The free-ranging dogs on long tours. Temporary annoyances, possible dangers.

[froze]

Dogs ran after me so many times in numerous different ways.  It is too long ago to remember with precision. Dogs in the US are most always domesticated, tame, friendly.  They are in it for the run and the hunt. It is genetically encoded.  They will not run you to earth and devour you. This might be quite the opposite of dogs in other regions of the world. Some, like some people, will attack a human of any age and maul them to death.  And they would eat out your guts.  In the US you should be safe from the pesky canines. While that is not a 100% guarantee, I would give it a 98. There is a small risk of being attacked by a free-ranging pack of dogs.

While I do believe that most dogs are like as you say, because I too have run into a lot of dogs over the 40-plus years of riding, and most are wanting to run and play, but not all.  The dogs I had problems with were not free-ranging dogs.  I've known several riders over the years that got attacked by dogs while riding their bikes and in the process were injured by either the dog ramming into the bike and forcing a crash, and or, getting bit, one female rider I heard about in the news was mauled, and these were not free-ranging dogs, these were all domesticated dogs living in homes with human beings.  A dog is an animal, you should never completely trust an animal domesticated or not.  I have dogs for pets, never had one hurt someone over the many years I've had them, but that doesn't mean that one day one won't, this is why there are leash laws either when walking a dog or if it is in the front yard because there have been too many incidences of a dog not restrained then for whatever reason attacked a person.  Those dog attacks are the number one reason for liability claims on homeowners' insurance policies!

[Westinghouse]

That what you say is more to the point.  The friendly, so-called, domestic pet dogs are known to attack and kill.  They do it inside the houses where they live.  An article online had a story like that.  A deputy sheriff watched over children of one of his friends.  It was inside in his friend's house.  A pet dog attacked and mauled him to death.   In another report, two dogs a woman had raised suddenly attacked her. It was fatal.  One thing about our canine friends.  They tend to be more aggressive and dangerous in packs, even more so if they are free-ranging, living off the land.

[froze]

If I would happen to be around if one of my dogs ever attacked someone for no reason, I would immediately kill my dog without a second thought or any hesitation to stop the attack.  Hopefully, I will never have to do that.  But dog parents need to keep their dogs on leashes even out in the country, but most don't, if a dog attacked me while riding I would have no qualms about killing one if other methods wasn't working.

[Westinghouse]

Anyone who reads this thread should be forewarned of the small but possible danger.  It should be instructive in prevention and in enacting counter influences against attack.