How can I force a dragon to engage in combat?

Many times in the game i've found myself looking at a flying dragon kind of trolling me. Sometimes the dragon just keeps flying around in circles or ovals without landing or even atacking me. I've tried to walk around to nearby locations and to the points where he stops for a while, but it usually does not work and I ignore him and keep walking until we both get far enough for him to disappear.

Why does this happen? Is it a terrain issue? I mean, since the game is enormous, they probably couldn't find a way to make dragons fight in every place, so you kind of have to reach a "fight area" so that a dragon will atack you and engage in combat. Is this it?

Is there any way i can force them to atack me other than using "Dragonrend" which is too late-game for most of my characters?

If you are near a village, farm, etc. go to it. If you are quick enough then the dragon will most likely attack the village instead of flying in an annoying circlular loop. You could also try to get it's attention by shooting it with a arrow... To the knee xD

If you have good aim and long range, you might be able to hit it with an arrow or a spell, but I typically can't force dragons circling high in the air to land.

Later in the main quest, you get a more direct solution to this that I won't spoil, but by that point, every dragon had murder on its mind when it flew near me.

Anecdotal answer from my side: I was travelling without any arrows when a dragon attacked. Rather than its usual circling, it landed and so I could engage in hand-to-hand. I'm playing a stealth archer though, so I haven't investigated this further.

A good way to get a flying dragon to attack you is to either hit it with a spell or arrow or use a shout which produces noise (Throw voice is good) and shout at the dragon, this should get its attention. if it doesn't, if possible try to go to places where there is NPCs like a village or town or find an area which is fairly flat or sloped and clear with no trees the dragon should engage, all these methods work for me. If these methods do not work then i don't know what else you can do.