Attacked by dogs while Mountain Biking

UPDATE HERE: I’ve posted an update about what happened (link above), but just wanted to clear up a few things based on a LOT of comments I’ve seen over the last week. I’ll pin this in a comment too for visibility. 1) The dog owners didn’t run off. I stopped the video because we exchange personal info after this, obviously I’m not going to show that. 2) I was reimbursed for my damaged gear. 3) NO, the dogs should NOT be put down, they need better training and handling. I don’t want these dogs or any animals to get hurt. 4) You can’t legally carry pepper spray/guns/tazers/light sabres/nun chucks/or knives in the UK. The only thing you are allowed to use to defend yourself in such a situation is a stiff upper lip and dry humour. ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION BELOW ---------------------------------------------------- I was going to blur out the faces but f*ck these people. I was out riding, just exploring at the weekend when this happened. Over £200 of my riding gear was wrecked and I received multiple bites causing puncture wounds and severe bruising. As it was really cold I had a lot of layers on which is lucky or this could have been a lot worse. Plus the cold had made me quite numb so it only began to really hurt later once I’d warmed up. I’ve had to have a tetanus shot and anti-biotics and am having to take time off work. Up until this point, I’d never really given dogs a second thought while riding. I love dogs, and knew that I should try to stay calm and still when they ran up to me hoping they were just excited and might jump up and be playful. Nope. They almost immediately started biting me. I tried not to pull away or run and still tried to stay calm, which is kind of hard when you’re being chewed on, hoping that they would back off once they realised I wasn’t a threat and the owners would get them under control quickly. Well, you can see what happened. I was very tempted to put the Benny Hill “Yakety Sax“ music over this but I thought it might detract from the gravity of the situation. If you’re a rider: Assume all unleashed dogs are a potential threat. If you’re a dog owner: Keep your dogs on leads. And pick up their sh*t while you’re at it.