Detroit’s stray dogs: A problem for cyclists?
The Detroit Free Press wrote about the Discovery Channel’s unsuccessful pitch to document the city’s stray dog situation.
It’s bad enough that Detroit’s poor economy has contributed to an epidemic of stray dogs. The city has no interest in turning some street mutts into reality TV stars, too, as the Discovery Channel wants to do.
Mayor Dave Bing’s film office has denied the cable network permission to film stray Detroit dogs, chronicling their miserable lives for a TV series called “A Dog’s Life.”
Mlive.com seemingly nailed this topic.
But beyond the show debate, are stray dogs a problem for Detroit cyclists?
Is it any worst than in the suburbs and rural areas?
It isn’t in our experience, but we’d be curious to hear what others think. We’ve found strays seem to mind their own business even when in apparent packs. Our best chases have come from peoples’ pets.
For those who are chased, this web site provides some suggested responses to the inevitable dog chase. Our favorites are shouting at the dog and simply out riding it.
January 17th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Hi Todd-
Fortunately I’ve had pretty good luck on the dog front while riding in the City of Detroit. Only one incident caused my blood pressure to rise and that was when a stray pitbull type dog came running out of a field barking like cary. I yelled STOP when he was about 10-feet away and the 4-legged beast stopped in his tracks long enough for me to kick it into high gear. Looking over my shoulder at him as I rode away, the dog was just standing in the middle of the street watching me pedal off. I’ve come across other strays (sometimes packs of them), some as close as 30-feet, with no reaction from them. They just kept prancing along minding their own business. I had one cross right in front of me that appeared to have been in a fight. The poor dog was covered in blood from his lower jaw down his chest, it was quite sad. That one freaked me out, but again, it just ignored me and kept prancing along.
Charlie
January 19th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Charlie,
My experience sounds similar, though fortunately I’ve not seen any injured dogs.
I was chased this summer by someones dog near John R. and Nevada. I’ve never seen a dog with a longer sprint. He bolted past the owner, out the door and right towards me. Lucky for me, he took a bad angle and ended up behind me. I thought the chase was over, but he turned and followed my back wheel. It was an impressive effort which probably led to a serious nap.