How to prevent or stop an attack while on a walk?

How do you prevent your own dog from being attacked by another agressive dog that's not on a leash and not with the owner

 
You can't. My last encounter involved a Jack Russell Terrier who was specifically allowed to run loose. She initiated the confrontation and I saw the warning signs but there was no place to go. I'm trying to keep my dog from responding while this terrier is running circles around us trying to find a striking opportunity. The owners were standing in their driveway doing nothing and I said "Call your (expletive) dog back."
 
Rather than get their dog back they proceeded to argue with me because I used a curse word. I placed my leg in between and got a tooth graze on my shin for it. While this is happening, I tell them that dogs have a way of reacting to each other, regardless of size. Just that one sentence caused one of them to call me a dog freak. I almost said thank you.
 
You can use directstop spray, you can pick your place and time. I can't pick a time, anymore. We have loose dogs any time of the day or night. So, I drive to another town, where loose dogs actually means getting a fine, rather than a talking-to.
 

This kind of thing does happen sometimes, and it kind of depends on where you live how often. I've owned dogs for over 6 years now and it has never happened to me. My dogs have gotten growly with other dogs on leashes, at which point I and the other owner just apologize to one another and walk in opposite directions. But we've never been attacked by a dog off leash. Good thing too cuz Conrad's 95 lbs. and he doesn't start fights, but he will finish them, especially when he thinks he protecting me and his little brother.
 
There is a product called Direct Stop that is basically dog mace. It's not a harmful chemical, just one with an extremely strong smell that dogs really utterly loathe. So if there are a lot of loose dogs where you normally take your walks, I'd suggest you invest in a canister of that stuff. Taking a walk with a walking stick is also a good defensive measure.
 
Some places just have a large amount of loose ownerless dogs wandering around. Which sucks for everyone and is probably cause to put Animal Control on to your cell phone speed dial. In most places letting your dog run loose is illegal. I know that some folks who live in areas like this will drive them and their dog to another location to take walks.
 
I read your other post about being afraid of some dogs and I'd really suggest that you do a lot of work on that problem before getting a dog yourself. Not becuase you're going to be afraid of your own dog but because if your dog can tell that you are afraid of every other dog you see, your dog will also become fearful, and in dogs fear leads to aggression much of the time.
 

There is a product called "Direct Stop", which is a citronella, non-toxic spray that shoots out of the can and startles dogs.  But, I would not advise anyone to use it until they first understand when to do so. 
My advice would be to contact a local training center in your area, explain the problem you have, and see if they will let you come and watch their dog playtimes, or a few lessons, as an auditor.  The instructor might be able to help you for a few minutes here and there to understand what is normal canine behavior, and what's not.  Also, the trainer may be able to help you choose a dog that is within your skill and comfort level.
These sites have trainer searches:
www.clickertraining.com
www.peaceablepaws.com (positive trainers only)
www.apdt.com

"I read your other post about being afraid of some dogs and I'd really suggest that you do a lot of work on that problem before getting a dog yourself. Not becuase you're going to be afraid of your own dog but because if your dog can tell that you are afraid of every other dog you see, your dog will also become fearful, and in dogs fear leads to aggression much of the time. "
 
That's a good idea and I agree with you, and that's why I'm asking these questions. I think the biggest problem I have, is that I have not been around dogs enough to really learn to know them, and how to behave around them, and this has triggered some aggression from dogs in the past. I really think that if I learn enough about them and know what to do is spesific situations, that I will feel more safe around them. I am not afraid of all dogs, only those one the loose, not with the owner, who seem to want to stare me down, bark or growl at me. I also am afraid to go into their territory if the owner is not around. Basically, I am afraid to be attacked or that I will trigger aggressive behaviour in them. But if a dog is friendly and playful, or submissive and calm, I have no problem being around them. I will pet them and play with them like other people would.
 
I appreciate your advice. I really want to feel 100% comfortable around dogs, and I feel better for each question answered. I agree I need to overcome this before getting my own dog, and so my work has started
 


 

Hi HappyViking, how about getting some books on dog body language? do you have a dog park you could go visit and just watch the dogs-- you don't have to go inside, just sit outside the fence and observe. And try reading books like The other end of the leash and Culture Clash.

Hey know how I said upthread that we'd never been attacked by an off-leash dog while on-leash? Well, first time for everything: it happened this morning to Marlowe. No injuries, and the owner of the aggressing dog (black lab) was right there to pull/call him off and apologize profusely (still doesn't make it okay that she had off-leash dogs in an area with leash-laws, in my book). So it wasn't a huge deal, but still was a little scary.

The lesson I learned: I was not totally comfortable with the dog's body language when we first came across him. It wasn't overtly aggressive, but it wasn't friendly either. I should have gone with my gut and walked away immediately. Marlowe is extremely well-socialized and displayed friendly but very reserved and tentative greeting behavior with him and I should have also recognized that he was reacting to the other dog's suspicious behavior and trusted what my own dog was saying. This right here is why it's important to learn about dog body language and behavior in order to prevent as many of these incidents as you can. If I had gone with my initial impression that this is not a dog who's feeling friendly, there wouldn't have been a fight, we would have just walked the other way. In the future I'll make sure to be honest with myself about what I'm seeing in other dogs, and if I'm not seeing complete friendliness, I will walk away.

Firstly, I don't let ANY dog offlead until I know their recall is sound.  I train recall slowly and solidly and introduce distractions gradually. 

When I see another dog, I call mine and put him on a lead and take evasive action - I change direction if necessary to give us distance from the strange dog.  If the dog approaches us I step in front of mine so the other dog can only get to mine through me.  If there is an owner nearby I caution them that my dog is not good with other dogs - sometimes putting an arm round my dog as if he really needs physically restraining helps convince them to get their dog under control.

One thing a friend of mine did (which I would love to teach mine but never got round to it) is "hide and go see".  "Hide" means "get behind me/stay behind me" and "go see" means, "go and see the other person/dog".  "Hide" is a good way of keeping yourself in between your dog and the strange one and you only say "go see" afterwards a) as a reward for keeping close and letting you assess the situation and b) only if you know the other owner/dog and know they are safe and ok for yours to play with.

Lastly, if I'm coming up to a corner or rise which I can't see beyond, I call my dog to heel and keep him close so that we don't run into something unexpectedly which my dog is then left to deal with.  I don't want a young friendly dog leaping at strangers (quite rightly they often see it as a nuisance) and I don't want him suddenly face to face with an unfriendly or rude dog.
 
ETA there's not much you can do if there's a loose dog without an owner (or with a completely incompetent one!) who is being aggressive or rude.  I take evasive action if I possibly can and if I'm face to face with them then I put myself forward and keep my own dog behind me.  What's the worst that is likely to happen?  I might get bitten.  My attitude is, So what?  Round here, your dog is liable under the DDA (1991 I think) if there is "reasonable fear of being bitten".  When we are being harassed (it doesn't happen often) by a dog who is aggressive or just doesn't have any manners and the owner seems unwilling or unable to do anything about it, I like to remind them of that.

I own a pit bull, so my dog's breed not only has a bad reputation, but my dog displays SOME dog aggression issues.
A friend of mine who has worked with the breed for over 10 years in rescue and shelter has a 90 lb. DA dog who also has some human issues. She KNOWS his issues and is extremely careful with him while walking. He gets walked with a harness on and double collared. She takes corners REAL wide with him so that no one can surprise him.
Well, one day she was rounding a corner and when she got around, right there was a HUGE, unneutered GSD. Guess what was on the other end of the leash? You'll love this: a little child.
So, this gigantic GSD who showed apparent signs of being DA himself, pulled the child right off his feet and went straight for her dog. She had to tie her dog to a fence so that his head was up against the fence so he couldn't fight back, and then she had to scream and hit and kick the other dog so that it couldn't get to her dog. Finally the owners came running.

Because of my breed's tendency for DA, I carry a breakstick in my coat pocket or back pants pocket, I double collar and connect a leash, and I put a harness on her and leash that as well. I also carry my cell phone and I WILL be carrying direct stop.
I will also do what I have to if another dog attacks my dog (and there are NO owners in sight) so that I can keep my dog safe. And if that means kicking the crap out of another dog to keep it from attacking mine, I'll do it. I mean, this is if the dogs have already locked eyes, or I redirect Ella and this dog INSISTS upon following us (I've had this happen twice) and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING else that I can do to better the situation.

Just to counteract all these horror stories!

There's a dog we encounter pretty frequently on our walks through our neighborhood park. The dog is large and either severely reactive/leash-aggressive or just plain old dog aggressive. The dog is terrifying with the lunging and the barking and the snarling. BUT! the owner always has a firm grip on his leash and when he sees another dog coming down the path, takes his dog far off the path and stops walking until you pass. This is also really pretty early in the morning when he's less likely to encounter other dogs. That's an owner who is responsibly managing his aggressive dog. Aggressive/reactive dogs need their walks and their excersie too, and there are responsible ways to handle such a dog.

Chewbecca, I once saw a full grown Great Dane on-leash at the off-leash park who was possibly reactive/not socialized well (it was his first time a the park, hence him being kept on leash, which the owners didn't realize was a bad idea just all around), and the person holding on to the leash? A child. The other peeps at the park pretty quickly sized up that situation and very subtly and quietly began to migrate to the other end of the park with their dogs.

It sounds horrible but I've done that too - a GSD broke away from the child walking it (!!!) and attacked my first ever dog, a cairn.  Being young and naive I didn't know much about canine body language and didn't see the danger - I thought the dog would be friendly because he was wagging his tail!  He walked up, steady and purposeful, without making a sound, tail waving high and slow, eyes locked.... jeez now I look back on it it was a textbook case and I should have seen it coming!  My dog was picked up and shaken like a rag doll before I could blink.  Anything I'd been told about not wading into a dog fight was forgotten, I started hitting and kicking the other dog to make him let mine go.  I got hold of his ears and pulled and twisted hard.  The GSD let go and dropped my dog (who was little more than a puppy) and swung his head round, I came within an inch of getting bitten.  I grabbed the puppy and carried him home, he was bruised and sore and had a major issue with other dogs after that - probably the worst dog aggressive dog Ive even owned.
 
I learned my lesson though, Waggy Tail does NOT equal Happy, Friendly and Silent = More scary than growling/barking! 
 
IMO stepping between two dogs who look like they might fight is far less risky than trying to break up a fight thats already begun.  I've even kicked a strange dog and sent it running when it kept trying to get at mine.  And you know what the owner always says????!!!! "It's OK, he just wants to say hello, he's just being friendly!!!"  ARGGHHH!!! grrrr......

I also have a fear of getting bitten - and that's considering the fact that I grew up with dogs (German Shepherds) and my dad was a trainer. Go figure! I own *my* first dog now. The tricky part is that, when situations like that occur, you feel like avoiding the confrontation, and at the same time doing something to protect your dog. (I guess, I've always relied on my dad, to do the 'protection part', that's why I am so clueless about it.)

You know how important it is for dogs to socialize with humans... adults, kids, etc. Some are naturally very adaptive to creatures of all shapes and colors, others need to spend more time getting used to us, other dogs, etc. The same goes for people - if you feel this fear or uncertainty, try to spend some time socializing with dogs before you get your own. Maybe spend some time volunteering in a local shelter, go visit breeders, dog clubs, etc. The more positive experiences you'll have with dogs, the more confident you'll feel, and vice versa - one thing leads to another.

In general, what I try to do, is to avoid dogs that are off leash, unless I know the dog. Just cross the street, turn around and walk away CALM. If the situation can't be avoided, it really depends on how you behave, as much as how the dogs behave. Also, remember that what might seam like an attack, is really just all talk... in canine language - sometimes things sound uglier to humans than they realy are. For an actual attack to happen at least one must be moving forward in an 'offensive mode', you just have to recognize the signals.

I'd add the following books to the list: "Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior", "For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend".

Don't panic and continue walking at a brisk pace, looking straight ahead, keeping your head up and  shoulders back.  Keep your dog close by your left side.  Carry a nice big walking stick if you feel it's necessary or just to make you feel more comfortable.

This happened to us for the first time last week, and I'll be honest:  I'm still angry and upset over it.  We turned the corner at the end of the block and a pit eight houses down jumped his (very tiny chainlink) front yard fence and hit the sidewalk at a running charge.  I put myself between the charging dog and my dog as it raced up, intending to at least physically block it for a little bit and hoping the owners would appear quick enough to reclaim it.

Not even a chance; it took a snap at my leg while darting around and launched itself directly at my dog's throat.  While it bit, mangled, and otherwise grappled for a good under-throat purchase, I tried summoning up one of those gut-yells, "HEY!" to distract it while cuffing it with the end of the leash, then had to resort to kicking the heck out of its ribs.  It didn't care a bit; all it wanted to do was attack, attack, attack.  The owner showed up very, very late.  Felt like hours to me.  She is crying and I am trying not to retch because of adrenaline and anxiety while I get my dog away from her--she clearly could not control it before, I wasn't going to trust her to do it after that.

Sometimes there is nothing you can do to avoid an encounter like that.  The pit was set on attacking from square one, he jumped the fence to come at us before we had even sighted him.  Dogs with a super-focused attack mentality can't be put off by simply walking away, proper stance, or other methods.  I learned my lesson; from now on I will carry a Maglite to use as a club if I have to, and I am waiting for the citronella spray mentioned above to arrive.

However, to note:  immediately after the attack I waited for the pit and its MINDLESSLY STUPID OWNER to go into their house, finished checking my dog to make sure he would be ok to walk back home, and then we proceeded down the block as we had been before.  I don't think my dog liked that thought at first, but I did my best to exude 'who cares, it's gone now and I know it for a fact' attitude.  We had an errand to do at the end of that block, so we did it like always, dropped off the letter, and turned around and walked home.  I think that fleeing the area of the attack and changing the routine would have hurt my boy more by letting him associate it with a bad moment and possibly made him a little nervous towards other dogs.

WHOA!!!  A maglite and citronella may help, but it sounds like an electric cattle prod may serve you better!  And maybe you should use it on the owner, not the pit!!