Dog attack, I got sprayed with pepper spray, battery stolen

[swbluto]

Someone sprayed me in the face with pepper spray. And my $300 battery was stolen.

....

But let's start at the beginning.

....

I went to northern edge of my city following some trail that was about 16 miles away and reached the very end. That was pretty cool.

So I came back, stopped by Wendys to get something to eat/drink (all of the fountains on the path didn't work, and I was thirsty.), and I decided I want to go through the University and I found that they had developed a footpath across the river - that is totally awesome! So I'm in this neighborhood that's at the bottom of the hill that I live on and I have to cross the highway to start climbing the hill. As I approached the walking pathway's entrance that goes over the highway, this little dog greets me right at the entrance and I couldn't see him until I was about 5 feet away from him. I had basically three choices here: I could stop and runaway in the opposite direction (bad choice: the dog knows you're running away from it and being stopped makes you far more vulnerable); I could jump onto the 35mph street and make like a bat out of hell (bad choice: don't want a dog chasing me down a 35 mph street going in the opposite direction of traffic); I could go jump onto the neighborhood street and just hope that the dog didn't chase me as it's not *too* obvious I was running from it.

Well, that choice wasn't a good choice either: basically I was frocked no matter what.

So I was riding at 3-4 mph going around this corner, and this dog starts barking at he's right at my ankle looking like he was getting ready to bite. Typically dog's who chase you run alongside you, but no, this dog was right next to my ankle getting ready to bite. So I grabbed my pepper spray and tried to spray the thing but there was a snag, it wouldn't spray. I thought what the hell, so I started shaking it trying frantically to get it to work, and the things spray right in front of me and the wind blows it back right in my face. Instant hell on wheels!!!

My eyes were burning like frocking hell, and the dog ran off.

What a cruel irony.

So here I was sobbing like no other, in a neighborhood apparently infested with vicious dogs running around, and I had snot hanging down to my chin.
I was completely blind; I opened my eyes for a split second
and the pain level went from hell to hell times infinity. The pain wasn't just in my eyes, it was also in my nose and mouth, but the eye pain was by far the most noticeable.

Since I couldn't see, I couldn't really walk anywhere, at least not right away. So, I tried asking people for a cell as they're walking by (one guy didn't), I had at least five vehicles pass me who didn't help me at all, and it became pretty clear I was going to have to seek help. Mind you, I'm blind and my eyes burn like hell.

So I grabbed my bike (fumbled around a lot to find it, yes), pushing it on the street trying to skirt the edge of the sidewalk just to make sure I was walking on the sidewalk, and I came across an intersection! Didn't hear any cars around (this neighborhood is usually pretty quiet), there was a church across the street, so I'd bolted across hoping I wouldn't trip and use the bike to detect the edge of other sidewalk. I tried pushing the bike up the steeples' steps, got to the top, and started knocking on the door...

No one answered.

Freaking A.

Now, my other option is to start knocking on doors but there's a problem. All of the houses in this neighborhood have fences around them. It's not hard to understand why, there's lots of dogs walking around in this neighborhood, apparently. (This was my fourth time through this neighborhood, and the second time I came across a dog, so I figured it out eventually...) And furthermore, I'm not entirely sure if these are people you want to be talking to. I'm not saying that they wouldn't help, but the chance of getting some "bad person" who'd take advantage of some blind person seemed a bit higher than normal.

So there was a bunch of kids walking around in a little gang, and asked them if they had a phone. Of course they did! Awesome! So we went to the nearby fire station, and apparently no one was home, and called 911 to get some help. The kids went off and the fire truck came by about five minutes later. They took me in, did the eyewash thing (I was having my doubts that water would help that much - water isn't exactly known to play well with oil), and I suddenly could see! It didn't hurt anymore!
Thank you guys, so much!

Oh my God, so wonderful.

And I didn't get a $1000 ER bill either!

I asked the guy to throw away the pepper spray because I'm pretty sure I won't be using those again (I think I'll use a foghorn along with a specially designed dog spray; it seems like loud noises deters all but the most serious dogs. Dog spray isn't actually that bad to humans.), and so instead of throwing it in the trashcan, he just sprayed it down the wash basin!

Well it turned fun at that point! About five seconds later, I notice I was choking on this stuff that was burning my lungs and presumably others, so everyone started evacuating the fire station!

Well that turned out fun, lol.

I left and got my bike...

And my batteries were stolen.

Now, considering that these kids helped me and the batteries are about three years old (I got plenty of use from them), I didn't really care that they stole my batteries... But it sure would have been nice to get home! I mean, I did, but climbing the dreaded hill with a 20 pound motor without assistance wasn't exactly looking like a fairytale ending to a not so fairytale day. But, it really wasn't a *big* problem, just a minor annoyance.

(I did think that there was the chance someone was going to steal something; it's not too hard to rob blind person... But, dude, I didn't care at that point. I just needed help, and I think of their theft as payment for their services.)

What's really annoying is that I don't have batteries for my solar trip!

I suppose I could use my lifepo4 battery, but...

Yeah...

That shit ain't powerful. That is, it's not exactly ideal for mountain climbing and that's the primary advantage of an electric bike - mountains are turned into molehills. Once you turn the "really hard stuff" into easiness, long-distance riding really isn't that hard as riding on the flats isn't hard at all.

So I'm looking at ordering more batteries. It's not really that expensive, but... It's like the other batteries looked like they had at least five more years left from them, so it seems kind of like.. Yeah... I wouldn't have to buy more batteries if they weren't stolen...

And the thought of buying more batteries and going on a trip seems like something I don't want to afford right now.

So, today was a rather amazing day! I reach the very end of the trail!

Accomplishment uno.

Then... a dog chased me, I accidentally sprayed myself in the face, and then some kids stole my battery.

This dog... Like seriously... It was like this dog was waiting for someone to come by, knowing that people like to use the pedestrian walkway sometimes. Then he saw me and said, "gotcha!".

What an asshole.

(I think I also learned to avoid that neighborhood at *all* costs. There is a reason why it's quiet, and why the only people walking around it are gangs, lol. Not vicious gangs, well not most of them, anyways...)

------

On the trip, I also encountered a couple riding a tandem recumbent bicycle! That's pretty cool. Those things have the advantage of being able to go pretty fast on the flats with the low aerodynamic profile and the dual human power source. They were riding it in the area that was pretty hilly though...

 

[mlt34]

Wow, what a story! Unfortunately, sometimes the saying "at least you're alive". Doesn't seem to help that much.

For reference, I love the airzounds bicycle air horn. About 25 bucks from amazon and worth every penny. Super loud (on the verge of temporary ear damage if you're too close) and simple to mount/use. Works best for a dog in front of you instead of on the side of you but would still work well in that situation too. For me it's been worth every penny.

 

[swbluto]

Wow, what a story! Unfortunately, sometimes the saying "at least you're alive". Doesn't seem to help that much.

No problem dude, I tend to be optimistic about bad things like this. Like, it was some kind of learning experience, a character building experience, some other thing to make it seem worthy of experiencing. Like, yeah, most people don't get to go through with this, so I feel lucky in that my experience was pretty unique. Not sure if if it's a "unique kind of experience" I would've chosen if I had the choice... but... yeah.

For reference, I love the airzounds bicycle air horn. About 25 bucks from amazon and worth every penny. Super loud (on the verge of temporary ear damage if you're too close) and simple to mount/use. Works best for a dog in front of you instead of on the side of you but would still work well in that situation too. For me it's been worth every penny.

Thanks! I noticed dogs tend to scared by really loud sounds, so I'm thinking that's probably a really good deterrent. I think maybe I'll carry my regular pepper spray on me as a "last resort" measure, but I'm pretty sure it'll *have* to be *really* last resort before using it. I'm thinking I should probably get some of those special "pepper spray cleaning tissues" or something...


Made some orders, so my current dog deterrent arsenal is...

-Really loud air horn
-Pepper Spray
-Sudecon Decontaminant wipes

 

[Solcar]

That's a real bummer about the stolen batteries and the melodrama that came upon you.

When I was an early teen riding my stingray, I used to go down a local hill where often a dog would come out and threaten nipping at my ankles. It occurred to me to lift my legs up and put my feet on the tops of the front wheel forks or the handle bars, and continue on. With an electric bike it should be easier because without a downhill just using the throttle will keep the bike moving. The faster you go, the farther away and lower down the dog will end up as it tries to get you because it will have trouble focusing its attention sideways and upwards while running forward. After about 200 feet, they usually give up.

Another time at around the same age, in a different situation, I was on a private driveway for simple, inadvisable curiosity's sake and a big dog came out at me. I just bore down furiously on pedaling and after I got to the bottom of the long drive, it had given up.

 

[dogman dan]

Man, I'm glad you have a sense of humor about this one, so I don't feel so bad about laughing as I read this.

A fairly small dog about to nip my ankle is in range of my foot. But not so easy a solution as back when I rode bikes in cowboy boots.

I bet if you had just stopped, faced the dog, and gone ARRRRRRHH!!!!! at him, he'd have shit his pants. Air horn does the same thing, but it's not so much the noise as you taking him on that impresses the dog.

 

[Ykick]

Sounds like a tough day!

I believe in holding up something in my hand like a rolled up magazine, newspaper, bat, stick, club, tennis racket, etc. Dogs don't like their prey suddenly getting much bigger than they first think it is.

Were these RC Lipo? If so, maybe they'll burn the bastards that stole 'em?

Glad you're here to tell the tale!

 

[MikeFairbanks]

That story sounds made-up. But it's funny anyway.

If it's true, then I congratulate you on surviving and having a good story to tell.

But I can't help but wonder what you meant when you said "little" dog. Was it the size of a soccer ball? If so, did you consider that aggressive dogs the size of soccer balls can be kicked?

I got chased on my bike by a pitbull once.

 

[MattyCiii]

I've never faced a chasing dog. But I've had a motorist literally try to ram me on the road. I was wearing motorcycle gloves at the time (starting last summer, I wear them year round). These gloves have a metal knuckle protector, which came in handy. I punched the passenger window of the attacking motorist's car twice and he backed off.

I suppose if a dog was attacking me I'd stop, and with leather and metal trimmed gloves on, have the confidence to try to smack some sense into the dog, or let him bite the gloved hand and use it as a distraction - withdraw the hand and flee, or whatever. I don't know, I suppose I ought to think through the whole "dog attack" scenario, since this is the second ES dog mishap scenario in recent weeks.

 

[miro13car]

dogs running loose in the neighborhoods of USA like in third world country?
fire station with nobody inside? what if there is fire call?
what is happenining to old good USA ?
what happened to "law and order"
that is not first thread about dogs running out of control on USA streets.
Well deterioration of law and order happens slowely not over week or so.
Where are live is only maybe a bit better, more and more dogs off the leash but always with an owner around.
Newer seen stray dog for amny years.
You mean there were no owner anywhere close?
So stray dogs on USA streets??
like somhere in Pakistan, Venezuela, or third world?

 

[MadRhino]

All this happened to you because you were afraid of a little dog :lol:
Next time you'll know better

 

[neptronix]

dogs running loose in the neighborhoods of USA like in third world country?
fire station with nobody inside? what if there is fire call?
what is happenining to old good USA ?
what happened to "law and order" ...

That's what i was thinking... where does this guy live?

Rather sad that everything around him failed, no?

 

[EdwardNY]

I'm going to say you should feel lucky the dog didn't nip you cause if he did that would mean you would have to pretty much get a rabies shot. I learned this when some dog took a nip at me (lucky for me he bit my jeans only), this was a foreign country, and I learned that there is no cure for rabies as once the virus is noticeable your practically 100% dead and the only cure is to take the vaccine before the rabies sets in.

 

[Harold in CR]

Brew your own pepper spray and carry it in a squirt pistol like the kids use. Hot pink won't get you accused of being an armed marauder, either.

 

[EdwardNY]

Is pepper spray effective on dogs? I would worry the dog would get more aggressive and more likely to bite me after I sprayed him.

 

[The fingers]

Letter carriers have used it effectively for many years. Larger sizes which spray several yards are used to protect from even more ferocious animals.
http://www.amazon.com/Guard-Alaska™-Bear-Defense-Spray/dp/B0018XTIX8
Should work quite well on attacking humans also.

 

[bowlofsalad]

This is both sad and funny to me. I was discussion this matter in another thread, a dog made a guy fall off his ebike. I said in http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49276&hilit=dogs&start=25, I doubt you could use pepper spray because it'd probably end up all over you in the process (much like it did for you), I also wondered if something like http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ACAMJC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000ACAMJC&linkCode=as2&tag=almar01-20 this would scare off a dog.
If not, it seems like there aren't too many other solutions to getting a dog out of the way. A gun, are there such things as multi shot tranquilizer guns? I wonder if a BB gun would get a dog to run, I'd imagine so. I don't recommend going anywhere without a knife. Packs of dogs can and do kill. At least a knife can give you a fighting chance. I was approached by two dogs recently while walking, really scary moment, luckily the owner (I was walking in a street in a residential area) heard the dogs barking in the street and came running.

 

[swbluto]

This is both sad and funny to me. I was discussion this matter in another thread, a dog made a guy fall off his ebike. I said in http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49276&hilit=dogs&start=25, I doubt you could use pepper spray because it'd probably end up all over you in the process (much like it did for you), I also wondered if something like http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ACAMJC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000ACAMJC&linkCode=as2&tag=almar01-20 this would scare off a dog.
If not, it seems like there aren't too many other solutions to getting a dog out of the way. A gun, are there such things as multi shot tranquilizer guns? I wonder if a BB gun would get a dog to run, I'd imagine so. I don't recommend going anywhere without a knife. Packs of dogs can and do kill. At least a knife can give you a fighting chance. I was approached by two dogs recently while walking, really scary moment, luckily the owner (I was walking in a street in a residential area) heard the dogs barking in the street and came running.

Talking about guns, maybe an airsoft gun would do the trick?

First start with one of these:

Then this (airsoft gun):

Then this:

Then, maybe resort to pepper-spray afterwards.

A knife could be useful, though, I personally wouldn't even *want* to risk a dog bite due to the rabies possibility and who-knows-what infectionary diseases the dog might have. I think maybe I'd have to travel with a rapier on my bike. A gun in a close counter attack with a quickly moving dog would probably be risky, the chance of missing would be pretty high.

But, I'm hoping an airhorn, some dog spray and a turbo switch should do it. I don't get into too many dog encounters, but I've been having some bad luck recently since passing through *that* neighborhood (It's right next to the highway, so it's pretty impoverished.) at the bottom of the big hill I live on. My neighborhood isn't nearly as bad, it's just that *that* neighborhood separates me from the rest of my city so I have to go through it to get to the rest of the city. The neighborhood is poor, but not quite as poor as some of the black neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia or the minority farm-worker settlements dotted throughout the East Coast (As far as I know, those kind of settlements don't exist on the West Coast, but it's pretty common in the East). (Those neighborhoods typically consist of some 60-year old tiny houses made of out rotted wood, and peeling paint with grass about 4 feet tall; It's not uncommon for old men in wheelchairs to be rolling down the middle of the road going in the opposite direction of traffic, apparently in a desperate bid to commit suicide.)

 

[swbluto]

By the way, this stuff is nasty. The fox labs spray, that is.

I've washed my face off with dawn numerous times, including complete immersion in the dawn soap mixture, and countless water washes, and yet the sticky stuff is still sticking to my face causing a subtle burning feeling. Apparently it's causing my nose to sweat, as there's always moisture on my nose making a cool sensation. This is day 2. I'm hoping it gets better on day 3! I'm really hoping it's completely gone by day 5.

 

[bowlofsalad]

I think a lot of these options for doing away with or thwarting an attacking dog might be hard to implement. Where are you going to keep a sword on your bike? Keeping these tools handy is the critical component here. Keeping your bike between you and the dog might help if you can manage to stop and such. Nobody ever wants to be bitten by a dog, rabies is a very good call to avoid. But if you have to tango with bitey the pouch, I suggest using one arm as a sort of shield, and the other as a sort of spear or strike. If the dog does latch onto something, it'd probably be best to be an arm, and the arm that doesn't have the weapon.
I've never tested a horn on a dog before, but I've seen videos of dogs in roads stopping traffic, and the dogs just standing there before a honking car. I've even seen a video of a dog ripping off a license plate as the car that honked at it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNn518CVmaY

I don't really know how a dog would react to airsoft/BB guns, I think there is even a chance that one dog would run away and another might not. It's useability and reach seem great though, if it works and you can comfortably keep it on you and draw it swiftly. I don't know what the best all around option is, everything has it's pros and cons, but a lot of those cons are probably hard to see when facing the concept of being attacked by a dog. I saw that halt spray, it just seems like another version of pepper spray, I've used cans of wasp spray, that stuff rocketed out of the can in a very direct stream, I don't know if that is how some pepper sprays might work out, I think they are designed with the idea of a woman scrambling to rip it out of her purse and just spray it wildly hoping to hit an attackers face way up close, so perhaps it is a less direct spray, more of a wide mist.

If you can carry a sword on your bike, and then whip it out before being bitten, I'd love to see that, I have no idea how I'd manage that myself, but I'd be seriously impressed by the act. If there was a very strong direct stream pepper spray that you could latch onto handlebars, that'd probably be a better option than most sprays, pepper jet is more likely what we'd want. Maybe buy a few cans to practice with, obviously hoping to compensate for the wind and never spraying into it.

Go to an auto parts store or an automotive section in a hardware store and buy a couple of mechanic's soap, stuff like lava or goop come to mind. This stuff is supposed to be very strong for cleaning skin. Use water as hot as you can stand without burning yourself. I've got no experience in washing pepper spray or mace off of my face, maybe there is information on that online more specific. The mechanic's soap is just a guess. Be sure to use something with a sort of rough texture, doing some scrubbing with intense soap should help remove an upper layer of dead skin. Before you do all this, I'd soak my face with a hot wet towel, this will soften up your skin and open up your pores. If junk is trapped in there, opening the pores will help. If necessary, you could probably find some version of an exfoliater to use on your face. A hand towel might help, but it's pretty soft for what you want. I am not suggesting you put sand paper on your skin or hurt yourself, but I imagine a seriously good washing would make a lot of progress in getting this junk off. I can't think of much else that wouldn't be extremely uncomfortable to use.

 

[swbluto]

The Napoleonic forces used swords on their rides all the time.

I'm on a recumbent, so the scabbard would easily orient itself along the frame. The more pressing issue, to me, is securing it from theft. lol

Looking online, it seemed someone recommended a pistol with ratshot as a last resort, "A pack of pitbulls is trying to kill me", kind of defense. I'm not really so comfortable carrying around a pistol, but the specter of getting mauled to death by pitbulls kind of scares me and given how many dogs I've encountered so far, I'm thinking it's only a matter of time.

For pepper spray, it seems that most recommend the "stream types", which the Halt spray is. Apparently you have to be more precise to be effective, so it seems that shooting while riding might be more difficult.

I was also thinking about carrying along a non-lethal but still very painful CO2 pistol. I think it would have a similar deterrent power to pepper spray, though spray would obviously be longer lasting and making the assailant blind has obvious advantages. One person reported that one pitbull chasing him just kept charging and veered off the road into the bushes after getting sprayed, so I guess it's proven effective.

 

[rodney]

If you kick a dog, he will remember it just like he would remember if you
gave him a snack once or twice.

 

[dogman dan]

Mabye. I remember one dog I kicked every other day for years. He'd learn for a few days, then get in range of my foot again as he chased me a few days later.

Just about football size dog, I was booting him about 6 feet each time. But he just had to try for that nip nearly every day. I love dogs, but no dog gets away with attacking me. Now, I tend to circle back and give a chasing dog a real good scare. Often, just once and they do remember me from then on. They still give a chase, but keep a lot of distance.

 

[John in CR]

All this happened to you because you were afraid of a little dog :lol:
Next time you'll know better

Actually it all happened because he didn't have proper eye protection. I don't wear it in case I spray pepper spray in my own face. I wear it to protect my eyes from getting anything in them. It's the one sense absolutely required to ride an ebike.

SWBluto, I'm sorry this all happened. I bet you had a helmet on, didn't you? No proper eye protection, but gotta have that helmet. LOL!

John

 

[MadRhino]

Eye protection would have saved the day, but basically all this adventure is from being scared of the dog in the first place.
Don't carry a sword or a gun, you would be likely to kill yourself.
You need nothing else than your brain with a dog, and when you let yourself being scared you have no brain anymore.

 

[dogman dan]

So true. So easy for us, but being afraid of dogs is hard to overcome for many. Once a dog sees you truly don't fear it, you own him.

All I need to handle one dog is my attitude, and a few tricks I learned over the years, like make a fist and punch it straight down his throat. But a pack is another story. We've had several people killed by 4 or more dogs locally, some of them adults.

A big pack, and I'm just turning and riding for my life. One dog, I'll just teach a lesson to it.