"…Let's Ride"

Whats the best way to deal with aggressive dogs when riding a mountain bike? 

.

I’ve successfully used two methods over the past 10 years and had no serious incidents with dogs. The first, and usually most effective, is to shout as loud as you can “NO” or “AHHT”. Most, even poorly trained dogs, will respond to these vocal commands and back off. If not, then I have a fail-safe back-up method I’ve been using for years.

.
My back-up method is to carry a battery operated ultrasonic dog deterrent , available for about $20. This gadget, about the size of a pack of cigarrettes, emits a high pitched sound that hurts their ears yet but it’s out of the range of human ears so it’s silent to us.So you won’t hear it at all but you’ll see the dog shrugging its shoulders and squinting its eyes. An added plus is that my fellow riders won’t get a burst of pepper spray in the face if they’re riding to close. And for that…………….they are thankful.

Overall, the best thing to do when approaching dogs on a trail is to slow down, as not to “over-excite” the dog, and move as far as possible to the opposite side of the trail to ride, if not walk, by. Also, keep your sonic zapper somewhere easily accessable in case a dog becomes aggressive. Alot of dog owners let their dogs of the leash when walking trails, and quite a bit of those are dogs that don’t walk off-leash normally. It’s aggrivating, I know, but it’s just something we’re going to have to deal with, especially on popular trails.

 

Final Thought:

The trails are for everybody to use. If there’s people out with there dogs off a leash, and shouldn’t be, it’s not the dogs fault, its the negligence of the owner and any aggressive behavior from you is going to provoke the same behavior from the dog. Depending on the dog, that could be a very dangerous or even deadly situation. “Ride slow and yell NO”, if that doesnt work then sonic zap em, it works everytime.

Can't Find What You Need?? Check My eStore,
 The Link is in the Sidebar