What is it about dogs and bikes?!

Last week I had a rather fun ride in to school in the morning. After running by Office Depot for printer ink, I turned south into a stiff headwind and started pedaling toward school. It was along this stretch of Guadalupe St. just behind the Texas Department of Public Safety (setting up the irony here) that I heard the noise that most bikers hate with a passion: the clickety-clackety growl and snarl of a dog giving chase. Sure enough, I glanced back (I have perfected doing this without swerving, an incredibly important skill for this situation) and saw a young pit-bull tearing across the street in my direction. I stood up to accelerate, but the dog quickly caught up to me and began circling. Another glance spotted the owner watching interestedly but doing nothing on the other side of the street. The pit bull started to snap at my heels (I was wearing shorts and sandals, so no protection there), so I had to take action. Another glance told me that the owner was still not going to be any help, so I reached down and took a hold of my U-Lock. When I raised my hand to start a swing aimed at the dog's nose, some conditioned response went off in the canine head and it backed off, swerving out into traffic in front of a car, which almost but unfortunately did not turn it into a read streak on the pavement. I very nearly turned around and swung the U-lock at the owner instead. Need I mention that there was no dog collar and no leash? Grrr!