This is contradicted by other posts in this thread.
'strue. And all handguns are Glocks, and all long rifles are AK-47s.
You could construct a weapon. Look around you. Can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?
But hang on, these could be vicious dogs with murderous intent that he has misidentified as pitbulls when in fact they are poodle - shih tzu mix.
Determining their motivation comes first, then the rudimentary lathe.
But then, you were never very serious about the craft.
Best plan of action would be to try to make friends with them. If they approach slowly, put your hand below the level of their head, and let them sniff your hand. Then try scratching the chin, the ears, the neck.
However, I get the feeling you are expecting an attack.
If they charge you, your instinct will be to use your hands to ward off the attack. So there is a high probability that they will end up biting your hands. If that happens, shove your fists down their throats. When they suddenly find themselves gagging, their brains will shift gears from “fight” to “flight”.
I was walking in the park the other day and a large dog (not a pit bull - a Lurcher cross I think) came running at me barking and snarling in a manner I would judge to be aggressive and with intent to attack - I almost turned to run, but I stopped myself - stood my ground and ‘widened’ my stance, facing up to the animal - it stopped short and shut up, but there was still a tense standoff moment until the owner turned up and got it under control.
If a dog is intending to attack (and this won’t always be the true intent), any sort of flinching or retreating may invite it to follow through. I don’t think it’s so much that standing firm invokes any fear in the dog as much as confusion - if they’re attacking and you don’t react like prey, they don’t necessarily know what to do next.
Preferably one you can outrun.
70lbs is above the ‘desirable range’ in the UKC breed standard for American Pit Bull Terrier: 35-60 male, 30-50 female. Although dogs under the broad umbrella appearance category ‘pit bull’, the great majority of them mixed breed, could be that big, or bigger or smaller.
Some of the comments are amusing. A completely hypothetical scenario is constructed, where ‘pit bull’ is entirely superfluous. ‘What if a pair of big and not friendly looking dogs with no human supervision are charging you?’ would completely suffice. But then certain responses treat the entirely made up scenario as some fact ‘pit bull fans’ are in denial about.
There is no scientific evidence of a causal relationship between breed (even real breeds not broad appearance categories like ‘pit bull’) and dog aggression toward humans separate from owner factors. Human aggressive dogs are probably more common among lower socio-economic status dog owners, in part directly related to economic factors (a greater perceived need for dogs as defense against crime), but also cultural factors. It’s likely big dogs ‘charging’ at you just want to say hello, play, see if you have treats for them, or just check you out. It’s probably a bit less unlikely in a lower class area they want to hurt you or haven’t decided yet. And ‘pit bull’ appearance dogs are still probably more popular among lower socio-econ owners (which is the reason a lot of people hate ‘pit bulls’: it’s a allowable way to express class and sometimes racial prejudice against the perceived typical owners). Although the owner profile is changing rapidly (back to not correlating as much with socio-econ, it didn’t used to decades ago).
But a given pair of big dogs ‘charging’ you in a given location, ‘pit bull’ wouldn’t tell you anything about the odds they are friendly. OK if somebody who actually knows dogs insists yes it would, ‘bully’ types are more likely to be friendly than say Dobermans, GSD, Rottweiler, I’d guess that’s probably true actually. But it’s also not provable and again not relevant to OP, what you should do, if the dogs are human aggressive? That would not depend on their breed or pseudo-breed as in ‘pit bull’.
Assuming the dogs already aim to or could be provoked to harm you it’s universal wisdom not to run unless you’re much closer to refuge than the dogs are to you. Between trying to appear fearsome yourself and trying to be non-threatening I don’t know and that probably depends on the individual dog (or leader among the two).
I have only had one encounter that would qualify for this hypothetical. I went out for a walk after dark to let off some steam from something that upset me. Was just around the corner from my home when a dog approached from ahead as I crossed the street, barking angerly. I was pissed at something so I was not in the mood for this, so I just faced him and shouted something and growled louder then the dog, and it backed off and walked away. I think making yourself look more like a threat than an opportunity (I guess it can work for people, too) is probably what is in action here.
They really shouldn’t be that big. Standard range is 30 to maybe 70 pounds. But there’s a bunch that are cross bred for big “bully” breeds that get up to those sizes.
Personally, my reaction with any large unknown dog would be to remain calm and not make any sudden movements. Definitely not run. Just ignore. That’s worked with me for random large stray dogs in the area.
Something similar happened to me a while ago. Someone in our neighborhood has two dogs that are usually fenced in, and they bark menacingly at anyone walking by, even across the street. There is a big BEWARE OF DOG sign on the property. One day I was walking home and the dogs were free - they came rushing over, so I stopped walking, faced them, remained calm, and said, in a friendly tone, “hi, puppies!” They stopped in front of me as if uncertain how to proceed; their owner then came out of the house and called them back. I didn’t detect any concern in his voice, so hopefully he was accurately assessing the dogs as not dangerous.
I am not happy about the possibility of the dogs being free when I walk by in the future, but I am hoping that since they are starting to see me more often, they’ll recognize that I’m just part of the scenery and not a threat.
While I was in college back in the 70’s, I was attacked by a pack of dogs while I was crossing the campus at dusk. I knocked down the leader with a kick to the head. He got up and ran off, and the rest of the pack followed him. I was just lucky my kick didn’t miss.
Why yes, I was an avid “Kung Fu” TV watcher. Why do you ask?
I have told this before, the meanest dog I ever owned was a big goofy looking female Dalmatian. I did not trust that dog around anyone. When I walked her I was constantly having tell at kids not to come up to us, she , of course, attracted kids. One Mother chewed me out for not letting her daughter pet her favorite kinda dog. I told the lady if you like your child to have hand you might want to back off. Luckily she never bit or attacked any one, mainly because I guarded against it every time I had her out in public. She was a fearful dog, which is the worst kind of aggression,IMO. I doubt screaming and flailing your arms would have stopped her.
The majority of dogs will not follow through on a mock attack, especially if you stop and face them. Pit bulls are not particularly aggressive towards humans but when you do find one charging there is a very good chance he will follow through with full force. German shepherds are pretty good at following through as well. Not sure about the big Rottweiler’s, I have had them approach me barking but didn’t appear to have any serious intent behind them.
Personal experience back oh closing in on 40 years back. Turned a corner cutting across a lawn at the university library and startled a couple of apparent street dogs (thickly built large heads would now be referred to as “Pits”) who jumped up and snarled towards me. Wide stance, hand command down, and loud “Down!” and they dropped to down. “Good Boy.” and walked away.
FWIW.
This, if necessary. Back when I was a groomer, I had to do this a time or two when a dog took exception to whatever I was doing with them and got bitey. I didn’t shove my fist in hard and only did it for a second or so, just enough to make them think twice about their course of action. It works.
The times I have had to discourage aggressive dogs on the street, I stood my ground (facing them always) and told them in a strong, stern voice to go home. It may take a minute or two, but eventually they decide to try their luck elsewhere. Or, hopefully, do as I said and go home.
Nowadays, I use a cane, so I could always use that if need be.
Yeah, either this or ignore them, if I had somewhere to be. There’s nothing about two dogs roaming around that’s going to concern me. We don’t have dangerous dogs roaming my neighborhood, after all. I’d want to see if they had tags though, or if an owner was going to come looking for them.
I’d sit down, because dogs like that and want to come investigate, and talk baby talk to them, because I’m giant dork.
I don’t normally do this sort of thing, because I think it comes across as a bit aggressive and I like that everyone can express their opinions without being talked down to… but HoneyBadgerDC I think you should read Corry El’s comments below, as making assumptions around dogs based on their breed (or perceived breed) can be both damaging to the dog and to your health.
I’ve had wonderful, totally family orientated German Shepard’s and Rottweilers that i would and did trust around my little jack russels, kids, and chickens. I’ve seen many beautiful ‘pit bulls’ (I have a bull cross of some mixed unknown heritage at the moment) who only have love in their hearts, for all dogs and all people.
On the flipside I’ve seen terrible dogs of all breeds. As I am sure we all have.
Dogs can be wild and unpredictable, but the only thing I know for sure is that all these dogs behaviors were a product of environmental and owner factors, and not breed specific traits. I think understanding and spreading this message is really important to break the breed stereotyping that goes on and only serves to harm the animals in the long run.
I think you are wrong. Pit bulls, bird dogs, herding dogs, and all specialty breeds are selectively bred to produce specific traits that have absolutely nothing to do with environmental factors, if you believe otherwise you are deluding yourself. I love pit bulls and they are fantastic dogs and in most cases great with humans but they are also bred to fight and not quit fighting until they kill what they are fighting. Many of them will ignore pain and are fearless. If they are in the wrong state of mind they can be quite dangerous. I know that pit bulls are way down the list on aggressive toward human dogs, not even close to the top. But I also know that when they are aggressive they are extremely dangerous animal’s. They are bred this way.
In recent years pits have been crossed with other aggressive breeds that are even larger and more human aggressive. This has compounded what used to be a minor issue.