Reading dog behavior while riding
So the other day I took my mountain bike out for a seven mile ride and encountered a couple dogs that came out to "greet" me. I noticed that the dogs tail was up and wagging (good for me), dog was smiling (good for me), and the dogs bark was more of a "come play with me" bark instead of an "I'm going to eat you" bark.
These are farm dogs and used to staying out of the way of pickups so I wasn't worried about running over them, but the bigger of the two dogs got close enough to give my lower leg a few licks (no I don't think he was tasting me to find out if I would be good eating).
Had the tails been down or tucked, and had the bark sounded different and the facial expression been different on the dogs I may have been in trouble or in pain from a bite.
Try to learn to read dog behavior so that you don't get bit especially if you are riding rural roads.
These are farm dogs and used to staying out of the way of pickups so I wasn't worried about running over them, but the bigger of the two dogs got close enough to give my lower leg a few licks (no I don't think he was tasting me to find out if I would be good eating).
Had the tails been down or tucked, and had the bark sounded different and the facial expression been different on the dogs I may have been in trouble or in pain from a bite.
Try to learn to read dog behavior so that you don't get bit especially if you are riding rural roads.