If somebody wanted to get experience dealing with critters in 1984, he could bicycle the length of highway 90 in north Florida. That is what I did. Free ranging dogs were all over the place everywhere. They were seen dead along the roadsides. I did not drive into any.
About domesticated dogs in the USA. You need not be concerned with your safety. They are pacified, fed, kept, and soft. They snip and snarl, bark and fart. They become aggressive. My long experience says they will not seriously attack. It might actually happen, but it has not to me. One hint. Stop cycling and they stop chasing.
The movement of the legs sets them off. Maybe it is something in the primitive brain set there for survival, the hunt, the chase, and killing the prey. My experience is the actual attack will not happen. It could happen, and there are always statistical anomalies and one in a million chance happenings. Keep in mind, dogs are descended from hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. During that time hunting and killing were their means of survival. It is hardwired into their DNA. It is born in the blood. No matter how domesticated and docile, those impulses are still within. Nature assures they are transmitted generation to generation, and when nature does the same thing endlessly and repeatedly, there is a reason for it. This whole pet dog thing has been around for a comparatively short time. If conditions change, they can rely on ancient instincts for killing. Those instincts are why normally placid fido goes bananas when he sees you flying past on your velocipede. He will not jump on you. I seriously doubt he will sink a fang into your hide.
On the downside of the curve, a pack of dogs attacked and killed a woman in New Mexico. Well, yes, things do happen. Many thousands of people are killed by dogs annually worldwide. The dog will not tear at you. We too have instincts for survival. Rover does not want to go up against that.
