thing or squirt of water (even if it misses, the dog sees it and gets the wtf look about them) does sometimes disarm a dog. Really varies with the dog. One thing consistent is the importance of getting the dog out and beside you, where you can control it. Once I get or let the dog along side, I just ride a minor ess pattern while continuing ahead, and this keeps the dog off balance (I also talk to the dog about how cute it is, the more vicious the more I tell it it's cute and cuddly, which really seems to piss em off because they are trying to have their serious "this is my scary badass" face on). Okay, that last bit may not help, but it is entertaining to do. :)
There was a bulldog that chased from the same house every time I passed, and one day I let it come up beside me smoothly on my right, at probably 18-20 mph it moved on up the length of my bike, turned it's head to the the left, and clamped down on my front tire/wheel...it's head immediately slammed to the pavement, and it let go as it got the air knocked out. Seemed fine, as it picked himself up and trotted back toward home. I was pleased that I did not go down and the tire was fine, but would not recommend being that non-responsive.

ps All that said, I think pepper spray is something any female should have handy. The girlfriend uses the "Cycle saver" one below, with the handlebar mount, but "Halt" is also well known, and has a clothing clip-on.

http://www.amazon.com/...ef=pd_sl_o1h1j9317_e

You need to change your name to strawman.

You don't want any retaliation from the owners...

And you think that pepper spraying their dogs will not bring any retaliation?

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

You might need to review your understanding of a strawman argument. I was neither stating nor implying that he held those beliefs. What I was doing was a simple example of quality mockery.

However, I'll state my opinion clearly for those hard of understanding and then leave this thread alone:

Anyone who considers it reasonable or just to inflict pain or injury on an animal that has not demonstrated a genuine capacity and intent to cause them harm is a gutless, brainless, poor excuse for a human being. Ironically they would probably be more likely to identify as christian too.

What about the ones that do mean you harm? How do you tell the difference? What about the ones that live on a climb where you can't outrun them? What if they live on the main access road you have to take to get to good riding?

I see no harm in carrying pepper spray or any other non lethal deterrant. If the dog is not on its own property you have every right to respond to its chasing of you. I have two lab mixes, and if I witnessed someone pepper spraying my dogs in the street the first thing I would do after restraining my dogs would be to apologize and make sure the cyclist/runner was ok. I know my dogs are big, dumb, and harmless, but they don't.

One of my dogs is a lab/pitt mix. She likes to bark at cyclists from behind the fence in the back yard. She is the sweetest lap dog ever... but if I didn't know her, and I rode past her, heard her barking, and then suddenly she got out and chased me, I would assume the worst until I knew better.

You were attacking his general position and making a fallacious extension of it. There was no reductio ad absurdum there. Your mockery was unclear because you are clearly emotionally charged by this issue. That's pretty clear from your last statement.

Whoa! I have opened abig can of worms! I’m a dog lover but I feelthat I have the right to protect myself. This is currently what I’m considering:

· Get Pepper Spray because I’m a small female andI think that I need it for my safety. I wouldfind a way to mount it on my bike and only use it in an emergency and or self-defense.

· A co-worker told me about the Dog Dazer IIUltrasonic Dog Deterrent. It produces ahigh frequency sound that is only audible to dogs. I’m going to try mounting it on myhandlebars.

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Check out my blog!

therusticrunner.blogspot.com

I just received a similar ultrasonic device from sound defense. It sounds almost like a home smoke detector. I used it for the first time this weekend. There is always a dog in the same place that looks like Benji from the old movies so definitely not a giant but he comes from the side and goes back in forth making riding pretty hazardous. I pointed the device in his general direction and gave a burst. Awesome- he turned tail and trotted back into his yard. No overspray, no pissed off owner. Again have only used once but so far so good.

was thinking about that sound thing as well, i had one it worked well. I mostly just talk to the dogs and tell them to go home. Most do or just run on the side for a while.

The really angry ones that seem to attack I wait for them to make the first move and if I see angry teeth, I stop, grab a rock/stick or anything and toss it at their heads. (but i'm not a pitcher so my target is usually way off) This one time, a very angry shaggy one that I always out ride managed to get close and showed his teeth in an attempt to bite my leg, so I stopped grabbed a rock and managed to hit him on his backside, not a bad throw. He ran, I got back on and continued my ride, the next time I rode by he just laid there and kinda nodded as I rode by. I liked that. Its like he knew not to mess with me. Dogs are like that. Sometimes they need a lesson. Nothing too angry or violent though, just something so they know whats up.

There is a problem with this though. Another time I was riding and a gang of dogs ran out of a yard and started ganging up on me. One of them actually bit me in the calf region, so I flipped and stopped the bike. I could not find any rocks or stick or anything (the cleanest street ever wtf) so I had to walk a little further. When I finally found a rock I ran back and they were all lying on the ground breathing heavily and moving their tails. Like they forgot who I was. I could not be angry at them then, they were too cute. This sounds nice, but its not when you just got bit, it kind of counters the anger and makes you feel stupid. So I just laughed and got back on my bike. Those same dogs keep chasing me and they are like 6, now I just try to kick them. But I think that they think i'm playing.

#my2dogstories

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Swim with swimmers, bike with cyclists, run with runners. Train with those who are hard to keep up with. Soon you will be hard to keep up with.

Ok good wanted to make sure you had no valid reason.

I have carried it in the past. A couple of things I have read on here. First you don't us a cloud spraying type you use a the type that sprays a stream. Two it is very effective. Three if you can't spray it with out falling off the bike how do you drink water. Four if you are riding a bike it would take a very strong wind to blow it back at you(nearly impossible). Not directing these at you as much as some of the rediculous stuff I have read here. Many of the people are correct they don't want to bite normally just chase. They are more likely to misjudge their closing speed and hit you. The herding dogs will nip at your calf and heel but they are not trying to bite. Also if you spray a dog once they won't come back for more the next time. The pitbull I sprayed was on a hill I could not outrun him. It took two sprays to make him stop. But from then on he would halt if I as much as took my hand off the handle bar.

Water bottle squirted right in the yap works fantastic. By the time they figure out what hit them you are long gone.

If you are going to act like an authority and knock what other people are saying, please don't be wrong.

Fog spray is prone to blowback but does not require you to be as accurate. A big plus while trying to spray a moving target, unfortunately the blowback problem is significant and may not be the best choice for a bike. That is the one thing we agree on. The stream kind requires accuracy that will be hard to achieve under the circumstances of being on a moving bike and aiming at a target moving along side, behind or in front of you, and likely at varying speeds. Even with the stream kind you can get blowback (less than fog type) especially if spraying in your direction of travel (as on a bike) or wind. You are wrong when you say it won't happen. It can, just not as much as fog type.

I stand by the potential difficulty to spray an animal on a moving bike while it is attacking you. You have to control the bike, look forward, look at the animal, aim in their direction, apply the dose while maintaining control and position and keeping your aim. you have to hit them right in the face - directly.

I am glad OC spray has worked well for you and you have mastered it's use, but it is irresponsible for you to downplay these considerations.

Even the manufacturer of Fox OC spray speaks to accuracy issues and potential for blowback, or less blowback depending on fog or stream.

http://www.defensedevices.com/...-spray-cone-fog.html

Edited because maybe I was being snarky.

Yes it does

There is no argument a cloud dispenser works better in self defense and standing still such as for bears and I have used it for that also twice. The reason you use a stream while riding is because it projects out from you and the bike and then dispenses into a cloud because of the wind stream so same affect just farther away from you. A cloud dispenser except for a very powerful type like bear spray which most would not want to carry because it is too big would not project the clould out far enough and would quickly dispense behind you in the wind stream. Unless you spray it out in front of you there is not chance of blow back due to the wind stream.

So in short I do know what I am talking about and have been trained it is use in crowd control, self defense and apprehension techniques.

So in short, you might know what you are talking about but your last post didn't reflect that. Understood. You choose not to address the difficulty of hitting a moving target with the stream OC spray, when anyone one trained in it's use would have that as a primary consideration. Now you are saying the stream kind can blow back at you where before you said it couldn't. Let's do the math. If she is sprays in the direction of travel it can blow back at her because she is riding into the wind. Let's assume she is going 20 mph. What if the dog is at her 4 o'clock position and wind is blowing from that direction. You don't think 20 mph winds occur in nature?

So what you're saying is that the cloud type dispenser is best for getting the pack of cheating triathletes off your ass during the bike leg. Thanks!

I address the accuracy. Read the part about the stream disperses into a cloud or more accurately a shotgun affect. If she is moving 20 mph and she sprays a 4 o'clock ie behind her the wind would have to be greater then 20 mph to catch her. If the wind was that strong from behind she is probally doing more than 20 mph. Also with s stream unlike a cloud when it is directed down it is very unlikely that it will blow back up to head level. When I used it on the dog i was not trained. I will conceed somebody in a panic might have some troublem.

I am not going to get into a physics exercise with you regarding wind direction. I was just demonstrating how you were contradicting yourself when you inferred that blowback wouldn't be a problem if she didn't spray it in the direction of travel. I pointed out that winds can come from all direction equal to or greater than the headwind created by simply riding. There are a lot of factors.

The accuracy issue is huge. You continue to downplay it. Even if you are comfortable, trained, and not panicking, it will be hard to hit a dog in the face while riding.

You seem to want to find any one of the reasons NOT to spray a dog. Most of which you argue is ineffective or dangerous to the rider or unnecessary. I think you care about the dog.

I don't. I only need one reason ... it works. I have sprayed dogs. I have never had a repeat offender either. I keep pepper spray in my bento bag. Easy to reach. Easy to use. Simple. Point ... spray.

You ... well, you can let yourself get bitten or have a nasty fall because a dog grabbed your tire or ran into it. Me, I spray the bastards and eliminate the problem.

I'm not changing my solution to the problem. Why? It works.

Stop being histrionic. I don't care about the dog. This is Slowtwitch - not the ASPCA or PETA forum.

What I do care about is making sure the original poster isn't misinformed about the use of this deterrent. I have carried OC spray myself (if you read the posts) and was ready to use it on a certain dog, but it is irresponsible to just tell her to get the OC spray and use it without being forthcoming about the downside and difficulty. I have had training in OC spray use. I have actually had to practice using it to make sure I was effective. I am not playing internet Ninja here like some of you.

I know that blowback is a real possibility and getting a hit on target is not easy. if you are going along at 5 miles and hour and the dog is more or less running along side of you it might be possible to get a hit in the face, but at 15-20 miles an hour with the dog weaving in and out and changing speed, you will have a difficult time getting that dog in the face, even with practice.

You can do whatever you want. When you miss the dog with the spray and he still bites you, or if you fall off your bike or crash into another rider while you are trying to spray the charging dog, let us know.

it is like telling someone to buy a gun personal protection. The gun is just the tool. Knowing how to use it and being realistic about what it can do is the important thing.