If you speak with anyone about the Transcontinental Race there’s a good chance that the subject of dogs will come up, as encounters with dogs in the Balkans are common.
I don’t know why, but for some reason the dogs here hate bikes. The sight or sound of one will often cause the dog to bark or chase the bike. Maybe because bikes here are a rarity? On my trip, I had most encounters with dogs in Romania, but also in Serbia and Bulgaria. Ahead of my trip I’d had precautionary rabies jabs (sometimes cyclists get bitten!). There are a lot of street dogs, which are typically placid. A lot of people have dogs protecting their property. Sometimes these dogs will just be hanging out on the street in front of the house, but the particularly vicious looking-and-sounding ones will often be tied up with a (hopefully) strong chain.
At one point in the race a communication had been sent out warning of a pack of vicious dogs in a forest. Around this time I kept a carefully-chosen selection of rocks in my pocket which I thought I might be able to throw to scare dogs away, or perhaps use as a last-resort defence if my life was in danger.
Luckily the rocks didn't need to move from my pocket, but over the course of the race there were more incidents of dogs chasing me than I can remember - something like two dozen at a conservative estimate. What did occur to me is that I bet most of these dogs could outpace me if they really wanted to - most seemed to just enjoy chasing me off their patch.
