I've seen pepper spray put a dog in reverse so fast you'd swear that it left gouges in the pavement.

Better option than shooting as they are often a rapidly moving target and in an urban environment, lots of hard surface to have bullets ricochet off of.

If you do pepper spray a dog, keep the gun handy in case the owner decides to take on the fight You may have to defend yourself again and pepper spray may not be enough.

I appreciate all the comments thus far.

It seems that I should think about pepper spray. What's another weapon when I already carry 6?

Where I was, I was surrounded by asphalt. So the backstop was terrible.

As someone has posted, I let the situation go bad. I was NOT in a position to kick the dog at all.

I have been bitten once. It was very severe, I don't want to go through that again.

I got lucky. All I can do, is learn from this.

Wouldn't have used a gun. Usually what pocket knives are good for is just slashing near the neck of the dog. Just like the guy walking (forgot where) got attacked by 2 dogs and just put them to sleep. Act of self defense. I got bit by a dog trying to break up a fight between hunting dogs. Get them fast or they will get you.

I would say carry a can of pepper spray, and or a tazer, I think if you hit a dog with one that is rated at say 250,000 volts or even the ones that shoot the prongs the dog wont want to get you, and if that doesn't work go to option B, just my opinion though ive been bit by a dog before but it was my fault, he went for the doughnut in My hand as we were sitting in the back of my dads truck, never broke skin just scratched my fingers but the bastard got my doughnut.

I'll play.

So the wife and I went to Michigan to visit family earlier this year. Thankfully, Michigan honors the WA CPL. I was with a friend walking his dogs out in the country on a trail (he has beagles) and we saw a woman walking 3 very large dogs up ahead. He commented that this woman doesn't leash her dogs and they can be aggressive. Great. So we are walking at a faster pace than her and we catch up to her pretty quickly. She darts off into the woods with her dogs in tow. I think "no big deal, she's going to let us pass". Once we are about 10 yards away from where she went off into the woods, I see all 3 dogs running at us at a dead sprint. I choke up on the leash of the dog I was walking and we stop. At first, I'm thinking that they're just going to sniff each other and we will be on our way. So, these dogs finally reach us and my friend picks up his dog. The biggest dog grabs the dog I'm walking and starts trying to pin it down. I immediately pull my .45 and start spinning my dog in a circle so that it can't be pinned down. I point my .45 at the middle of the dog's back with my booger hook on the bang switch. I am just about to squeeze the trigger and I think "I'm in Michigan where I'm not a resident anymore and I need to catch a plane in a couple days. I can't afford to be dragged into court over this. If I can't resolve this quickly without firing a shot, I'm going to HAVE to shoot!" I didn't want to kill her dog, but I would of if I had to. I can't kick or punch the dog because I have one hand on a leash, one hand on my .45 and I'm spinning my dog so that it can't be pinned. Luckily, the woman comes racing out of the woods yelling at her dogs and they respond by turning and running back to her. She IMMEDIATELY grabs them and hauls ass off into the woods again. I start yelling at her "Keep your FUCKING dogs on a leash! I almost shot them!". She yells back "Oh, no, no, they're not dangerous!". I yell back "You stupid bitch! If they come back out I'm shooting them!" I re-holster. She didn't say anything so we headed on down the trail. On the way back, we see her and her dogs walking back to the parking lot about 100 yards ahead of us. I tell my friend that we're going to hang back for a bit and give them plenty of time and space to go away before we get back to the parking lot area. We slow down, they disappear from sight and the rest of the walk was peaceful.

The moral of the story is: Practice drawing your firearm regularly. I had a small adrenaline dump, a dog that was squirming at the end of a leash, my friend yelling and screaming and I had a thick coat on. I cleared my IWB holster from a thick coat, hoodie and t-shirt in one motion while spinning in a circle with a beagle that was freaking out. I was able to get such a smooth draw because I practice drawing almost every day. I draw on an object (the smaller the better) in my house aligning my sights on it almost every day when I go home on lunch. This almost daily practice has allowed me to draw and have a perfect sight alignment every time. I practice every couple of weeks with snap caps in the house as well. I always practice live draw-fire when I go to the range.

Great restraint, a perfect example of "just because I have a gun doesn't mean I have to shoot". I realize you were thinking about the legal nightmare you would go through, canceling your flight plans. You also have to balance what is more important; making flight, or serious bodily injury. I will be the first to say that not having been with you, I and the rest of the world can't really say you should have done this or that. Especially in the heat of the moment you don't really have the time to run through all the what ifs. The one thing I've taken away about encounters like this would be to call 911, just to CYA. Maybe not always true, but just my personal opinion that if you have to draw a weapon and another person is present could help. Even though you didn't actually shoot, that lady could have called 911 on you saying "there is a crazy guy waving a gun around threatening to shoot me and my dogs!" The police not knowing the whole story would come in blazing with you as the "aggressor". Just because I'm retired the "AAR", will always be there. CYA, CYA!

I have pepper spray in every car, carry it at the dog park. Always good to have a less lethal alternative to hand.

I had a dog do the same thing to me at Marymoor (the owner just laughed) it was following me and barking and baring its teeth and growling.
I turned around and yelled "KNOCK IT OFF KNOCK IT OFF" at it (I'm 6'5"). The dog jumped back about 5 ft and then ran off. I had my hand on my pepper spray. That was phase 2.

If the dog is moving around it may not be a super easy target for a handgun and with people around maybe the owner moving towards the dog I would be VERY sure of my backstop before shooting.

I should also mention I carry the Kimber Pepper Blaster II -- first spray for the dog, second for the irate owner if they want to get excited over the dog getting sprayed.

Who dragged this back from the dead ??? Its been my number this year for dog attacks. Going for over 30 years on service calls with no problems, and 3 dog attacks in the last year or so.

Due to feedback on a few forums, I carry pepper spray in my work jacket, where I can get it out fast. That's one item.

The second and final item, is that I carry a clipboard with me on the first walk-up on the service call. The last 2 attacks I was able to ward off the attacks keeping the clipboard between me and the dog. Last time I did that, it just made the dog even madder and try harder to get to me. Still I kept it at bay with that clipboard, long enough for the owner to show up and control the dog. At that point I have the pepper spray in hand.

Once the dog is under control.............. I LAY DOWN THE LAW, STATING THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR ME TO STAY AND PERFORM THE SERVICE CALL...................... or I will leave, and send you the bill anyways. So far, I guess the looks on my face was mean enough, that I don't get any lip from the owner.

Always vigilant now. and Yes, I still EDC.

I see this thread, and thought I would add the story of someone that did pull the trigger on a vicious dog...

I will start by saying, I indeed killed my neighbors dog in defense of myself. After attacking my dog that was in my yard it then circled around to come after me. Not having pepper spray, and knowing that I was in for a ride if the dog got a hold of me, I drew my pistol and shot the dog. It turned and ran about 10' and died on the spot. I came back around the front of my house and told my wife to call 911 and tell them I just killed my neighbors dog. I unloaded my pistol, action open and left it on top of my car. The police showed up in about 5min, placed my handgun in his car for safe keeping. I walked him through what happened, told him I used angle and soft ground as a backstop. The officer took my name for the report, then told me maybe I should get some pepper spray, gave me a case number, my pistol and told me animal control would call me. They called me about an hour later, wanted a written statement.

I got a copy of the case file from the police and animal control. The officer put in the report that his belief was that this was a genuine case of self defense where caution to mitigate collateral damage was taken. He recommended to the prosecutor that charges not be filed because it was a justified shooting.

I do know that this dog was already a problem, it got the other neighbors dog in their yard and did about $2000 worth of damage to it about a year prior. A judge ordered the owner to pay the vet bills, and the dog was not to be outside the home unless restrained. Needless to say that it was not the direct actions of the owner that got his dog killed, I guess someone was watching the dog and let it out without knowing. What was interesting is the officer that came out knocked on the door and told the lady house sitting that their dog was dead on my back lawn and she needed to promptly remove it, he then asked me if I planned on filing for damages (so he could giver her the case number) I figured I wasn't going to file for the $1.50 for 2 rounds of .40 self defense ammo and told him no, as I wasn't injured and neither was my dog. The house-sittter was pretty mortified and had no idea what to do, so after the officer left I dragged it to their front porch and left it there for the owner to return later that evening.

All in all I did feel bad for having to dispatch the dog, but I was not about to end up god only knows how much in medical bills. About a week later the window was broken out in my car, wasn't able to prove it was the douche bag neighbor, but I am sure it was him.

The one thing that I was thankful for was that my landlord (who own both mine, and the neighbors houses) lives on side on the other side and came over when he hear the shots and told me "well thankfully we don't have to deal with that dog anymore..." So I didn't have to deal with my landlord being all bent out of shape about it.

Carry a gun, use a knife. Police should be called after a event to prevent further problems. If you tell the police you are carrying and used a knife, its not going to be a instant act of unjust murder. There was a guy who killed 2 dogs that tried to bite him with a pocket knife in Washington. I'm a pacifist against animals, so just grabbing the throat and slamming them into the cement usually calms them down If it doesnt just hold them their and yell for help. It shows that your more dominant than the dog and usually calms them down. Next, if that doesn't work get where the head and the neck connect and break the spine in the center if you have a knife for a painless death. First method usually works, had a hunting dog(small one) bite my left arm when I was in elementary school. It let go after a few minutes.

Having been attacked by a pit bull Bitch and her 2 pups, there is no question as to would I shoot or not. I have posted the incident on here in the past, and the search should find it if you are really interested.
Read RCW title 16. it is an eye opener. You are well protected in defending against aggressive dogs, with the exception of a dog that is on the property of it's owner.
The bottom line is quite clear...Dog, if you get aggressive towards me, you are going to bleed or die. I really do not care which.

Pepper spray is a great idea. Easier to hit the animal with a coarse fog than with a pistol, or stream of OC.
Also, some dogs seem aggressive, but aren't. One of mine is a bit fearful/anxious and will bark. Will scare people who don't know him, but he won't hurt anyone that isn't attacking... however I understand why he'd scare someone. If he somehow managed to get out and they felt they had to defend themselves, I'd have to understand.

A pocket full of milkbones served me well when I was serving papers. Pits, boxers, rots, GSD's were all suckers for milkbones.