Dog Attack! - Apparently not.

[Bonefishblues]

That advice is spot on. If you pushed it, the dog that attacked you would be destroyed.

[hazecellar]

i should think that most people are taller than dogs and would agree with you on that
but dogs are not cowards , they are armed with a mouthful of sharp teeth and are born hunters
even the smallest of dogs can be nasty
i think if the owner is a bit fruitloop then the dog will copy and if the owner is too timid then the dog will think its boss
dogs are always on the lookout to get one step up the ladder

[thirdcrank]

One problem is that when pedalling a bike you are an attractive lure and more vulnerable to attack. When you are on foot wearing boots and carrying a stout walking stick, most mutts will be a tad more cautious.

[fastpedaller]

Thread revival...... Update due to repeat!
Sunday it happened again, 3 dogs plus the white one came racing out. The white one (as before) was determined and I had to sprint some (multi-geared this time though . I did as suggested in November, and called 999 to report dogs loose. Conversation went as below
Me: I wish to report loose dogs, this has happened to me before at this location and I was advised to dial 999 - 'm on a bike and have been chased.
P: What are you worried about
Me: Being knocked off or bitten
P: What sort of road is it?
Me: A country lane - 1 car width
P: Are you concerned that a dog could be hurt?
Me: No
P: What about a motorist? If a car came along the driver might swerve and roll the car and be hurt?
Me: I'm worried about myself or a pedestrian being hurt - I'm not worried about a motorist being hurt
P: You're missing the point - could a motorist be hurt if they rolled their car
Me: I don't know why you're asking that, to be clear I'm worried about whether I get hurt. If the dog gets hurt he may not be able to chase me, so maybe that would be a bonus. I'm lucky a car wasn't coming along or I could have been hurt as I was trying to avoid the dog.
P: Could a motorist have been hurt if they'd swerved to avoid the dog.
Me: Yes they could, but Im worried about me getting hurt. A car is a bit of tin that can be fixed.
P: You're missing the point - A motorist could be hurt.
Me: Can we just agree the dogs are dangerous, as you keep asking an irrelevant question. You don't seem to be bothered that a cyclist could be hurt, but maybe that's typical of society nowadays?
P: I'll get a report in.

I fairness after a couple of hours I received a call from a local Police officer who had been to talk to the owner, expressed his concerns (the lady rescues dogs it seems and agreed the white one 'chases things') and she has agreed to keep the white one on a lead. He also said "the white one seemed to avoid me, and was quite timid" to which I responded " he goes for me though"
I get the impression that they really think (unless a car rolls over ) that it's only a minor matter, and I'm just an inconvenience.
I did explain (To the pleasant Police Officer), that the call operator seemed fixated about a car rolling over, and not in the least bothered about me)
and he agreed it wasn't relevant - I suspect nothing will come of my comment though. If it happens again all I can do is call 999 again.

Is it me? Am I over reacting and should I be more concerned about whether a motorist rolls their car trying to avoid the dogs?

[Cyril Haearn]

No, you did right, I wonder where the call centre person was, if they understood
The white dog did not chase the cop
Dogs have very sensitive noses, maybe you should try to smell like or look like a policeperson

[Graham]

This only a guess, but perhaps the emergency responder was trying to follow a script rolling across the screen.
If so, the scripted questions might have been a bit general - not fitting your event particularly well.

Hopefully such a procedure would have a way to indicate that the human had to break away from the script due to some difficulty following it. Thus, it could be modified and improved.

OR <conspiracy theory alert>
On the other end of the line was an automated A.I. respond-bot.
This has been programmed to place a high value on persons in motor vehicles, and an low value for anyone not in a motor vehicle.

[Cyril Haearn]

Some call centres are in India, maybe the agents do not know the roads around Great Barking

[thirdcrank]

For a good thirty years, the police service has been trying to restrict emergency responses to true emergencies. To begin with, it was simply a set of guidelines but AFAIK, there have more recently been cuts to the staff available for an emergency response.

I think fastpeddaller has seen this from both ends. Reporting a dog incident later as I think he did first time, raises all the problems of evidence, particularly identifying the delinquent mutt. Ideally, to be effective, this type of thing needs to be investigated at the time, although not a blue light response. However, ringing 999 puts you through to somebody ideally handling only real emergencies. Catch 22.

(Memory Lane alert)

FWIW, some of this goes back much further to the days when panda cars had just been introduced and almost everything got an immediate response. Not long after that system started, there were experiments reducing the number of cars. I remember working a 10x6 day shift and for the first hour I was covering a car beat. Our work-to-rule radio operator kept all the cars free for emergencies, of which there were none. At 11am, when I was going out on foot patrol, he gave me a report of a dangerous dog which he had been sitting on as a non-emergency. Off my beat and two miles from the station. A child had been bitten, needed medical attention and the mutt was somewhere else. A nightmare to sort out without a car.

Every cloud has a silvery lining: a couple of months later I went on a promotion board and while I was marking time in the waiting room, I emptied my pockets to look smarter. An older candidate suggested I keep my duty book as the chairman was renowned for looking at them. I filled in some of the waiting time completing the index. In I went and the opening shot was "Give us your book." I was praised for conscientiously dealing with the mutt and as my book went round another boss spotted that I had been involved in some undercover observations in his division. He spent so much time telling the rest of the board what good work it had been I was back in the waiting room without any more questions, but a prestigious transfer before the week was out. Mary Hopkin used to have a song .....

[Bonefishblues]

This only a guess, but perhaps the emergency responder was trying to follow a script rolling across the screen.
If so, the scripted questions might have been a bit general - not fitting your event particularly well.

Hopefully such a procedure would have a way to indicate that the human had to break away from the script due to some difficulty following it. Thus, it could be modified and improved.

OR <conspiracy theory alert>
On the other end of the line was an automated A.I. respond-bot.
This has been programmed to place a high value on persons in motor vehicles, and an low value for anyone not in a motor vehicle.

Yes, I expect that this (the former theory, that is ) is close to the mark.

OP, you got a response to your report within 2hours from an officer who had already visited. I'd view that as a result, especially as the problem dog will now be controlled.

Some call centres are not in India. Most call centres aren't in India. Not sure their location is terribly relevant.

[Cyril Haearn]

Only emergencies? By going to deal with a loose dangerous dog the cops could prevent an emergency occurring at all

Plus One for the Duty Book story by TC

[gregoryoftours]

I interpreted the stuff banging on about causing motorists to be at risk of rolling a vehicle as an attempt to lead you to give information that would give them greater power to act.

[AlaninWales]

I interpreted the stuff banging on about causing motorists to be at risk of rolling a vehicle as an attempt to lead you to give information that would give them greater power to act.

Which is precisely the problem: If they can only use these "greater powers" if the Important Motorists may risk injury and not for lowly cyclists, there is something very wrong about the decision making process they have been told to follow (as theorised by Graham).

[fastpedaller]

I agree with the above comments, and also suspected (at the time) the operator was following a script. The strange thing was that although she clearly didn't want to deviate from the script, when I agreed "yes that is possibly something that could happen" to the car rolling, she sensed my 'lack of sincerity' She wanted me to be me more concerned about this hypothetical than my own welfare or that of a pedestrian (also htpothetical ), and although following the script, felt ok about interpreting it as she felt fit (my interpretation of course)
The Officer told me the call centre is in Wymondham (about 25 miles from here, but a norfolk location). Top marks to the Officer for following this up, and hopefully the dogs won't cause a problem to anyone in future.

[Bonefishblues]

I agree with the above comments, and also suspected (at the time) the operator was following a script. The strange thing was that although she clearly didn't want to deviate from the script, when I agreed "yes that is possibly something that could happen" to the car rolling, she sensed my 'lack of sincerity' She wanted me to be me more concerned about this hypothetical than my own welfare or that of a pedestrian (also htpothetical ), and although following the script, felt ok about interpreting it as she felt fit (my interpretation of course)
The Officer told me the call centre is in Wymondham (about 25 miles from here, but a norfolk location). Top marks to the Officer for following this up, and hopefully the dogs won't cause a problem to anyone in future.

She sounds like she was trying to help you to tick the boxes that lead to a response. We experienced similar when we had a dog attack experience, albeit from the officers who attended.

[JohnW]

In all my years on the saddle, I've only come across a similar situation once (so far) - and this was very recent!

The dog looked like a Staffy/Jack Russell cross. It was very determined, but it didn't have long legs and I was on a decent bike and out-ran it. Clearly the people were new in the house. This happened twice in the same day. Upon advice from a local farmer friend, on my next pass (the following day) I approached slowly and the dog saw me before I got to it. The dog didn't come at me as I approached, but I steered at it, accelerated, rode aggresively and shouted and yelled at it. The dog ran for it's own cover, and on the couple of occasions that I've passed in the last couple of days the dog hasn't troubled me at all - in fact it's turned back into it's own (un-gated and unfenced) yard.

My farmer friend said that if once frightened a dog will remember. I asked what to do if I hadn't frightened the dog. "Oh - we used to shoot 'em in t'old days, but yer can't der that nah".