I am not sure what I am saying/asking

For one, some people would rather shoot an angry person than an angry dog.
Second, the dog probably would have run away if you had shot into the ground. A dog that isn't used to the sound wont know what to make of it and will turn his attention to what he just heard instead of you.
 
There are a lot of chest thumpers here that talk big and tough but I bet many would freeze when the time came. Its not natural to shoot another human being. at least it should not be. In the Marines I had to find out what that is like. I know I can pull the trigger but I hope to God I never have to again.
 
If you have doubts that you may not be able to shoot a person, you should not be carrying.

The time to find out if you can or not, is NOT when someone is about to do you harm. By that time, you might end up dead.
 
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You left the incident unhurt with no shots fired. That's a good outcome.
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+1, and I am not necessarily a "dog person" ..... depends upon the dog.

I have no compinction whatsoever in putting a vicious dog down, if necessary.

That said, every bullet that leaves your gun carries with it a load of Liability, and if someone owns that animal, even if they are irresponsible owners, they can make trouble for you.

No Harm, No Foul.
 
In my very limited experience:

1. The Barkers and Growlers are not the ones to worry about.

2. The Full Bore Never Slowed Up dog is the one coming for you.
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-serf'rett

You just never know- depends upon the dog. When I was a kid, we had Blue Heeler/Lab mix on the farm that, when someone drove into the yard and got out, while the other dogs would stand and bark at the person, would run around the backside of the house, come up behind the person and bite them on the back of the calves. Otherwise a very nice dog ..... though he was about a smart as driftwood.

You never can tell what an unfamiliar animal will do. Err on the side of caution.

Carefully formulate your own philosophy of self-defense. Start by writing out what you believe about self-defense, why you feel that self-defense is something that is worthwhile for you, personally and what you and others have to gain from your actions taken to defend yourself. Detail under what circumstances/situations you, personally, feel that self-defense would be the right choice to make. Explain why you believe that violent self-defense is and should be tolerated, even endorsed by society.
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- JohnSKa

+1. Know what you believe before you have to act. Crunch Time is not the time for self doubt. Jeff Cooper's writings are a good read in this area as well.
 
In my very limited experience:

1. The Barkers and Growlers are not the ones to worry about.

2. The Full Bore Never Slowed Up dog is the one coming for you.
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Not an absolute. The barking, growling, pit a few doors down from me tried to eat the old lady across the street. She was laid up for 8 months.

The owner was incredulous that her sweet harmless dog had gotten out and hurt someone. It had a couple of standoffs with me, similar to the OP, and had trapped my wife and kids in the car before.
 
The owner was incredulous that her sweet harmless dog had gotten out and hurt someone.
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This is usually the story. People with pits, rotts, etc. often talk about how "sweet and affectionate" they are, and they may be... with their families. But let a stranger into the picture and it's a different story.

Reminds me of an old friend of mine who was a police dog trainer for several years. He was an absolute authority on large, aggressive dogs. He had 3 Rottweilers that were the sweetest old doggies you ever saw. His 2 year old son could crawl on top of them while they were taking naps and pull on their ears, and they'd just give that "doggie smile" and tolerate him.

BUT he said if a stranger ever came into that house uninvited, they would instantly tear him to shreds.

That's a point to keep in mind next time you hear somebody talking about how their Pit, Rott, or Dobe is "sweet and affectionate."
 
Seems like every time I hear about how sweet and loving a PitBull or a Rottweiler can be, I hear about one of them turning on it's owners and either mauling them terribly or killing them outright.

It takes a very disturbed dog to kill a human. It takes some very stupid humans to keep one or more as a pet.
 
its an animal. it does what it wants.
Everyone gets soooo surprised when their big dangerous pet decides to chew the babies face off on that rainy day when your watching a football game. Or it gets out and decides that the elderly person next door is responsible for its favorite chew toy being missing.

not too far from where i live there was a couple that had a pet raccoon. They thought it was sooooo darn cute. Then one day they were real surprised to learn it had crapped on their babys face and the kid ended up with a totally fried brain. from what i remember they cried more when animal control took the raccoon away for destruction then when the doctor told them their child would be an infant for life.
 
Just tonight, on the Phoenix, AZ. local news, a woman tried to break up a fight between her two dogs. Two guesses as to the breeds.

Yup.......PitBull and a Rottweiler. She suffered serious injuries. One was so very bad, that one of her wrists was almost severed.

Supposedly, she refused to give permission to the authorities to go into her home to secure / take custody of the dogs.
 
It takes a very disturbed dog to kill a human.
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Not necessarily defending dogs here (I do like them, though), but dogs are nothing more than adolescent wolves. When a dog attacks it is just obeying an instinct, as they have no capability for abstract reasoning.

Having said, that, I wholeheartedly agree that an aggressive dog needs to be "dealt with."
 
A couple of points regarding dogs:

1. Don't make any assumptions about a dog's breed. Chows never got the bad press of other breeds, but for several years running they were responsible for more emergency room visits than any other breed. They were cute little fuzz balls in pet stores, but the puppies grew into dogs, and many had very strong personalities that would not be crossed without biting.

2. Dogs usually regard their household members as pack members, and relate to them in the same way they do other dogs. A lot of behavior issues that veterinarians deal with are because people allow the dog a dominant position in the social structure. Things that we care little about and might regard as sharing, like who eats first, who gets to sit and lay where, and who goes through doorways and gates first, are seen by dogs as gestures of submission or dominance, depending on how they are handled.

3. In the same way, dogs will almost always see someone from outside their household as a foreigner to their pack. An outsider will always be regarded with at least a certain amount of suspicion. The result may be cowering, watchfulness, or outright attack, as determined by their personality and where they see themselves in their pack social structure. Their behavior can also be influenced by the behavior of the outsider - behaviors that are seen by the dog as submissive behavior or an attempt at dominance - but as mentioned by a previous post they are autonomous personalities over which no one ever has absolute control. IOW, a dog with a strong personality that feels his or her pack's territory to be challenged, or who feels his or her societal ranking challenged, may choose to attack no matter what you do.

4. When dogs are outside and running loose, their behavior changes markedly because they are with a new and different pack. The same dog that is perfectly sweet at home under the leadership of a two-legged pack leader may behave completely differently under the leadership of another pack, and may even be the leader of the other pack. Prey behavior that is not present in a stable environment with a ready food supply and a strong leader may manifest itself strongly with a new pack, even if the individuals in the pack have full bellies.
 
If this turns into a thread about dogs, it will be locked. Threads about dogs are:
1. Off topic for TFL
2. Tend to degade rapidly into food-fights.
 
A nieghbor of mine has a friend whose right hand looks like a baby dolls hand.

He had a male rott (from rescue!) and bought a female for breeding purposes.

He came home from work to find the female dead and the male attacked him.

He shoved his right hand down the dog's throat. That kept him alive until he could somehow fight his way into the bathroom and shut the door.

Thank God for cell phones. He called for help from there.

Harrowing.

Rmocarsky
 
If this turns into a thread about dogs, it will be locked. Threads about dogs are:
1. Off topic for TFL
2. Tend to degade rapidly into food-fights.
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From the perspective of someone defending himself from a threat, a discussion about dogs can be very on topic.

I'm not talking about a x breed vs. y breed is better or safer argument, of course, but on how we determine a threat is occurring and how can we defend ourselves from the threat.

As an adult, I've been able to stand my ground and a dog that barks or charges at me has stopped. When I was a kid this NEVER happened. They all chased me down and tried to eat me.

I have a question for the dog people here. Do they deal with me differently because of the way I deal with dogs now, or is it that I'm just luckier now? Or is it a little bit of both?
 
I have a question for the dog people here. Do they deal with me differently because of the way I deal with dogs now, or is it that I'm just luckier now? Or is it a little bit of both?
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The only absolute sure way to know if a dog is all bark and no bite is to give him ample opportunity to bite. I'm not going to do that. I'll err on the side of "me not getting bit"..... face the dog, get the gun out, and shoot if it closes to contact.

To be sure, it's not the dog's fault: it's the owner's..... the dumb dog just had to pay for it's owner's negligence is all .....
 
From the perspective of someone defending himself from a threat, a discussion about dogs can be very on topic.
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And that's why it's still open. When it becomes a thread about how dogs are better than people (or not), which breed is more dangerous, in-depth discussion about the social structure of packs, or a list of dog-attack anecdotes which don't offer any potential for discussion in the context of tactics and traning, it will come to an end.
 
The reality is that some dogs are absolute pussycats when with their human families ("packs"), but can become vicious killers when confronted by "strangers.".

At that point, as much as I love dogs, I would have no qualms about shooting ANY dog that was attacking me.

Now, based on several experiences of my son, who is a county sheriff here, it can often take more than one shot to dispatch an attacking dog. An attacking dog is in a blood rage, high on adrenalin. The only sure shot that is going to stop that attacking dog is a brain or spinal cord shot.

As you might guess, this can be mighty hard to accomplish when you are blindsided by an attacking dog and have only 2 or 3 seconds at the most to react, take aim and fire. My son recounted one instance where such circumstances occurred, and had to fire five shots from his .45 sidearm to stop an attacking pit bull.

Three seconds to realize that you are in imminent danger, reach for your weapon and attempt to make a brain shot (which, in the average dog, is approximately the size of a golf ball), is nearly impossible.
 
With all due respect to the warnings that have been posted by the staff here I have to speak up for a couple of breeds of dog that have been maligned (although in my attempt to follow the rules I won't identify or discuss either of them). And I do so because the posts that identify them are included within this thread. Would any of you tolerate specific firearms being isolated and identified as "evil"?

A dog, or a gun, owned by an irresponsible person is a threat. The type of either of them should not be the issue. The owner bears responsibility for both.

And IMHO the poster raised a valid question about tactics that could have involved a big St. Bernard, or a mutt. Or even the bears that a couple of people here are so worried about.
 
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