What motivates people to leave their dogs run free? My best guess is simple laziness. What purpose is served by not tying them up? All that is done is exposing them to dangers. There is a greater of risk of getting in a fight. A greater risk of being hit by a car. And, maybe I'm talking out of my arse, but a greater risk of exposing owner to financial responsibility. Is that worth not taking thirty seconds to hook your dog to a chain?
As cyclists, we assume plenty of risk when we take to the road. Incidents with cars are probably the most common and dangerous encounters we have. We largely put our lives in driver's hands. The one thing that eases concerns is the belief that virtually no one really wants to harm another person riding along on a bike. They may be inattentive or buzz by you but I cant believe they WANT to hit you.
That brings us back to dogs. Dogs are often playful and mean no harm. They will chase and run alongside but most of the time do nothing. The problem is that, while people may not want to do harm, who knows what is going through a dog's mind. And even the dog only wants to be friendly, it has no idea what its actions may cause.
That brings us to yesterday, near Waterloo. Three dogs were standing on a small hill by a house. We approach and they come bounding down the hill and onto the road. Marco and I pick up the pace and move by but one dog apparently stopped right in from of Patrice. Thankfully I didn't witness the faceplant into pavement as it happened. It was a hard crash that even broke his left cleat.
Tie your dogs up, people.
As cyclists, we assume plenty of risk when we take to the road. Incidents with cars are probably the most common and dangerous encounters we have. We largely put our lives in driver's hands. The one thing that eases concerns is the belief that virtually no one really wants to harm another person riding along on a bike. They may be inattentive or buzz by you but I cant believe they WANT to hit you.
That brings us back to dogs. Dogs are often playful and mean no harm. They will chase and run alongside but most of the time do nothing. The problem is that, while people may not want to do harm, who knows what is going through a dog's mind. And even the dog only wants to be friendly, it has no idea what its actions may cause.
That brings us to yesterday, near Waterloo. Three dogs were standing on a small hill by a house. We approach and they come bounding down the hill and onto the road. Marco and I pick up the pace and move by but one dog apparently stopped right in from of Patrice. Thankfully I didn't witness the faceplant into pavement as it happened. It was a hard crash that even broke his left cleat.
Tie your dogs up, people.
1 Comments:
ah, the wonders of using a Garmin cyclometer, and yes I'm posting a link, so deal with it! ;)
you can see wher I hit the dog and turned around to head back to the cars, and also where I ventured up to the house of the possible owners (with Klages to escort me and keep me from doing anything nutty). The whole crib was looking way too Hoos so I knocked softly and split befor e I got my left eye blackened.
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