It Ain't the Dog's Fault
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that dogs hate people on bicycles, and must chase them with great ferocity (apologies to Jane Austen).
For the second time in less than two years, a dog has come out of nowhere to run into the road and under my bike, causing a tremendous crash. The first time, I came out of it with just a lot of bumps and bruises and a broken iPhone. The second time, this past December 1, I myself was broken.
In this latest case, it was a German Shepherd that bolted from its owner’s yard and into the road just in front of me. It happened in a flash, leaving me no time to brake or swerve around it. I went down hard on my right side, landing on my right hand and rolling/sliding on the pavement. The result was that I broke the scaphoid bone in my right wrist, and had to undergo surgery.
As I speak this out (I cannot type right now because of the injury), my hand is in a hard splint. Tomorrow I go to see the hand surgeon, and see how well the healing is going. He’ll take the splint off, x-ray my wrist and update me on the situation. I’m praying of course for the best news possible, which is that healing is going normally, and I’ll be as good as new in a couple of months (albeit with a screw now in my wrist).
My surgeon tells me that in 9 cases out of 10 the patient makes a full recovery. It may be natural human instinct to assume that I will be the 10th case. The odds are in my favor for a good outcome, but I won’t know for sure for several months.
What I do know for sure is that I don’t understand dog owners who let their pets run free into the road or wherever else. It was quite possible that I could’ve done much more damage than this – I could’ve broken my neck, I could’ve broken my back. In that regard, I consider myself lucky — those things have happened to cyclists, too.
The dog owner told me that he didn’t realize that he was supposed to make sure his dog could not get off of his property. How you cannot be aware of that I don’t know, but he did not. I’ve been told that what drives the dogs into a frenzy when it comes to a bicycle are the wheels turning. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but whatever the reason, they seem to have it out for us – or at least for me.
My previous crash caused by a dog happened in 2020, early in the year. That time, the canine ran out between two hedges, and I didn’t see it at all. It bolted into the road directly in my path, exactly the same way the German Shepherd did. It’s like they were laser-guided missiles sent to wreak destruction on me and my bikes. In neither case did I have any time to avoid the crash.
In the earlier accident, the owner blamed me for riding my bike in the road, yelling that I caused the crash. I kid you not. This is a very common attitude among dog owners that I’ve encountered over the years. (Note that I am not saying every dog owner is like this, but I’ve run into enough of them to wonder what causes this attitude to predominate).
In the most recent episode, at least the owner didn’t act like it was my fault. In both cases, however, I paid the price for the owner’s negligence. I don’t blame the dogs at all. Much like an unruly, obnoxious child, I blame the parents, or, in this case the dog owner, for allowing it to happen.
After all, the dog is just doing what comes naturally — being a dog. It’s the dog the owner that needs to know better; it’s the dog owner that needs to understand that their precious pet can cause potentially catastrophic damage if left to its own devices.
Chances are very good that I’ll come out of this OK in the end. Will that be the case next time? It might be up to you, dog owner, to answer that question.