What to do when meeting a stray dog: safety rules and protection

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A very bloodthirsty article on how to avoid being attacked by a stray dog and emerge victorious if you're unlucky.

Being man's best friend, the dog remains a dangerous predator, and the stray dog is a predator that roams quite freely within the city. While the problem of street vagabonds is quite acute, it is good to know in advance how to avoid conflict with them and minimize your losses in case of failure.

Why stray dogs attack

Main reasons:

• Annoying human actions, fright. Perhaps the dog did not notice the person while he was approaching, or it is annoyed by the flashing of legs while running, the glare of bicycle spokes, loud rustling sounds, violent gestures, the smell of alcohol.
• Protection of the territory of rest and feeding. Despite the fact that each stray dog or pack has a rather large "zone of influence", they fiercely defend a small area where they are regularly fed or where a rookery for dogs with puppies is arranged.
• Boredom. The dog has decided that you are a suitable subject for play or hunting.
• The dog has rabies, and you are unlucky enough to be around.

When passing by any unfamiliar dog, try to pretend that you did not pay attention to it. If possible, deviate slightly from the intended path in order to get around the dog for at least 2-3 meters. Keep it in sight, but do not look into the eyes (this will be regarded as aggression, try to look into the eyes of the tied dog somehow), do not speed up, do not turn around, do not try to talk to the dog or get its attention in any other way. Exception: if you walk by, but she does not see you. Then it will not be superfluous to cough, for example, so as not to accidentally scare the dog, being in close proximity. The dog must understand that you are not interested in it. You are not claiming its territory or food.

If the dog growls, rears its withers and moves sideways in your direction, or starts barking, first, estimate the distance. If the dog is a good 10 meters from you, it approaches rather slowly, most likely, it is more frightened than you. Better to keep pretending not to pay attention to her. Go where you went! Do not accelerate, but walk away with a confident step.

You can pretend that you are picking up a stick, a stone, or actually picking something up. Stray dogs usually have an unpleasant experience with these items and are more likely to choose to retire.

If the distance between you is less than 5 meters, you cannot lift something from the ground! By bending over to the object, you give your dog a great opportunity to immediately grab your neck. To begin with, try to pull her back in a firm low voice, say: “Get out! Ugh! . Pretend that you already have something in your hand and that you are ready to take advantage of it.

If the dog is set up quite decisively, barks deafeningly, does not stop, or behaves as if it is playing with you: it runs up, bites lightly on the leg, the floor of its outerwear, runs back, jumps up and runs up again - there is a great chance of an attack. If shouts and threats did not help, stop, take a step towards, throw a lump of earth, a stone, a stick at the dog. If the dog stops or retreats, do not chase.

This is especially important if you are faced with a pack. While you follow the most impudent dog, the others will attack from behind you. Wait 5-10 seconds and continue on the original route. So you make it clear that if she does not touch you, you will not touch her. Everyone still has a chance to disperse without loss. The dog may continue to chase when you turn away. Don't panic, shout at her again, swing your bag, hat - whatever. Throw another stone. You may have to repeat these actions several times, but it will be over pretty soon: the radius of the protected area of the dog is small, it is unlikely that it will chase you for more than 20 meters.

I hope you never need this, but the next paragraph needs to be felt right now while safe. If a dog runs at you with its tail raised and barking deafeningly, not responding to your threats, or after all your manipulations it still tries to bite or knock you down, the time for diplomacy has passed. That's it, civilization is over. You don’t have an uncomfortable mini-skirt that will pull up ridiculously, no expensive suit, you don’t have anything in your bag that is more important than your life. The interview you go to trying to look presentable may never happen unless you get a killing caveman from the depths of your mind right now.

Drop your disgust. You should now be ready to break bones, break your necks, scream in your stomach, look threatening, and do scary things. You are in grave danger.

How to defend

Of course, even if you walk through a wasteland with a pack of dogs every day on your way to work, you probably won't want to carry a baseball bat with you. You can limit yourself to the items you need in your daily life, but keep them strong enough to serve you in case of danger. And it is very important that these items can be reached with one easy movement.

• The hairbrush is metal, with a long thin handle.
• Ballpoint pen with metal body.
• Long keys to the garage or front door.
• Umbrella. It is better to use it open as a shield, covering vulnerable parts of the body or frightening the dog by suddenly opening it in front of the muzzle.
• Plastic bag. Psychological attack: the bag filled with air looks intimidating to the dog. You can also suffocate with a bag.
• Lighter. With the gas turned to the maximum, it can give a good burst of flame for a few seconds.
• Coins for weighting the blow. If you have only fists in your asset, at least make them more effective. You can also throw coins in the dog's face if you really have a lot of little things.
• Stiletto heels (yes, I also feel sorry for your stilettos in advance, but without them you will be more stable, and getting a thin strong heel in the face of an attacking dog is priceless).
• Objects that you can find around you on the ground: snowballs, large stones, sticks (throw at the dog if there are a lot of stones; use to inflict crippling blows, if there is only one stone), sand, earth, small stones (throw in the dog's face, trying get in the eyes, nose or mouth).

It is good if you have real means of self-defense, but not always what serves you to protect yourself from a person is suitable for a dog. For example, nerve gas will have no effect on her. Pepper or mustard spray will be much more effective if you manage to discharge it in the path of the dog, so that it gets into the cloud of gas before it is blown away by the wind. The stun gun can be discharged into the air to scare the dog with the crackling sound and smell of ozone. For large dogs with thick hair and undercoat, direct electrical discharge may be useless.

How to defend yourself

Surely everyone from childhood was told that dogs feel fear and bite only those who are afraid of them. However, fear is not the only emotion a dog understands. If instead of being scared, you portray joy, it can be very confusing for the aggressive dog. Behave outside the box.

If a dog attacks you, cover your vulnerable parts of the body: tilt your head, covering your throat with your chin, put a bag in front of you, a hand wrapped in a scarf or a sleeve of outerwear, a stick (whatever!) And go to meet her with a joyful cry: “Well, finally- then! Now I will hide you! (I leave the choice of words on your conscience, but your scream should be loud, at the same time you will attract the attention of people around). If you have learned to enter the state of a wild man, it will not be difficult for you to rejoice at the opportunity to eat fresh dog meat. Try not to get angry. Your anger will be interpreted as fear. All you have to radiate is the confidence of a winner.

Remember that a dog's main weapon is its teeth and weight. She will not claw you with her claws. Typical behavior of a dog when attacking is jumping, knocking the opponent down and subsequent bites. When jumping, try to dodge, this will reduce the dog's confidence in their abilities. If you have a bag, hat, outerwear in your hands, put it in front of you. If there is nothing, put your palm forward. A bitten hand is the lesser of evils. The dog attacks this particular object and hangs on it. Never let go! Pull yourself!

While the dog is trying to snatch the shield from you or break it with fangs, hit it on vulnerable parts of the body: the tip of the nose, the bridge of the nose, eyes, the back of the head, the place behind the ears, solar plexus, genitals, coccyx, joints of the paws. Do not slap in these places, hoping that the dog will be scared. Everything that you can reach should be hit as painfully as possible; everything that falls into your hands needs to be broken. If you have enough strength to knock the dog down, bring down and sharply fall on it with your knee, breaking the ribs. Remember: your only ambition right now should be to destroy the enemy.

If there are several dogs, try not to be surrounded. Use every opportunity to leave the territory guarded by the pack, but in no case run.

Advice directly on the fight is relevant for both stray and domestic dogs, otherwise for domestic dogs, you need to make an amendment: to scare a domestic dog, if it is next to the owner, you will not succeed, skip this item right away. If the owner is in no hurry to drag his pet away from you, you need to try to retreat to a place where the dog will not see him. The desire to attack you without eye contact with the owner is sharply reduced in the dog.

Any damage to the skin caused by a dog must be thoroughly washed with soap and water and fixed in an emergency room. A dog with inappropriate, atypical behavior may have rabies. Infection can be transmitted when an infectious material, usually saliva, comes into direct contact with mucous membranes or fresh wounds on a person's skin. Rabies is incurable and requires early vaccination. The good news: this is no longer "40 injections in the stomach", but only six in the shoulder, performed according to a certain pattern for 90 days. If you can observe an animal that has bitten you and does not show signs of rabies for 10 days, vaccination can be interrupted.