Dogs and cars

[mikeymikec]

I don't have much experience around dogs (the only contact I regularly have is with customers' dogs). One thing I get particularly nervous about is when I'm pulling into say a driveway and a dog is there, looking fairly curious about who is pulling up, but then most dogs will go right up to the car while it is moving, and if the dog is small enough it can very easily go into a blind-spot area (and they do... all the freaking time).

My question is, has anyone ever had any trouble with a dog doing something incredibly stupid and getting knocked by a car at manoeuvring speed? Aside from two possibilities I can think of, being an elderly half-blind thing or a dog that is obviously chasing something else and is completely oblivious to the vehicle.

 

[Wuzup101]

My mother once had an older sheltie (neighbor's dog from down the street) run directly out into the road as she was passing by the front of their house and directly into the side of her minivan. The dog was a bit disoriented at first but was okay shortly after. Neighbors joked that their dog finally caught a car (but had no clue why the dog did what it did). There was no damage to the van.

 

[Ramses]

We had a dog on the farm when I was a kid that would bite any rolling tire, car, truck, tractor, bicycle, motorcycle, tires where his drug of choice. He got rolled pretty violently a few times but no major damage. IMO it's something a responsible owner should train out of a dog for the sake of the dogs safety and motorists piece of mind. A dog is going to be a dog and i'm ok with that, but as the dominant species that is essentially responsible for the existence of the animal we have a responsibility to take some things in hand. We have a little terrier now that can't understand how far is safe to lean out the window before he falls out. We keep the window just cracked open and he's usually in a lap if he's riding with us anyway, but it's illustrative. Good dog, pretty bright, but he has this one thing he can't get through his little dog brain.

 

[OlyAR15]

Yeah, animals have a hard time dealing with cars, not just dogs. That is why I try to keep my dog leashed when I'm around streets or parking stalls. I've seen some dogs that are just oblivious to approaching cars, and that is one of my greatest fears that I will run over a dog that is too stupid to get out of the way.

 

[LTC8K6]

A couple of times I have visited people with a dog that would block the car. The dog would stand in front of the car and not move, and would keep moving to block as you tried to maneuver.

You just had to bull your way through with the car and shove the dog out of the way, and then accelerate so they couldn't catch up.

 

[mikeymikec]

Thanks for the responses. I haven't experienced the 'active blocking' behaviour before, just that they're curious about the car, going right up to it and seemingly wondering which way it's going to move next.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'm on a Ducati forum and one of the members there posted recently about a ride he was doing with his wife. A dog ran out from some house they were passing and went right in front of the bike, they hit the dog and went down, unavoidable. Dog was severely injured and flopping around in pain, bike is probably totaled but they were wearing their gear and they're okay other than some minor bruising.

Guy's bike pic.


I hit a dog once many years ago. It just ran right out in front of my car and wham, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. It was howling and ran off injured. Not sure if it lived or died but that is totally on the owners for letting their stupid mutt run around freely.

I hate it when people just let their dogs run wild. This is why there are leash laws.