It’s a steep down hill; I was gliding down at 90 km/hr. The sun was about to set and suddenly a beautiful girl is a Merida Juliet comes and asks me, “Can I join you for a ride”. She was the most charming girl I had ever met. “Beep-Beep!” “Beep-Beep!” ummmm “Beep-Beep!” “Beep-Beep!” uuuhhhhmmmmmmmm! Nooooo L Hmmmmm. The dream was better; I won’t go for the ride today, that charming girl…. Oh it was just a dream L. Hmmmmm, finally I got up lazily.

Expecting to meet my dream biking girl on a down slope at 90km/hr (I have never touched that yet, only in dreams), a speed where we both can resonate, I opened my apartment’s iron gates slowly not to wake up the guard. Though my life is less tragic then Pip’s in Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Great Expectations’ but instead of my dream biking girl, I was greeted by ‘The King of the City at Night’ a.k.a. the dog.

After a year of biking I am not sure how much I know about bikes but I am sure I know a lot about the dogs. Yes the dogs J. So let me start with my informative tutorial on ‘How to avoid dog bites and trespass through dogs’ zones’ (Actually I am confused, should I have named it – ‘The Quick and Easy Way to Dog Management’), whatever, let’s start with the first session –

How to avoid dog bites and trespass through dogs’ zones

1. Identifying Dog Zones

Dogs like Human have residential complex too. And like every residential complex they too have compound walls. And like us they too guard their territory. But unfortunately at day time the dogs have a treaty with the humans that they will permit our traffic (Traffic includes Cars, Buses, Trucks, Autos, Motorbikes, and all Vehicles with external combustion Engine – by external I mean external to the body of the driver unlike bicycle which have internal combustion engine, i.e. inside the rider’s body). This treaty ends every night when the traffic decreases and the external combustion engine driver takes a break.

The night is the when king rules the city. He barks at anyone who comes in his territory. It’s his now. This king of the city reminds me of the King in the book ‘The Little Prince’ who rules a planet were no one else was there. He has the absolute power.

Let’s see what makes a perfect territory for the dogs. Food is the only concern they have. Food… hotels and garbage bins of residential areas give them strategic advantage. They also are fond of construction sites. The size of the territory depends on the number of habitants. A group of 4-5 dogs will have territory that will be spread over 20 meter of road, a larger group might have a 100 meter range J.

Let’s see what to expect when we enter one of the zones.

2. The Welcome Bark

Like humans dogs too have diversity. Some are fun loving, some are calm, some are innocent and stupid and some are violent and aggressive. When you enter an unexplored dogs zone you can’t say what their reaction will be, they can ignore you which is best for you, they might be fighting among themselves, they might wag their tails and chase you to play with you, they might take aggressive start and bark till you are out of their sight, they might bark and chase you till you find a way to tackle them or they may chase you without barking and bite you. And sometime if there are large numbers of dogs in the zone you may encounter all of these kinds of dogs together.

It’s 4.30 AM and I just entered a dogs’ zone, let’s see what happens next in my lecture number ‘3’.

3. The Intrusion

The Most curious thing that a dog finds about a cyclist is his speed. The dogs are attracted towards the calf muscle the most. They wonder how human legs with this odd machine can go faster than running. They want to stop you and see what’s this vehicle is, which is not making any noise like the motored ones and still going faster than usual human speed. Pedaling motion is the most curious thing for them. The First step when entering a dogs’ zone is to stop the pedaling. This usually will stop the dogs from being aroused. Mostly you will be able to pass through the territory peacefully just by stopping the pedaling. But if you find any dogs still barking at you then apply brake lightly, make you speed half, act that you are following the dogs orders. They want you to show them respect as it’s their territory, so slow down but keep going ahead J as that’s what our objective is.

But unfortunately I was at a great speed and didn’t slow down in right timeL. One of the dogs kept coming closer barking at me. L

4. Penultimate Tactics

I was just one step away from real combat.

The penultimate step to take when a dog starts coming close to you is to… is to get down the saddle and look towards it. Have a polite stance; stand as if you are standing because he ordered you to. Let the barking of the dogs stop. Let them calm down and then slowly get on the saddle and pedal slowly or better drag your bike out of the territory.

5. The Combat

But it was one of those days when my cerebrum was not functioning properly, which is a usual case. I forgot all the diplomacy and was in hurry and didn’t stop when the dogs started chasing me. I was still in my dream trying to recall the dream biking girl’s face so that incase I find her in the real world I will let my heart out to her. But when a canine came just inches away from my naked calf muscle I realized if those get in I will be have a life far more tragic than Pip’s.

And now I had to use my combat technique. I took out my sonometer and measured the sound intensity of the loudest dog’s bark. Inhaled air into my wind pipe, and out came a Roar which was twice louder than the loudest dog’s bark. And peace prevailed.

Appendix I - Don’t Dos

1. Never harm a dog. There will always be a way you can avoid a dog bite, try not to harm the dogs. You can act that you are picking up a stone or that you are throwing something without actually doing it to scare the dogs away.

2. Never offer food to dogs in the following conditions –

a. When you are riding at odd hours, like dawn or night.

b. When you are riding on a route which is frequented by cyclists or joggers.

Offering food to dogs in such conditions will make them more aggressive towards cyclists who don’t offer them food.

Appendix II – Mass Combat

On one of our tours; when we were a group of 3 and we had two punctures; we were surrounded by around 20 dogs. It was around 6 AM and we were near an open area and around 20 dogs from all directions started approaching us. The most important thing to notice is that no single group of dogs have 20 member, they were of around 3 groups and lacked coordination. They were all waiting for one of them to take the initiative. It was really easy to tackle, I had to just pick up a pebble and aim it a feet away from the dog which was closing fastest (aim a feet away, don’t hit it J). After more than half an hour of pebble firing the dogs backed off and we mended the two puncture that we had and headed for our journey.

Appendix III – Friendly and over-friendly dogs

Dogs are men’s best friend. We all know that. Many of us love dogs a lot and like to make friendship with them where ever you go. It’s good to certain extent. Some dogs, usually the immature puppies, get too attracted towards cyclists and become over friendly. Make sure the pups don’t start following you all the way. This I learned from Lohagad trip when a pup followed us around 7 km on a broken mountainous road, and I have no idea whether it could return home or not. So let’s make sure that we love the dogs but not make them homeless.

Appendix IV – Injured Dogs

Incase you find any dog injured, if possible try it take off the road and feed it. If it’s near any village try to get some help to dress the wounds.

Call Blue Cross or any other organization which do animal rescue activities.

Blue Cross
Mrs. Shrinanda Das
24/1 Koregaon Park
Pune - 411001
Tel : 6138781/6133107

Blue Cross Society of Pune Regd. Office:

T-4 Florida Estate, Keshavnagar, Mundhwa,
Pune 411 037 Tel: 020-2512 2589
email: pbcdas@hotmail.com
Mrs. Sunanda Das/Mr. Subir Das: 020-2680 1170
Mr. Vijay Paranjpye/ Mrs. Anjali Paranjpye: 98232 77760

For problems related to stray dogs: 020-2512 2589

The Paws Pack (Regd. Charitable Trust)

132/A, E-Square, University Road, Pune – 411016, Maharashtra, India

Phone: 9322702743, 9823191350, 9890334433

Email: thepawspack@gmail.com

Activities:

FREE: 24 hour small animal rescue (cats & dogs), animal adoption & re-homing, Animal rescue van (9764542929)

CHARGEABLE: Dog Training, Canine Nutrition & Prescription Diets, Pet Boarding, Dog Walking, Dog Grooming, Pet Transportation, Pre-pet counseling, Happy Tails Club.