Psamathe wrote:AMMoffat wrote:In both videos, I really don't know why the cyclist did not just continue on his way. Constantly stopping, gesticulating, shouting and unnecessarily swearing was just inflaming the situation and encouraging the dog. The dog, despite barking, was not in any way acting aggressively and would have got bored if the cyclist had just got on with his business. Whilst someone who is clearly fearful of dogs would not necessarily recognise this, I think the reaction of the cyclist was a bit over the top. That does not in any way excuse the dog owner who failed to put her dog on the lead when it was obviously irritating someone. The dog wanted to play but the cyclist clearly did not.
Absolutely. And had I been the owner dealing with a cyclist like that I would not have restrained my language like the owner in the video did.
Cyclists expect the public (drivers, pedestrians, horse riders, etc.) to cooperate with them ... well it works both ways.
It is very rare for a dog to seriously want to attack somebody. Occasionally when I cycle past a particular farm their massive German Shepherd will charge out after me and chase me down the road barking. 1st time it happened I looked back and immediately saw that despite the barking he was not being aggressive, so I slowed, he slowed, I slowed more, he slowed more and he was always maintaining a safe distance between me and himself. And I stopped and he stopped. If you are going to cycle you have to learn about the hazards and how to read them. People here get very critical of another cyclist who e.g. rides too close to the kerb and has a close pass (etc.). Dogs, like car drivers like blind bends are part of cycling so you have to learn how to read the conditions and behave appropriately.
Ian
Yeah, right. Tried that as a walker on a footpath on a local farm, Mr Ortho was bitten twice as we slowly walked away from the dog. And he was brought up with dogs in the house and knows exactly what to do. When challenged, and asked what he would do if we'd had a child with us that has been bitten, we were told by the owner that it would have been our fault a child was injured for taking children where we knew there was a dog.
It doesn't matter even whether the dog is in attack mode or not if you're on a bike. If it's as thick as pig whatsit and completely out of control and and runs at the bike, as this one did, it can still knock you over. That could cause serious damage to you very easily, like broken elbow or anything. That's what that cyclist seemed to be concerned about, and he was perfectly right to be concerned.
That dog ought to have been on a lead. A short lead. If dogs don't come when called they ought to be on leads in public places.
If owners don't stop behaving in an irresponsible way, as all too many do these days, I can see we will need a law that says all dogs must be on leads in public places or be impounded. I'm not sure we don't need such a law now. I'd be sorry to see it, but there are simply too many bad owners for things to go on as they are.
So they don't bother to train it, it makes use of its intelligence to make its own mischief and then the owner gets rid of it because somehow it's not like those collies on the telly 
