TRUPA: Larger dogs will generally run at you and when within leaping distance will go straight for the face unless trained to go for your soft dangly bits, as you lift your arm to protect your face they will latch onto your arm and proceed to shake it from side to side whilst kickiing with hind legs at your body.
If there are 2 or more animals the situation is effing bad as while one is going at you r face the rest will go for any other part of you and once you are down you are in the deepest shit imaginable as they will all then try to eat you alive.
My self defence tactic would be to run like hell for the nearest tree, in the absence of trees I would place my postmans bike between me and the dog and hope for the best while swinging the bike around hoping to smack the bastard in the nuts.
Never make eye contact, they see this as a challenge, as for barking and running at you and not attacking this is BS.
It is rare for an animal to jump over a fence from what it regards as its own territory to attack altho’ it is not unheard of. I can only suggest that you err on the side of caution and walk on the other side of the road.
The pepper spray idea is crap, far better is the Dog Dazer I described above, this little device clips onto your clothing and is handy for pointing and pushing the button. A word of warning here, they do tend to be heavy on battery use so If you get one always check, there is a light on the device which will light up to show you the battery is OK.
Finally I hate dogs, always have even as a young boy, cats are my thing.
I had a german sheppard try to attack me from the rear. He caught ahold of the back of my jacket just below my waist. I came around with the butt of my fist as in a downward stabbing motion and bounced his head off of the side of a car I was walking beside. Needless to say he let go and was a bit stunned. I turned around and got ready for him to lunge at me but he had had enough and yelpped off.
On another occasion I was out star watching through a telescope and was blind sided by a 150 lbs. Black lab (they are tough to see at night you know). My experience with labs though leads me to believe they are nothing but big puppies looking for attention and don’t realize how much force they put out.
I also was charged by a doberman once. I stood my ground and when he lept for me I put a fist into his chest and knocked him back on his butt. I kinda hit him high on his chest about where the neck joins. I think I knocked the breath out of him because he was having a hard time breathing. He was stunned and decided it wasn’t a good idea to mess with me any further.
When I was 4 I was bitten in the left bicept by a golden retriever. The bite required 42 stiches and I still have the scar to show for it. I deserved it though because I was messing with the dog by pulling its tail and such. The one thing you should remember about dealing with a dog is not to show fear. If you run you will be chased. If you stand your ground and face the dog most times the dog will not attack. If the dog does attack go for the throat with a good strong punch or place a good strong blow to the side of the head if possible. Either of these actions seem to stun the animal and will give you the time to incapacitate them further if necessary.
Of course this is assuming you can punch with enough force and keep your witts about you when in this situation.
Please report it. Quite possibly the dog was playing, and I believe it to be true, but if the dog was to play with a four year old child, it could harm him/her. And if you report it, a warning usually (actually I would hope) would go out to the owner to watch the dog better.
I should also add that I was a K-9 officer and trained with a few different dogs. I love dogs, but believe owners should be aware of what they are doing.
SUNTZU is quite right, don’t show any fear 'cos they can smell it, another trick is to just stand your ground and scream and shout as loud as possible at the dog, this seems to confuse them momentarily which may give you time to get either a punch or kick in and once you have done this most dogs will decide to chase a cat instead.