How do you deal with unfriendly dogs?

[happyslug]

7. Always ride by them and say "Good Puppies"

Every dog has heard the phase "Good Puppies" they do NOT know what it means, but it generally means something good. By saying that you are telling them you are not an enemy but a potential friend.

After a while, they will still chase you, but stay on they side of the fence and it will be more a game to them then anything else. I once has to walk by a fenced in business that kept two dogs to watch the place behind a chain linked fence. After a few weeks, they still came out when they saw me. barked at me, kept an eye on me, but since I had made no moves to the fence they started to stop "chasing" to the fence a lot sooner then when I first started to walk by the place they were guarding.

My parents once had two dogs and every time we left them out in the back yard, they were bark at the dog catercorner to my parent's house. They did this for years. then one day that dog jumped over the fence. We heard nothing but quite. The neighbor's dog just stood they frozen, he knew he was were he was NOT suppose to be. My parent's dog? just ignored him, for he was NOT were he was suppose to be and clearly was NOT a threat to them. We went out and called the neighbor, who came to get his dog, who then went back to his back yard and barked like he used to from his back yard to my dogs. By they barks you would have sworn those dogs would have torn each other apart when they came together, but when they did come together nothing happened. The main reason for this was habit had been to bark at each other NOT to attack each other.

I bring this up, for your best choice may be to STOP BIKING. You are NO longer running from the dog and he will not know what to do, for only his master does that at the present time. My Father was a Letter Carrier, and he retained one of the last leather postal bag (The Postal Service told the Carriers to turn them in some times in the 1960s, but my father kept his till the 1970s). When he came up to a dog he was always prepared to but that bag between him and the dog and that was the main reason he kept the leather bag.

I bring this up for you have a bike. If you can NOT outrun the dog, stop and put the bike between you and the dog, just like my Father would put his leather mail bag between himself and any loose dog that came up to him. My Father always made sure the dog came to him, he never approached the dog. The same with these Great Pyrenees, stop, get off your bike and keep the bike between you and the dog and see what the dog does. In most cases, the dog will look up to you with a look "Why did you stop, it was fun running after you". On the other hand if he attacks you, the bike is between you and the dog.

In many ways, that may have been the better option when the dog did escape. Stop biking, get off the bike and see what the dog does. The Great Pyrenees is NOT known to be an aggressive animal, it is protective but not aggressive:

In nature, the Great Pyrenees is confident, gentle (especially with children), and affectionate. While territorial and protective of its flock or family when necessary, its general demeanor is of composure and patience and loyalty. It is a strong willed, independent and reserved breed. It is also attentive, quite fearless and loyal to its duties. The Great Pyrenees' size makes it an imposing guardian. A dog of this breed will patrol its perimeter and may wander away if left off its leash in an unenclosed space. The Great Pyrenees protects its flock by barking, and being nocturnal, tends to bark at night unless trained against such behavior

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyrenees#Temperament

All dogs love the chase and when you bike by, the instinct to chase kicks in on any dog. He probably does not know what to do if he caught you but that is why you stop biking (if you have the space) dismount and see what the dog does.

My more comment, when I lived in Texas in the 1980s I was biking with my sisters down a country road outside Corpus Christi Texas and a huge German Shepherd ran out of his yard toward us. I yelled at the dog to go home and he stopped and gave a look like "You mean me? I am a good dog". My sisters comment was given the size of the dog they did not know what to do, but it was good to have a male voice around.

My first choice when loose dogs are involved is to stop biking and keep the bike between me and the dog, if I have the time to dismount. Yelling is second but I have never had to use anything else. I could either outrun the dog, or the dog would stop running when I stopped and dismounted.