In my cycling days I would occasionally have a dog come at me but none ever made contact. I was running on a newer street in our neighborhood yesterday when I noticed a guy out front and an unrestrained German shepherd nearby. I was on the sidewalk and as I got closer the dog kept eyeing back and forth between me and his owner. Sure enough about the time I passed him he lunged and locked his jaw onto my forearm. Not hard enough to break the skin or clothing but hard enough I felt teeth. The owner called him off and he bailed; it all happened in probably 3 seconds or less.

I just gave an eye to the owner and kept on going. It happens again and I'll be making a phone call to the cops.

Agree with all of the above.

You don't want it on your conscience if this dog ends up hurting a kid.

If there is a mark on your arm you need to document it before it fades away. The owner will likely deny anything happened so you need to document it however you can. Hopefully they try to pull any camera footage from the area as well.

Had several dogs chase me when out riding in BFE, a couple got snippy but we always managed to get a good hit on the dog so they backed down.

If in the burbs, gotta call this one in. Too many kids riding around for a dog of that size to be chasing. Even if they don't bite they can cause a lot of other damage

I bike all over Houston. I carry a dog whistle, keep it within easy reach. It's actually worked.

wcb said:

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In my cycling days I would occasionally have a dog come at me but none ever made contact. I was running on a newer street in our neighborhood yesterday when I noticed a guy out front and an unrestrained German shepherd nearby. I was on the sidewalk and as I got closer the dog kept eyeing back and forth between me and his owner. Sure enough about the time I passed him he lunged and locked his jaw onto my forearm. Not hard enough to break the skin or clothing but hard enough I felt teeth. The owner called him off and he bailed; it all happened in probably 3 seconds or less.

I just gave an eye to the owner and kept on going. It happens again and I'll be making a phone call to the cops.

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Personal injury lawyer here. I have a young teenage client who had her arm shredded by an aggressive dog. She is not only scarred for life but has emotional trauma to deal with for the rest of her life. I had to ask a personal friend/hand surgeon to treat her on a lien to save the use of her hand, but he's only getting pennies on the dollar because the insurance was not enough to cover all her bills.

If you won't call for yourself, look at this pic, and call for Sable. ********GRAPHIC IMAGE******

Never been attacked, but had one look pretty pissed run at me while I was running. Luckily the owner was able to call it off and I stopped running and I think it lost interest. Was a pit bull too. Not sure if it's true that they're worse than others, but my heart rate shot through the roof for a bit because pit bulls always look pissed.

Here's why I carry a dog whistle

I run with mace and a knife. Mace is in my hand entire time and when I see an off leash dog I have my finger on the trigger and pointing in its direction. I've had to use it five or so times and I call animal control every time.

Another reason 90% of dog owners really shouldn't own dogs.

Has it been effective every time?

What exactly do you do to "call" in an aggressive dog?

Have never had one attack me, but have had them lunge at me when running and I generally let the owner know to "control your damn dog" or something of the sort but that likely doesn't do anything. Just vents my anger at them.

Even when leashed, when possible I'll cross the street. Have messed up my ankle one to many times with dogs lunging at me.

Well I don't think you necessarily call in a dog that barks or lunges at you if it's on a leash, but pretty sure you can call animal control, or the nonemergency line and file report with the police if you actually are attacked. Seems pretty straightforward.

I was driving down a residential street, there was a lady pushing a jogging stroller to my left with a dog on a leash. A german shepard comes in from the left from a front yard. Jogger bounces out into the road right in front of me, with some awkward jerking on the stroller. I stop, and get out, the german shepard then comes towards me. Jogger just kind of laughs it off and keeps going. Dog goes back to the front yard. What ticked me off was the owner was in his driveway, no F's given apparently. Even with a baby nearly getting tossed from a stroller. Also good thing I was paying attention, they ran right out in front of me. I did talk to the jogger down the road, she said it was her fault that she shouldn't have went by that house, that dog does that all the time. She didn't want contact animal control or anything.

When I watched the dashcam video later I was kind of ticked and called animal control. I do live in an area with a lease law, so they said they could send a warning letter. Which would also start a paper trail. After pestering I finally got an email to send them the video, the supervisor called me back and said based on the video they'd like to send a citation to the owner with my permission. Technically I was not just a witness since it did come at me and the video was pretty clear which house it came from. Looking online was probably a $100 fine.

Related thought we had to take someone to small claims court a few years ago, we did win. We had to go several times, and 2 of the 3 other cases we had to sit through were about dogs.

Call animal control. ****ty dog owners like this clown do not deserve a free pass. And I say that as a lifelong dog owner