Bark eh!

How many of you experienced the rush of cycling past a couple of dogs and had one or two chasing you. Oh yes, the adrenaline! Of course, the safest thing is to come to a complete stop, hop off the bike and chase the dogs away. How many of you fell prey to the temptation of outrunning them? I know I do that all the time…

The funny thing is that it is a different experience being chased by dogs in Canada than being chased by dogs in Romania.

Canadian dogs are usually around farms and they start running and barking as soon as they have you under their visual range. The dog stops most of the time like hitting an invisible, lawn-delimited wall. When there is more than one, then there is trouble; and it is always the little one that closes in with the eyes feverishly following your socks. All you have to do is to quickly match the bark-cadence of the little one and not of the big one if you want to be tetanus shot free.

In Romania, there are dogs everywhere, farms or cities, it does not matter and there is no pre-emptive bark either. With a growl they start the chase from behind, big or small, single or in groups. You have ten times the adrenaline and ten times less time to react; thank you Coach Troy. The only nice part is they don’t chase the person on the bike, they chase you as a vehicle hence they bark and try to bite your rear tire instead.