Running + Stray Dogs

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  • xmichaelyx
    xmichaelyx Posts: 883 Member
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    I run with one of my dogs (medium-sized pitbull), which brings its own level of danger.

    Most of the dogs we come across are yappy chihuahuas, and they won't approach. Smaller dogs and puppies sometimes will run up to us, and that's fine -- my dog likes smaller dogs.

    If I see a bigger dog, I go out of my way to avoid it (I'm pretty vigilant, so that I can skip a street or go around the corner if I see a stray). The occasions that we've been approached by larger dogs, I scoop up my dog and prepare to kick the crap of the loose one. On both occasions, they turned out to be non-aggressive, so I just yelled at it and it backed off.

    On the single occasion when I came across an aggressive dog that seemed likely to attack me (I was alone, and in fact got within about 30 yards of it with the intention of leashing it and calling animal control when it started barking and snarling), I turned my back, didn't look at it, and walked home. It stalked me most of the way, but never got closer than about 10 feet. I carry a knife for situations like this.

    Trail_Addict claims to know about dogs, but his advice is just about the worst thing you can possibly do with an aggressive dog.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    xmichaelyx wrote: »
    Trail_Addict claims to know about dogs, but his advice is just about the worst thing you can possibly do with an aggressive dog.

    Indeed. In most of these threads the advice that the vast majority of people give is going to increase the risk of a dog defending itself.