Dog Lovers Should Probably Skip This One

Okay, so yes, there are people who think dogs are people too. Or whatever.

My girls and I love to go for bike rides on the back roads between our house and my mom’s house. We go in once specific direction to avoid a house where a pit bull lives (or used to live, Alyssa told me on our last ride that the kids who used to get on the bus at that house moved, maybe they took their stupid barky, chasy dog with them. Ahem.)

But other than the pit pull we were able to avoid, our bike rides were lovely. Any other dogs that were loud with their barking were either in pens or in houses. All other dogs just sat in their yards and watched us go by. These dogs are lovely, wonderful dogs that do not deserve to get hit by a car. Just clarifying that we don’t hate all dogs. You know, for future reference.

Until last week.

Last week, we headed out on a bike ride because it was a lovely afternoon and there was rain in the near forecast. We wanted to get outside and enjoy the day.

At the second house past ours, we heard yapping. Then it got louder and louder and more and more furious. Suddenly, we was a blur of white as a smallish poodly sort of dog came racing out to the road, running in front of us, around us, barking like he wanted to bite someone’s foot off.

He was quickly followed by a large, very large brown dog that might have been a chocolate lab, but the biggest damned chocolate lab I’ve ever seen. This dog gave a big, mean sounding bark.

I yelled, “No!” and peddled as fast as I could.

Thankfully, the brown dog stopped at the edge of his yard. He didn’t bark again. Either my yell or his border stopped him. I don’t care which it was, I’m just glad he stopped.

Let me mention here that Olivia was in her trailer behind my bike, the flap up, leaving her vulnerable to both of those dogs. She was curled into a ball, terrified by these things.

The obnoxious white poodle thing followed us for about a quarter of a mile, barking the entire time, running ahead of us, chasing behind us. We yelled at it to go home and finally, it realized it was pretty far from home and turned around.

We were so grateful to be passed that damned thing we all breathed a sigh of relief. I stopped to comfort Olivia and told her I’d close the flap to her trailer before we headed home so she would be better protected if the dog chased us again. She was relieved by this offer.

The thing was, we couldn’t avoid that dog’s house. We had to pass by it again to go home. The only other way home was on a pretty busy stretch of road, a state route, if you will. We were on a country road with little traffic.

On our way back, Alyssa and I decided we’d race past the poodle’s house as fast as we could. We were almost past it when we heard the familiar furious barking. But we were already going so fast that the stupid thing couldn’t catch us.

I yelled, “I hope you get hit by a car!”.

And honestly? I sort of do.

I get that dogs should be allowed outside. But if your dog will not stay in your yard when you aren’t out there with it, that dog needs to be on a chain. If it’s going to chase people using a public road, the dog either needs to be inside or, as I said, on a chain.

We were all more than a little traumatized by this experience. It was awful. Olivia, who already hates any and all animals, it even more disgusted by dogs.

I know there are those who will think I’m a horrible person, but my girls and I have a right to ride our bikes on the road and not fear for our lives (as in Olivia’s case, she was so, so scared) or for the lives of our toes. If either of us had hit that stupid thing, the resulting bike crash could have been pretty bad. Sure, it might have hurt the dog too, which in this case, in my opinion, it would have deserved, but it could have caused serious bodily injury to me or one of my girls. And that isn’t right.

Dog owners, please, if you are going to let your dog be outside, please either make sure it will stay in your yard and not accost strangers on the road, or chain it up. Do the public and your dog a favor. Just because you live in the country doesn’t mean your dog owns the road in front of your house.