Cat - you can get bear spray at Mountain Equipment Coop.
What if it were a German Shepherd? Labrador? Basset Hound? Dalmation? Basenji? Greyhound? Lhasa Apso? Pug? Poodle? Cocker Spaniel?
Any type of dog can attack – and kill – a dog you’re walking. Why are you stomping on only a subset of them, and letting the rest kill your dog?
More to the point, I don’t think the OP has a dog, so all the advice on breaking up dog fights seems weirdly out of place.
Thanks - I’m debating which to try first, Bass Pro Shop in Cross Iron Mills mall or MEC - maybe I’ll try MEC first.
I don’t have a dog, and I’m not getting a dog.
My guess is that responsible dog owners, such as me, are even more anti owners that let their dog run loose than non dog owners. If a loose dog attacks my dog, I will use whatever I can to stop it.
It costs well into 5 figures to train a service dog. Some of the ones attack by loose dogs have had to retire. No monetary value can be put on the emotional distress of the dog’s partner.
That’s why you feed him the end of the stick instead of trying to club him. This technique works. I learned it, incidentally, from a gentleman who has been heavily involved in animal rescue for decades. Nobody loves dogs more than he does, but he also recognizes that defending yourself from one is sometimes a necessity. Feeding the dog the point of your stick will seldom inflict more than some lacerations to the dog’s mouth before he changes his mind about using you as a chew toy.
Legal protection ? a dog chewing your flesh and that’s what concerns you ? I suggest you carry a $2.00 can of wasp spray. It has a huge aiming nozzle and shoots a 12 foot thick liquid for 2 minutes. One squirt of it on his head and You’ll probably be saving a neighbor or child since fido will never come close to another human. I carry a can in my car and have one on my bicycle’s handlebars. I was charged by a mean dog and all I could do was use my bike as a guard until the owner came. A dog better be wearing a gas mask if it charges me again. Anyone think I’m cruel to do that to an animal ought to know that I believe the OWNER should also be sprayed for letting his dog chew up his neighbors .
Good point. It is utterly inexcusable to allow a mean dog to run loose. Maybe even having one.
Never had a problem with dogs, but a friend of mine, from South India, was attacked by a Rottweiler-profiled feist dog (+ 80 pounds) out in the hood back East. Laid him up in bed at my friend’s house for a good two days.
I’d find a cheap gun, maybe a Hi-Point (yeah, I know), and screw the legal consequences if confronted. If you spray someone’s dogs and their owner(s) see you, you could well be iced yourself, and at minimum they may at least attempt to murder you in retaliation, by beating you savagely. You need it for both of these classes of predators, and at least you’ll be alive and (knock wood) relatively (unmutilated).
Collapsible baton? Those are illegal in most US jurisdictions, I believe, but you wouldn’t have to worry so much about carrying a giant stick around, or a putting iron (my new toy – yes, I’ve seen “Mulholland Drive” a few times), arousing suspicion from canines and their miscreant, no count, pieces of human garbage who own them. If it saves your life, nobody’s going to care too much, except Bubba and his few brain cells, I believe.
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Let’s all remember that this is GQ, okay? Statements like this add no factual information to the discussion. No warning issued, as there are quite a few other posts here that are even worse than this one, but if you want a debate about off-leash dogs, we have a great forum for it called GD.
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The OP needs to be very careful. Apart from the dogs running about that might possibly attack, there’s the possibility that a drunk driver might plough into them. The sun might give them skin cancer or a fucking great big eagle might possibly swoop from the sky and sink its talons into their head too. It’s possibly far too dangerous to be walking out on the street, best stay at home wearing a tinfoil helmet.
If the Law hasn’t bothered dealing with these dogs, I doubt they are actually dangerous. They may be boistrous, intimidating, and a total pain in the arse but not liable to attack a confident walker. If someone sees a loose dog and immediately shits their pants and panics, the dog is going to respond to that and get more excited - that’s going to involve barking and perhaps jumping up. That’s not “attacking”, even though it’s traumatic.
When a dog, any dog, really attacks you, it’s going to hurt, but apart from the miniscule proportion of unhinged “mad” dogs, there’s always a trigger. Even fighting back spurs the dog on, especially if you are not confident in the first place. A half-hearted defence by a nervous person is worse than freezing. It’s obviously a different story if you are expecting and trained to deal with attacking dogs, but let’s face it, not many people can boast that training.
If you are cacking yourself about dogs just running about, I’d strongly suggest that thinking you can tool up and deal with them is going to end badly for you and the dog - you are going to get bitten, and a dog that might have just been testing its luck is going to be destroyed.
The key to avoiding a dog attack is to avoid goading the dog, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Avoid eye contact with an aggressive dog, stand still, breathe deeply, try to relax. The dog will lose interest very quickly and go off and find something else that responds to its aggression. Easy for me to say, I know, and not so easy to stand still when there’s a dog tearing towards you barking its head off, but I assure you it’s the way that involves the least pain all round. It’s also easy for people to post here how they’d go Chuck Norris on a dog and snap it like a twig, but again, a different story in the real world, as anyone who has seen a proper dog attack (rather than one being noisy and aggressive) will testify.
The dog owners obviously need to face up to their responsibilities, but twatting their pooches isn’t going to solve the problem, it’s going to escalate. If my dog escaped from the yard and I caught anyone spraying or hitting it, they would instantly regret it, of that I’m sure. I won’t accept people getting violent with dogs for any reason, unless the dog already has sunk its jaws into someone. In that case I’d be the first to take it to the vet to have it put down.
My examples were examples of (a) common dogs that come to mind that are known to start up (OK, not terriers so much; the word usually used for their temperament is “scrappy”), as well as all breeds that are (b) physically stomp-on-able without performing a running leap–I am not a Navy Seal trained in such procedures. 
That includes Shepards and brethren, Rottweilers, even goofy Newfies–although an aggressive Newfie would be like Mother Theresa on a killing spree.
I like you plead for peace in the spirit of dogness.
You’re right, this is something of a hijack, as I intimated in my post.
Gosh, you’re so tough that my screen is oozing what must be pure testosterone straight from the nads of Chuck Norris himself from displaying your post.
The bottom line is that nobody has any business letting their dogs run loose.
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Thelabdude, Scumpup, and The Great Cornholio, I said stop it. Address the question or take it to a different thread. This is not appropriate for GQ.
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I’d generally advise against trying to fight a large dog unless you absolutely have to - even if you have a stick. You might win, but even if you do you’re very likely to come out badly in the exchange.
If it’s attacking you, then of course you have no choice. But the best strategy to avoid harm in a threatening dog situation is to not engage if at all possible. Granted, that’s not always possible. It’s just not a fight you want to be in if you can possibly help it.
That said, the actual chance of being attacked by a dangerous dog is pretty low in most areas (I know some area have a lot of people who actually train their dogs to be aggressive, though).
i don’t wanna hurt dogs so i don’t want to use a rigid stick. there was a youtube of a cop who was suddenly rushed by a rott. it was fast with little warning. he just did the knee-up kick and it sent the dog scurrying away.
for anything but big, trained attack dogs, here are my personal insights:
- your legs are the most vulnerable. do something with them. kick upwards, knee them in the throat or chest.
- don’t try to maneuver. dogs are more agile than humans. stand your ground. dogs are like cowardly bullies. they like to attack from behind. face the dog and stare hard at its eyes. you can intimidate them that way.
- dogs are afraid of weapons. if you stoop down, pretending to pick up a stone on the ground, dogs often run away.
- if you really have to carry a weapon and go out ready to take on the first mutt that crosses your path, try a slim, flexible rod that light, fast and won’t hurt the dog too much. a long sliver of bamboo, a leather riding crop, or a light sjambok. car aerials already work for me (and they can telescope into a pen.)
If you are going to make eye contact, you may as well show your teeth too. Both are challenging the dog. You may run it off, or provoke attack.
I agree with the pretend to throw a rock. I don’t have that much experience, but it seems dogs fear rocks more than anything else. The pretending to throw a rock is certainly worth trying if you are caught unprepared.
Interesting coincidence. Just yesterday I was picking up my dog from day care and a woman walked in to whom he took an instant dislike. He started barking his fool head off at her and she put her arms in front of her, turned around and stood still. (Perhaps she was used to dogs not liking her). He immediately stopped barking and ignored her. Of course, he was leashed at the time and I’m not sure I’d try turning by back on an unleashed dog.
- Get a good look at the dog, note your location and call 311 to complain when you get a chance.
My buddy has a couple of high energy labs and they would sometimes find their way over or under a six foot fence. One week one got out and was nabbed by animal control. He had to pay to get him out. The next day, he got out again and he got nabbed again and he had to pay another fine. After that, they stayed in the garage during the day.
I tell this because animal control does pull dogs in. Just keep them informed and those dogs will eventually get caught.
- If you’re truly worried about your safety, get pepper spray or a small bottle of ammonia. The chances that the cops will nab you for holding it is vanishingly small, especially when you explain why you have it. I suspect that if they ever did catch you, they’d just take it away and tell you to not carry it anymore. Better to get in a bit of trouble than be mauled by a dog, I say.
Several years ago I was out running early-early in the morning (still dark, no traffic/other pedestrians). Towards the end of my run, I started to hear a pitter-patter as I approached an intersection- I thought it was a bicycle.
But as I crossed the intersection, I looked to the right and saw two big black dogs (maybe Rottweillers) sprinting towards me. My first instinct was to run, of course- I wasn’t far from home. But I was already very tired, and I was pretty sure they could catch me. So I turned towards them, started screaming/roaring, and waving my arms.
IMMEDIATELY the dogs turned tail and ran the other way.
Not sure if this would always work, but I’d definitely try it again if I was in the same situation.