How do you deal with unfriendly dogs?

[jberryhill]

10. "stop and put the bike between you and the dog"

I was there a couple of weeks ago.

I've outrun a few in the past, but had come upon a loose dog on a section where I couldn't get up to speed.

He sniffed and walked away.

The owners you have to look out for, though.

I was on a charity ride a while back and was in a group of five riders. I was third wheel between a small break to the front two and a small break to the back two.

We came past a house in rural southern NJ and a dog ran out after the first two and was chasing them. The dog didn't see me and was slowing down right in front of me. I shouted as I swerved, so that the dog would at least see me coming, and I avoided hitting the dog. The dog then picked up the chase after me. The owner came out of his garage hollering at me, "Hey, don't yell at my dog if you don't want him chasing you!" along with a choice set of other epithets.

Apparently, he thought the dog started running when I had shouted my alarm at the dog nearly stopping in front of me.

As the other two riders passed, and he continued his Yosemite Sam routine, the last thing I heard was "Hey, come back here!"

As if.