Had a good day go bad today. The guy helping at the track left a couple minutes before me and then I get a call from him. I ran over a dog. The neighbor beside me had 3 dogs that like to chase vehicles. The mom and 2 pups that are less than a year old. Sometimes they come running down the driveway and other times they lay in wait. As he's driving by they jump out and one of the pups get hit. He hit brakes and almost went in the ditch. He drives a 1 ton dually with a welder on the back. The neighbors were sitting in their truck waiting for the rain to stop and saw it happen. Rally sad their daughter who's about 3 or 4 had to see it too. I stopped and talked to the neighbor and they said the guy got out of his truck and said something like, what the hell. He started walking back and then realized the dog had died and then went back to his truck. He has dogs and I think was in shock. He feels horrible about it. Of course the neighbors think he was going too fast. His thinking is why don't you have your dogs on a leash if you know they chase vehicles. The neighbor has talked about an invisible fence but hasn't done anything yet. Oddly he has some cattle and puts up electric fence for them. Lately I've been going real slow or stopping and the dogs sometimes lose interest in chasing me. There's going to be more people coming down this road. Even though it's a dead end road it's considered a secondary highway so the speed limit is 80 kmh. The guy helping me said he going 65. The neighbors are very pizzed off with him and saying what if one of our kids were on the road etc. I'm thinking maybe put a kids at play sign or something up so people slow down but if the dogs are lose they'll still chase the vehicles. Curious what other people think with regards to having dogs that chase vehicles?
65 kph or 80 kph it makes little difference. At those speeds the dog is going to get it. Even at driveway speeds they can get it. We have a road of similar speed in front of the house although it is a thoroughfare so plenty of traffic. We keep kids and animals far from it. It is different with kids though, usually they move slower and they certainly don't dart out and try to catch the tires and generally stay away from cars. If not then they just stand in the road. So if a driver can see them ahead of time he will slow down or stop. Dogs are so much more active and they do more risky things.
Should dogs be kept on a leash or something so they can't chase vehicles?
I once collected a dog while doing some low speed trimming on a grader. It was the first time he had seen the machine and shot out to have a go at a front tyre while I was concentrating on the mouldboard. Unfortunately, it didn’t end well for him.
Clueless pet owners are ********. They like to blame everyone but themselves.
Yes. Leash or fence. If their dogs are running loose then what happens to them off their property is all on them. Sad but true. If the guy drove into their yard or up their driveway and hit them that’s different. Funny thing is if their dogs ran to somebody else’s property and bit or hurt a person/animal they’d be responsible for it. If they press the issue ask them what they’d do if somebody else’s dog was on their property chasing their animals..... All in all it’s a bad deal they just need to take care of their pets.
We built a fence for our furry idiots for a reason. I want to keep them safe from themselves It sucks but the blame is 100% on them for not protecting their dogs with fence or leash
^^^ YUP ^^^
^^^ Wot they said ^^^ If a dog is known to chase vehicles then unless the owner looks after it what happens if it actually manages to catch a vehicle is between the dog and the vehicle. IMO this saying from a flight manual is somewhat adaptable to animal/vehicle interfaces ........ "In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium travelling at hundreds of miles/hr and the ground travelling at zero miles/hr, the ground has yet to lose."
I have nailed two dogs in my travels it sucks but I am not about to wreck a truck trying to avoid a dog
Yes. It is the owner's fault his dog is dead. I love pets, livestock, and children, and it is my responsibility to watch over and make sure they stay safe. The dog is dead because his owner didn't care enough to provide a safe place for them to play, or care enough to teach them not to chase cars. From a liability aspect, if the dog had caused a crash, the owner is liable for negligence for allowing his dog to enter a public roadway. It's the same with livestock, provided it's not an 'open range area. Dog owner only has himself to blame.
Actually the other neighbor has a dog that comes into their yard and messes with the cattle and they don't like it. That dog doesn't normally chase vehicles though unless it's visiting/playing with the other dogs. When I drive by you can't tell where the dogs are a lot of times. The neighbor was mad because the guy yelled something at him when he got out of his truck. The driver was mad because he certainly didn't want to hit a dog and almost went in the ditch. I think when he saw the dog had died he went back to his truck because he was a mess. He slammed the brakes on so hard it ripped the battery out of his welder. Just a bad accident and hopefully it doesn't affect my relationship with the neighbor. I was locking the gate otherwise I would have witnessed the whole thing. I guess when I see the neighbor again I'll just say the guy feels horrible and leave it at that. Really responsible with his cattle which makes it so unusual.
This story is sad. I always hate seeing dogs loose near the road and that's usually from my small Honda Civic. Often times there's nothing you can do but try to avoid. If a dumb dog wants to bite tires, or whatever, it's really difficult to do anything other than try to get out of the way. I like my car, and it's relatively new and nice. I was driving down a road a few weeks ago and a giant Rottweiler was kind of jogging down the road, in the grass, as I approached. I slowed down but as I did it got closer and started to chase after me. I tried, successfully, to pass him, then punch it to get far away quickly, as I didn't want it jumping up on my car if it caught up. Not to mention it was huge and could have eaten one of my kids. I'm not sure how you can be mad at someone that hits your dog that ran wild. It's sad as can be but as everyone else said, that's what happens if you let your dog loose.
We had a dog several years ago who got hit by a guy driving down the road. This dog usually was good about going out in the back 5 acres to do his morning business. Unfortunately this morning a deer happened to catch his eye and off he went. The guy stopped and felt bad about it and even tried to let us have him pay for a new dog. We very politely refused and made sure the dog had not damaged his car in the process. On a somewhat strange note this guy also was one of the first people on the scene several years earlier when a guy hit me while I was pulling in my driveway with my sidecar outfit. He said he always wondered how I made out from that accident but did not like meeting me this way. When we got the next dog(s), we had a 40 by 50 foot fenced in area for the dogs potty time and always have them on a leash when walking them. Even a well trained dog can get distracted by wildlife or such.
Don't know what it's all about but when a K-9 gets that chasing vehicles in the blood there seems to be no stopping it . Some even try to bite at the rolling tires . Always ends bad . On a good note … Funny story .. We were changing blades on the bush hog one evening when a Conservation Officer pulled in the farm . He steps out of the truck and starts complaining about how he almost hit one of our cows on the road ……. The Old Man looked at him & said " yes that's our cow you almost hit on the road we pay property tax on going though the farm ." Now the cow is in our jurisdiction . Try to be more careful the next time . And buy the way …. Keep your deer off our road and out of our fields " Frog Cop " At least the Old Man was in a good mood that evening . Deer Jaywalking and trespassing at 1:05 ….. Where's a Frog cop when ya need them ? LOL !
Lot's of people simply don't understand where responsibility should be allocated. Some think everyone should slow down to 15 MPH because they have loose dogs. Those dogs don't pay road taxes nor obey traffic laws. Drivers do and have a right to use them.
I live in FL, USA. We are a free range state. If I am traveling down the highway in my $200,000 Mercedes and your cow goes through a fence onto the highway, I hit it and total my Mercedes, I owe you a new cow, you don't owe me ****...
I live on a 90 kmh road and my dog goes on a rope because I like him and dont want to pay for anyone's car repairs.
Funny story about car chasing dogs: I had a rented shop with a 1/4 mile oiled road leading to the gate... Total dead end road, about halfway to the gate was an old single wide trailer right on the edge of the road that had 4 mutts that ranged from a big husky to a hound looking thing. Husky was the boss dog. The trailer folks had signs everywhere reading 10 mph even though it was not their road and called the sheriff several times about my customers going in and out. (easement was for the shop and yard) One day I was heading back to the shop trying to honor the loser's speed limits and the mutt patrol came out in force to attack the service truck. I started grabbing gears and the mutts were hanging in at 30 mph chasing the front tire, I got to the gate and just cleared the drivers mirror on the gate post and piled the dogs up on the chainlink fence... It sounded like a Zither when they hit it. In the end the Husky decided the others attacked him when they piled up and a cataclysmic dog fight ensued. The hair clumps lasted 3 weeks or better and the mutts never chased my truck again.
I hit a dog once. On the customer's property in his driveway. The kids were holding the dog across the way and it looked under control. I paused and then decided to start moving right when the dog got loose. It shot across the grass and I felt it in the steering wheel as it hit the right front tire of the little KW. I thought of all the paperwork I would have to do. The dog ran away yelping fortunately. The owner was a vet and was examining the dog's paw. He could find nothing much wrong. I just can't figure how I felt such a thump through all the steering linkage and did not severely damage the dog.
We use anything up to half a dozen dogs, almost every day, to help handle cattle. When it comes to cattle work, one talented dog can easily be more help than a couple of dumb humans, so we value them accordingly. Unfortunately, it is impossible to keep them all under perfect control all the time and accidents do happen. On another occasion, a dog ran under a one tonne farm ute that was passing slowly by. I could see the vehicle visibly bounce twice as both axles went over him and feared the worst. Amazingly, he got up with no ill effects other than a complete and permanent loss of control over his tail.
Nobody wants to run over critters. There was a down dog that'd been stomped by a bull when he was a pup, big cloven cleft in his noggin, he'd spend the day barking at and chasing away all the invisible demons, dutifully protecting the town from the unseen menaces!
Wonder if it’s legal to pepper spray dogs that chase vehicles¿ There is one that chases my car damn near hit few times and thought about it, maybe the owner gets a taste too and puts a fence up or leash.
I knew a guy that would time his driving and hit them by opening the door...sounds mean but I suppose maybe they would learn after that without going under the tires. A little extreme for my taste.
I tried that, only worked for couple days and they are right back at it.
Friend of mine carries paint loaded balloons for those that he knows are chasers, they learned his truck really quick. Same turd carries pennies in his cup holder on his car and pickup for tailgaters. Will chuck them out thru moon roof or toss up out the side window at speed.
I was out inspecting bridges one day in November. It started to snow lightly so I pulled the plug and was headed back to the office. I was probably doing 40 out in the boonies, had the road all to myself. As I pass this small house set back from the road I see Fido heading for me at warp speed. He runs right in front of me, I hear the thump thump, look in the rear view and he's sliding off the road into the ditch - dead as can be. Crap, I'm in a gov't car and just killed a dog. So I turn around and go up to the house. It's pretty run down and there's the kids toys in the yard. I repeatedly knock on the door. No answer. The lady of the house finally just cracks the door. "I'm sorry ma'am but I just hit and killed your dog". She says "serves him right" and shut the door. I'll try to slow down if I can but refuse to swerve or lock up the brakes. I've gotten 3 dogs and numerous squirrels in my 53 years of driving. Knock on plastic, I haven't had an encounter with a deer yet. I did get a Canadian goose one evening at dusk. Hit the windshield in the center at the top. Closed my eyes, heard it hit, opened my eyes and the window was completely shattered but still in the frame. I wear gasses fortunately but I had the glass crumbles everywhere.
When I hit that dog, and a couple other incidents that concerned me, I went back to the office and wrote up a report of exactly what happened as soon as I could and as detailed as I could. Then just saved it for myself, didn't tell anybody or maybe just let somebody know it existed. Probably not a whole lot of use in court but could be useful to a lawyer to prepare a case, I don't know. Dad hit a deer smack in the middle when I was riding in his car at at least 60 mph. I remember the grille floating past the windshield like smoke in a wind tunnel and the deer being ejected to the center divider. Car was repaired but just a few dollars from totaled. I hit a turkey myself and it busted my grille. Made me annoyed because I could have done more to avoid it and there might have been no damage. I told an old hillbilly about it and he got in his truck and roared off looking for free dinner. Next time I saw him he said he was not able to find the turkey, was very disappointed.
I’m going to lighten the thread a bit but, I live 35 miles from a small city in middle of nowhere. Twenty-three miles of it is rock road and some clay along with being free range and few blocks of BLM and state lands. Well out here in Montana we have prairie dogs and in this one section of state land is thousands of them and there is this one particular prairie dog who dug a hole in the road. Some days I see him and some days I don’t. When I see him and he sees me he will run to his hole jump in but not go all the way down, shakes his ass at me and last second plops in the hole below the road. Some days he is in his hole and waits to duck at last second. He dug the hole more and left a mound one day that would be tough to drive over so I packed it back in ran over with car few times to give it a good packing. Little b*****d dug it back out the next day, except not much as before. So far this cat and mouse game has been going on past 2 months. Thought about mounting a GoPro cam on the car. So his other relatives have been doing same without a hole they just run across the road, so far scored one hit on them. Besides that I aim for the antelope or deer too.
Was drivin toward the first light from the farm, once. spied a ground hog traveling in circles, at the intersection. Traveling in circles means either he's had a head injury, or has distemper, or worse, so I figgered I'd put him outta his misery, eased over a foot or so, lined him up, just right, got him with the steeerin axle, and the dually tires. Flat out dead. Unfortunately I had a witless witness, behind me. He went around me, honkin and screamin, and stopped in fronta me, on the right, hopped outta his car, and stepped into traffic, to try and stop me, and give me a piece of his lil mind.... so I eased over, a foot or so, and wondered if I could make it a twofer mornin... He ended up jumpin onta his hood, at the last second, unfortunately
Squirrels are the hardest to avoid because of their indecision. They dart back and forth so you aren't sure where they're going. One time I was riding a motorcycle with girlfriend on the back down a central Texas back road. The squirrel kept changing direction and sure enough I heard a pop and flattened his head. I was worried GF wouldn't love me that night (did anyway). As the old saying goes, "The road of indecision is paved with flat squirrels".
I flattened a squirrel on my commercial drive test. Winding country road. I held the lane and maintained speed just like the book said. Examiner saw it and said nothing, we continued on and passed.
Critter in the road, bad choice in front of me, I will NOT dart nor dive to avoid except Turtles. We have box tortoises here, I will often stop on the county road, four ways on and pick the little turds up shuffle them off to the shoulder.
I remember riding in the logging truck with dad years ago. On our way out to a buddy's place to get some welding done on the trailer. We're motoring down a rural road when I see something in the middle of the road maybe a quarter kilometer ahead of us. About a second or two later I open my mouth to say "dad is that a dog on the road?" Got about 2 words out when suddenly dad hammers the brake pedal. All 8 drives lock up and I just about bounce my head off the dash. Freakin' Golden Retriever was lying right in the middle of the road and he almost blended in perfectly with the pavement. He casually wandered off to the side while the two of us just about had a heart attack as we flew past that damn dog.
Three things that relate to all y'alls stories... My neighbor unintentionally ran over a turtle backing out of his spot a couple days ago, said it was coming from my pond, and it probably was. Turtle didn't make it. Very sad. On another turtle note, in Dayton, Ohio we have the Great Miami River that runs right through the middle of the city and one of the streets that runs along side, near the University of Dayton campus is S. Patterson. Well, whomever designed and built that road did a poor job of considering that turtles may climb up the flood wall, and into the road that had 4 or 5 inch tall curbs on either side. I haven't seen it lately but for a while it was really difficult to avoid either the turtles or their carcasses, since they were trapped in the roadway. I also have an ex-uncle-in-law who is a cop. He was called to an accident on 35, a local highway that splits the city north and south. Upon pulling up to the scene he saw the completely smashed in window, from a car that a goose had flown into and through. So, the goose hits the windshield (Geo Tracker if I'm remembering correctly), goes through it, and proceeds to thrash around like mad, inside the car! I think it eventually got out and lived, again, if I'm remembering correctly.
Let's lighten things up a bit: Rumour has it the squirrel laughed and bounded away unharmed.
How timely is this one! Just got back from a ride to lunch with the wife, me on Sportster and her on Vespa we both have intercoms so we point out road kill and other things to each other. Maybe a mile from home on a local back road, right in the center of the road is a turtle about 5 to 6 inches across. I say "Watch-out! Turtle crossing!" She was a little further back so she had time to slow down and make a u-turn. When she got close to turtle she said it was running, well as much as a turtle can! Then by the time I got there he decided best thing was to hide in his shell. So as there was a car coming I parked the Sporty and walked over and picked him(her?) up by the side of the shell with my riding gloves still on just on the chance it decided I was not there to help! Set it well off road with nose facing nice tall weeds and left him there.
Dmiller you need a hockey stick for them, you sure could get a few goalies in lol... As for being on a Sportster I use to own one and happen up on turtle while out riding, slowed it down to about 20 mph lined my foot up on it and gave it a good kick. Bet that was the fastest that turtle ever crossed the road hehe
Turtles, dogs, cats, snakes, I brake for'em. Turtles I will herd twards a wet spot. Don't give a damn about most anything else. THis thread reminds me of the old riddle: Why dif the chicken cross the road? To show the possum, that it COULD be done! AND: )
I pepper sprayed my dog by accident once, was testing a can and shot out a good fog and my pup came zooming around the corner, right into the airborn stream and fog, he sneezed and kept right on running to wherever he was going before getting sprayed. He didn't seem to care after a dozen sneezes.
My brother and I cured a big German Shepard of chasing our bikes with a 5 Lb. dry chemical fire extinguisher after we had been bitten a few times, little brother was the tailgunner riding double on my new to me Honda trail 90, mutt ran out in the road and got blasted in the face with the full stream 'til it was empty. It never bothered us again.
My dad found a squirt gun loaded with ammonia was effective.
Delivering propane the big propane hose with a huge volume of freezing spray is very effective. The noise and power are incredible. The downside is that with all the fog it makes you can't see what the dog did but usually when the fog dissipates the dog is nowhere to be seen.
My friend used to have a big fast shep that loved to ride in his truck. He'd sneak out of the driveway and zoom down the street, usually the dog would give chase and at the stopsign *HOP* right into the bed of the truck all wagging and panting.. One day he let the dog get close and about 15 feet from the stopsign, he stopped short and hard and heard a *WHAM* doggo sitting on his butt in the middle of the road when he drove off, never chased him down for a ride again.
It's sad. But this is the pet owners fault I guess.