Got chased halfway through my commute by a loose dog last Tuesday

I was riding through that bike path behind the old grain mill on River Road when this big golden retriever just comes tearing out of nowhere barking like I was a burglar. I pedaled so hard I almost dumped myself into a drainage ditch trying to get away. Anybody else had to deal with unpredictable animals on their route and found a way to handle it without crashing?

2 comments

2 Comments

rileyjones22d ago

Oh man, that golden retriever thing happened to me two summers ago on the old railroad trail near Harrison Park. Same deal, dog came flying out of someone's backyard and I almost ended up in a blackberry bush. I started carrying a little air horn on my bike, the kind for boats, and honestly it works better than yelling. Gives me a second to brake slow instead of panicking and dumping the bike. Also if I see a loose dog ahead I just slow way down and try to look boring, dogs usually lose interest if you're not sprinting away from them. Hope your commute gets less terrifying, that kind of adrenaline is not how I want to start my day either.

jade_hernandez21d ago

Ugh, yeah the air horn trick is genius. @rileyjones I started doing the same thing after a close call last fall, and it's way better than just yelling. Mostly I just try to slow way down and act super uninteresting too, seems to work most of the time.