I really don't care to blow off cops.  They don't really bother me.
In fact, I think I've been stopped more times on my bike than in my
car, but I never so much as even got a written warning from them --
even the time the NY State Trooper pulled me over for doing 72 on the
Thruway at about 4 am one cold morning last August.  Heck, she was so
nice I almost asked her out on a date ...

Anyway, that's not the point of this article.  Dogs are.  They can get
me a little uptight, probably stemming from an incident of my very
early teens where one rather large retriever jumped up from behind its
owner and clamped on to my face.  For the most part I don't really let
them intimidate me but there are those times that they get my
adrenalin flowing.

As an adventurous motorcyclist I frequently find myself on quiet
country roads, very infrequently travelled and only hosting one or two
homes.  People in these areas are often the sort that have big hunting
dogs -- not the dogs that go hunting with their masters, but the type
that strikes out its own to stalk and kill a moose and then drag it
back five miles through fields and streams and woods to the farmhouse
doorstep.

As if that wasn't enough for a dog's day, they then sit proudly on
their porches, beside their daily moose trophies,  waiting for
unsuspecting motorcyclists to come upon their way so that they can
have some nice Metzelers to frame the moose heads with.  Now, being
the fool-hardy soul that I am, this rider-bearing-Metzelers tends to
be me.  Of course in most situations this isn't that much of a problem
because an extra beat of the heart and a twist of the wrist later the
dumb dog has completely forgotten that I even existed.  There are
those times, however, when it gives me considerably more consternation
than I really want to deal with on my normally pleasurable drive.

One way the dogs set up the trap is to call the county surveyor's
office and get their master's driveway on the maps as a road.
Sometimes they are even so bold as to declare it a through road, as
though it connected to some genuine artery on the other side, but
nearly always is really just a one-car wide strip of dirt that leads
right up to the porch.  If the dog was really fortunate, he had a hand
in the design of the driveway and its approach to the house and got it
to come in around a curve.  That way the unsuspecting rider can't
really tell that its One of Those Traps until the last possible
moment, even though his own premonitions have been telling him from
the moment that he turned on to that road that he should be at home
eating ham sandwiches and watching Happy Days reruns.  Even if they
can't get it on the maps then they will attempt to created their own
road post, in hopes of snagging those motorcyclist who simply feel the
Wanderlust and do not bother with such triflings as road maps.  Of
course these signs are usually dead give-aways to the true nature of
the road as dogs tend to be pretty poor limners since they lack
opposable thumbs, but I did come across one Lab who hired a
professional to make his road signs.

The problem comes up in that there is generally no room to turn around
peacefully and leave once the motorcyclists discovers the trap that he
has unwittingly stumbled into.  There sits the dog on the porch,
amidst a pile of rubber framed moose trophies, staring at the
motorcyclist with a knowing look.  That dog knows he doesn't have to
jump yet, because the rider has nowhere to go.  He's surrounded by
woods.  The only access was through the road that brought him in, and
now his tailpipes are pointing to it.  The dog might throw in some
barks, but they are primarily for show.  He isn't concerned that the
prey might escape, but is amused by watching it sweat under its layers
of leather clothing and spaceman headgear.

The two times (sigh, some people never learn) I discovered myself in
such a snare I was fortunate to escape without even so much as as
teeth marks in the taillights, but it was close.  Both times the dogs
had let me get perpendicular to the side of the road, with my rear
tyre against the road edge, before they started their breaks.  This
was their undoing.  For the one case I merely had a small bunker to
hop up to give me a turn that had suitable acceleration to leave the
cur behind.  For the other case I didn't even have a rise to conquer
in order to to use the adjacent field to help facilitate the turn;
there was, however, unbeknownst to me until seconds before I was upon
it, a rather deep irrigation ditch squarely in the line I had picked
to return to the driveway.  It was not especially wide, perhaps two
feet (though I of course did not take the time to stop and measure
it), but it presented enough of a hazard that I was not at all happy
to see it.  A tug up on the handle bars and a rise off the seat
fortunately saw me across that hurdle without any seemingly ill
effects on my mount, but I did have to promise it an extra quart of
oil when we returned home as it kept muttering something to me through
the exhaust about "475 pound street bikes _were_not_ meant to do that!"

The other trap which dogs use is employed by those who are unfortunate
enough to not live on their own dead-end.  They must sit near the
road, ready to leap at a moments notice.  Often times they will post
bogus speed limit signs heralding "Spead Limit 10, Radar Kontroled".
These signs are normally easy to recognise for their origins, but once
again if they enlist professional help then even the most skilled
dog-avoider can be caught at unawares.  Getting the motorcyclists to
slow down even more is sometimes accomplished by other means which
either augment or completely replace the speed limit hoax.  One is to
push toys into the road, such as brightly coloured balls, frisbees
or little Tonka trucks.  The cautious rider will then slow down as he
expects a child to enter the roadway shortly in an attempt to retrieve
his plaything.  Another method was developed by a particularly crafty
golden retriever who spends some time out in the road with a jack-
hammer, adding potholes that swallow Volkswagens.  He is truly an
artist; with a large rubber mallet he smoothes the holes to make them
appear as though they were created by the forces of nature, and not,
in fact, a dog with a jack-hammer  He knows that he probably won't
catch a rider in one of these holes, but all but the most skilled of
trials riders will certainly have to slow down to a crawl to negotiate
his labyrinthine handiwork.

On a sufficiently wide road with a sufficiently spineless
motorcyclist, this will not be a problem.  The dogs generally don't
advance from their zone and so as long as the trap has been seen in
time it is easily avoided by turning the bike around and hoping that
the next road over will be free of such hazards.  Not wanting to
appear overly bold in claiming that I have a spine, I will instead
restate my fool-hardiness before the recounting of two more incidents
involving the No-Dead-End Dogs, though I certainly have had many more
than two encounters with such beasts.  Generally such encounters do
not make good tales, though these two stand out to me a little more.
Whether they make good tales is still another issue. 

First, about two years ago, was the time I came across the previously
mentioned golden retriever.  I had spotted him from maybe a quarter of
a mile away but did not know whether he was a genuine threat or not.
Not all dogs, of course, engage in the nefarious sport of motorcycle
baiting and I do not want to prejudice those who remain aloof of it.
This was my first (and to this date, only) trip down this road and I
really wanted to continue on my way so I slowly motored forward.  When
I was within fifty yards he began his posturing to show me that
indeed, if he had his way, my ass was grass.  I could clearly see
that the road was indeed more pockmarked in front of his home than
along the not-so-wonderful-itself stretch I had already travelled.  A
simple flick of the wrist this would not be, not only because of the
road condition but also because my foe stood at roughly eleven o'clock
to my position, perhaps only fifteen feet from the road.  He was
barking furiously and was not visibly intimidated by either the
high-revving engine or the admittedly non-impressive horn.

Wanting the conflict to be resolved, either with my own demise or more
hopefully a successful escape, I gunned it through the cratered
roadway.  The dog's slow brain was apparently surprised to see that
some idiot would actually cross that section the way I did, as I
believe my steed was too.  (It was only _two_ quarts of oil that
convinced it not to forsake me and advertise itself in the Want-Ad
Digest.)  He did start chase as I was about two-thirds through the
hazard, but by the time I had reached a slightly more even section of
road he was still not upon me and my safety was practically assured.
He gave up as I clearly began to outdistance him up a small, blind
hill that was only a little way ahead.

When I approached the crest of the hill I slowed down to a speed and
noise level more appropriate for the area.  A mother and child were
walking another smaller dog in my direction; I moved slowly forward
and opened up my visor with a smile on my face, hoping to placate the
look of concern on the adult's face.  I apologised for the noise,
described the incident and told her that I don't know how I would feel
about walking that puny dog that she had up near the Beast that Eats
Volkswagens.  During my brief conversation with her a cruiser pulled
up; the officer had been checking out the private beach just a couple
of hundred yards away when he heard all the noise and wanted to make
sure that everything was okay.  I explained to him what had happened
and everyone sort of got a laugh out of it and told me that the dog
who had given me the trouble was "Really a very friendly dog" and that
I should "go back and see for yerself".  I passed on the kind offer
and went on my way after talking to the little girl (I dunno, maybe
she was 8 years old or so?) a little bit about my motorcycle and
letting her try on my helmet.

The most recent incident involved a curious form of bait-and-switch.
I was in another rural, residential area where the speed limit was
posted as twenty miles per hour.  At least this time the road was
paved.  I had just turned onto the road and was startled to see a
medium-sized mutt trotting down the road in my direction.  I stopped
abruptly and looked at him directly; he didn't seem to want anything
to do with me and moved quite fully to the opposite side of the road
where he continued his trot.  I started slowly again, watching him all
the while.  As I watched him I was taken by some very loud barking
very near ahead.  Stopping abruptly again, I turned to see a short-
haired German shepherd about ten yards ahead of me very near to my
side of the road.

He wasn't barking but was clearly acting as though he was ready to
jump at a moment's notice.  Once again all manner of engine-revving
and horn-honking did little but disturb the neighbourhood; the dog was
not really impressed, though he was hesitant.  Twice I made short
lurches forward, only to cause him take one step backwards but three
or four forwards.  He eventually made the first move by lunging toward
me.  I did gun it, but the reasons I hadn't before were the same two
concerns that stayed with me until I passed him -- that I would either
hit him or he would tear off my leg and use it as an umbrella stand.
Neither happened, though I do believe that he came the closest to me
that any dog has succeeded in getting while I am on my motorcycle.  I
think he even managed to get his face right up where my right leg was
before I lifted it in fear of amputation.  Actually, come to think of
it, I think the snare these two had set up would have certainly have
finished me off if only the mutt who originally distracted me had
snuck up again behind me while I focused my fear on the dog ahead.  I
suppose they are still perfecting their operation.

There are two sad footnotes to all of this -- one is that I will
probably be the owner of just such a menace to country motorcycling
when I can afford a nice parcel of land and make my home there.  I'll
keep an eye out for possible traps though.  The other thing is that
the adrenalin levels double or triple when I am instead on my bicycle
and end up in such situations.