That area in eastern turkey was the worst, we rode at night and the crazy dogs kept coming out of the darkness. They were almost certainly sheep dogs over there. The best tactic is to keep moving, do NOT stop. Jeff got bit because we were rolling up to a Russian police checkpoint north of vladikavkaz & the cops motioned us to stop. We were attacked by 3 psychotic dogs & the police could not keep them away. We gunned it out of there but when we checked him down the road his leg had some nasty teeth punctures. Fortunately Russian hospitals though crappy, know exactly what rabies is. Needless to say after that I really steer clear of strange animals.
Then...we got to Bangkok and met up with a friend. He told us he had just gotten treated with rabies shots there (which in Thailand is VERY expensive unlike Russia which was always free). He was patting the pet dog of an American embassy worker and it bit him. He wisely took no chances and got the shots.
All y'all animal lovers want to pet anything cute but you can't trust those animals to be disease free. Please be careful. Even if you get the rabies vaccine you still MUST get treated swiftly!
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