A dog bit me, what I did wrong?

I must first say that I do like dogs as well as cats and other animals, even I only have cats myself, I like to think that dog owners are great people that care about animals and thus probably have wider perspective to life than people who don't have pets.

However today I encountered something which I think was bit of odd.

I was bicycling in quite cold weather, it was -24C when I left, so I was wearing quite thick clothing and also ski mask/beanie and bright colored jacket with a hood that was up.

I did gain a person that was walking a dog, as it was so cold my bicycle tires made a lot of noise, so I'm sure person had to hear me long before she could saw my headlight beam on road surface, but she reacted only when she saw my headlight beam and started to shorten dog's leash then.

Of course I had anticipated that and had already slowed down so she had time to take dog under her control before I was overtaking , then I started overtake at little more than walking speed without pedaling, as far as it was possible on that combined walking path / cycling path, when I was passing dog ran to me and bit from my knee, I ignored that completely and as I was passed dog attempted to run after me, she seemed to have real trouble controlling the dog.

I did not say anything and she did not say anything, also my knee started to hurt only after awhile, luckily skin did not broken but got clear teethmarks.

Maybe I should of shouted something before overtaking, or maybe I should of used such great speed that they could of not reacted, but I think that clearly somehow dog got scared and maybe I should of done something differently.

I did not stare dog to eyes, but I did look into dog's general direction to see that if dog is getting out of control and I need to stop to prevent him getting between spokes.

It is always with that dog so that he tries to come close and owner struggles to control it, I have thought that he is just curious one, however once I did friendly mention to that person about how dog being quite curious one and she just looked with impression that was something close to alarmed and worried.

One possibility is of course that dog has some issue and owner knows about it, but is not doing anything about it.

Has anyone experiences about such situations?

I really don't like to hurt a dog or any other animal, but if so happens, that dog in future attempts to bite me, I really have to take some measures of self defense instead of just ignoring being bitten, next time he might hit softer spot and do more than just nibble and then I must of course try to defend myself, but it would be great to be able to prevent that by different method in overtaking.

Path is just quite narrow (not much more than 5 feet wide) and every month or two it happens that I encounter that dog, so eventually I'm about to face the situation again.

There's something wrong with the dog's owner if this is happening again and again. Not so bad / dangerous in the winter but much scarier in summer when you are wearing light clothes or even shorts. Clearly she knows this has happened, will happen again and is not doing anything to prevent it.

Two questions. How big is the dog? Do you know of anyone else the dog has attacked?

When my husband was a teenager and used to bike ride extensively he much preferred a metal bicycle tire pump that clipped onto the bike frame. It was readily to hand to use to bop a dog on head if it was chasing / attacking him.

Stay safe!

Catapault said:

There's something wrong with the dog's owner if this is happening again and again. Not so bad / dangerous in the winter but much scarier in summer when you are wearing light clothes or even shorts. Clearly she knows this has happened, will happen again and is not doing anything to prevent it.

Two questions. How big is the dog? Do you know of anyone else the dog has attacked?

When my husband was a teenager and used to bike ride extensively he much preferred a metal bicycle tire pump that clipped onto the bike frame. It was readily to hand to use to bop a dog on head if it was chasing / attacking him.

Stay safe!

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Dog is not very big, but also not small, so it is perhaps something like a mid sized dog. I don't know anyone else being attacked by it.

During summer it is actually easier as there is less snow and paths are wider, also then I can use grass areas too to go around.

It is bit sad for the dog, if the owner is not taking action as eventually there will be horrible situation at some point and then it is a dog that faces worst consequences always.

It might be small child which throat dog will bite some time and then dog will be put into sleep and owner gets away without much of any harm compared to dog, I feel that is quite wrong.

Bicyles drive some dogs crazy and not a lot of dogs are good around them even if they are the sweetest dog in the world. It's not your fault that this happened the dog probably just got amped up or spooked by the bike.

I was chased by a Lab when I was riding my bike over the summer but did not get bit. He jumped out of his yard and went after me. I had to tell him to get back and he did. Sorry this happened.

I love dogs and had dogs for many years, also grew up with them and I have been bitten.  Both times that I was bitten I believe the dogs had taken the guarding protection thing too far which goes back to lack of either appropriate socialization or training.  Sometimes there is nothing you can do and there is nothing that you did wrong.  Of course in the end it's the dog that usually ends up paying the ultimate price.

@JTbo -- i'm not sure this suggestion will be of much help. when i used to bicycle on a very busy bike path (years ago), the custom was to yell "on your left" as you approached to overtake another bike rider or jogger. this was very helpful because it gave the other person some notice that i was going to overtake them.

^ This. Joggers and cyclists where I grew up always yelled "coming up behind you", or "on your left". Even if you have a bell, couple your direction with the bell so they know that not only are you there, but which way you're going so they can make space, especially on a narrow path. The dog may just need better socialization, or may only be socialized to people approaching slowly from their line of sight. Coming up from behind and faster than a normal person approaching an animal, even if it happens often, can make any animal nervous. It could also be protective behaviour.

I don't know if yelling would of done any good, at that temperature my tires were making so much noise on snow that they both certainly heard me more than 30 feet away, also dog spotted me lot before I was near them, also person walking the dog did turn and see me when I was more than 10 feet away.

My speed was probably around 2-3mph when I coasted by them.

There was actually no one else on path or on road next to it there, quite often there is no single living thing on that path when I go to shop, as there was no wind one could easily hear foot steps on snow more than 100 feet away. At such temps snow makes kind of screeching noise under foot or tire, louder than normal talking.

I did not say anything as I was bit out of breath after climbing hill just before and because they both did spot me, so there really was no surprise element or at least I think that should be quite impossible.

edit: I think I should mention also that I don't actually pass other persons or animals on that path without them noticing me, often times it means that I slow down to walking pace leaving some distance and greet them as bell really seem not be recognized by many, those who turn and notice me don't need ringing of bell.

Most of cases where dog attacks or chases cyclists are such that cyclists is going at their own speed without slowing down or taking any precautions to warn dogs or people, which creates indeed surprises and dogs get then scared. Some cyclists even pedal at very high cadence while passing a dog and that surely triggers hunting reflexes even in tiny lap dog.

So because I believe that I have taken all precautions this event is bit puzzling to me, there should of not been surprise, even no territorial intrusion, my movement should of been such that there should of not been even illusion of threat to dog as I even did stay at rightmost edge moving in straight line, which should indicate clearly that I'm not interested from dog, so dog should not find me a threat.

C. Milan has one post on his page about such dog behavior where dog learns that it is ok to attack cyclists, it happens according to Milan so that dog feels that it wins every time when dog manages to bark or chase cyclist away, which happens every time when cyclist passes, then dog may even learn to be more aggressive as those cyclists just keep coming despite he had won and chased away them many times.

That person who was walking the dog did not say no to dog, she did pulled dog away and said dogs name to dog, but as far as I understand, dog probably can't associate name to be bad thing then as it is other times used to call him?

So that leads me to conclusion in which I believe problem is in lack of training and lack of information how to control the dog which has created behavioral issue to dog.

I could of course say that to dog owner when I next time encounter her, but my experience is that reporting such things is not too well received by people, they tend to get emotional and even angry from some unknown reason, so maybe I just go around and use road instead, it is usually empty

Miagi's_Mommy said:

Bicyles drive some dogs crazy and not a lot of dogs are good around them even if they are the sweetest dog in the world. It's not your fault that this happened the dog probably just got amped up or spooked by the bike.

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Some dogs are totally freaked out by bicycles. Our neighbor's dog (French bulldog/Lab mix) who has had extensive obedience training can't be trusted around bikes at all. Her owner even took her to a behaviorist, who worked with her over the course of several weeks, to no avail. It's so bad that she tries not to take the dog for walks along paths where she can't see bikes far in advance, because she has to take the dog far off the path to prevent her from attacking the bikes/riders.

The only thing I can suggest is getting off your bike if you see the dog up ahead and walking past her, with the bike between you and the dog.

Based on what I read from here:
http://www.problempets.co.uk/dog-aggression/

It seems that next time such happens, I should stop and show the dog that he can't chase 'threat' away.

Running from a dog is very likely to trigger the 'prey' drive.  The general advice is to stand your ground but don't look directly at the dog even stand sideways to the dog.  If it's a large dog and it's going to attack regardless then drop to the ground and curl up in the fetal position to protect vital areas.  There is no point in running because the dog can run faster.

Denice said:

Running from a dog is very likely to trigger the 'prey' drive.  The general advice is to stand your ground but don't look directly at the dog even stand sideways to the dog.  If it's a large dog and it's going to attack regardless then drop to the ground and curl up in the fetal position to protect vital areas.  There is no point in running because the dog can run faster.

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With my running I would not outrun even a 5 year old child, so I tend not to think running as option

I have unfortunately some experience in fighting against dog and it is the dog I'm more worried of, if situation comes to that, but I don't like dog to pay from mistakes of it's owner so I try to avoid getting into such situation in first place.

You said the dog walker was shortening the leash. Hard to say for sure without actually seeing it...did she shorten the leash in a tense manner or did she just gather up some slack while still keeping the leash slack, if that makes sense?

Dogs read their owners very well and tension comes through immediately on a leash. If the dog had problems before...lunging at bikes or animals or kids, or doesn't like strangers, she may have tensed up, anticipating an issue, and tensed the leash up in an effort to 'restrain' what she knew was coming.

The dog then sensed this tension, it reinforced 'danger' in his own mind, and sure enough he lunged.

Dog owners, sadly, do that a lot. They react to negative behavior in a dog, especially on a leash, by tensing up and creating anxiety...which only makes the problem worse.

If she was just loosely gathering slack to keep the dog out of your way and was otherwise relaxed or unconcerned with you, then I'd guess this may have been a one off thing and maybe the combination of the dark, the headlight, and your sudden motion just startled him.

This can especially happen with an older dog losing their eyesight. 

ravynwriter said:

You said the dog walker was shortening the leash. Hard to say for sure without actually seeing it...did she shorten the leash in a tense manner or did she just gather up some slack while still keeping the leash slack, if that makes sense?

Dogs read their owners very well and tension comes through immediately on a leash. If the dog had problems before...lunging at bikes or animals or kids, or doesn't like strangers, she may have tensed up, anticipating an issue, and tensed the leash up in an effort to 'restrain' what she knew was coming.

The dog then sensed this tension, it reinforced 'danger' in his own mind, and sure enough he lunged.

Dog owners, sadly, do that a lot. They react to negative behavior in a dog, especially on a leash, by tensing up and creating anxiety...which only makes the problem worse.

If she was just loosely gathering slack to keep the dog out of your way and was otherwise relaxed or unconcerned with you, then I'd guess this may have been a one off thing and maybe the combination of the dark, the headlight, and your sudden motion just startled him.

This can especially happen with an older dog losing their eyesight. 

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Yeah, she did pull quite hard from leash, as much that dog's front paws were on air with every pull, she was pulling it with two hands like a rope.

After that I have met them only once, this time she did move closer to edge of path and kept dog on her other side so dog could not bite even clearly dog wanted to.

Most of other dog walkers indeed seem to keep leash loose, also one had huge German Shepard kind of dog, he makes dog sit and keeps leash loose while holding from collar, however that dog does not jump or bark, just observes with tongue hanging out from his mouth, which makes him quite cute. That is quite young dog and clearly is in proper training, unlike that dog that bit me.


Actually I think that dog that bit me is not much more than 2 or 3 years old, it moves like a young dog and is curious about his surroundings like a young dog, when dog matures I find their movements becoming bit more thought out if that makes any sense, they also don't seem to be so hyperactive about everything around them.

Of course same happens with cats, humans, tigers and probably every animal, young ones need to gather as much information about their surroundings as is possible in order to increase chance of survival, it is secret of success for any species.

That is what I often look when I spot any animal from distance, because young ones are often bit unpredictable and need more space and slower overtaking to avoid startling them, older ones are more used to life around them and I don't need to be as cautious, but still I slow down and give as much space possible.

I know one Finnish book that is about fixing unwanted behavior in dog, it is highly rated and quite inexpensive too, but I'm afraid that if I get one and give it to her when I happen to meet them some day again on that path, she might not take it well, but then again I know it would help her and especially the dog and for the dog's sake I could spend that much, however how could unknown person give book about fixing problematic dog behavior to unknown person without causing some issue?

Yeah, it sounds to me like she's not entirely sure how to control or train her dog. It may be her first dog, or it may be that she's just never had a dog that wasn't already trained. Or it could be all the dogs she's had in the past were poorly controlled because she's never learned how to do it properly.

Anyone that has to haul on a leash like that as if it is a rope has a dog that is not under control, and they do not know how to get it back under control. Not necessarily the fault of the dog or the owner, just a matter of ignorance. It could also be a brand new dog that has issues and she just hasn't had the time yet to work them out and chose a poor reaction on the spur of the moment. That can happen to anyone.

I do think it's probably that she knows the dog has overreacted before and has chosen to address this behavior by physically wrestling the dog back when it does that. Unfortunately, that only reinforces the behavior in the dog's mind and elevates it to be even worse. This is why dogs end up in the pound.

Not sure about buying the book and giving it to her. Depending on the person they could take that really badly, or they could be really grateful. It may be that she's at the end of her rope with frustration and anger because she doesn't know how to handle or correct the dog's actions and would be relieved at any offer of assistance. But it could also be that her frustration and anger then translate into 'they think I'm a bad dog owner and incompetant!' when subconsciously they may already be worrying about that.

I don't know, tough call!