• Judy B.

    Member
    April 15, 2021 at 11:30 am
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    Hi Dave,

    Thats a tough position to be in. Have the owners if these dog been around when this has happened? Who was with these other dogs. You could try talking to them and explain what has happened and how dangerous the situation is having the dogs running around unsupervised. Also what kind if area is this in? Do you have leash laws? Leash laws are enforced were we are. I would definitely keep citronella spray on hand like “spray shied” anyway for emergency situations. It is easy to carry and access. If the likelihood and chance of spray back to yours dogs is less than the chance of your dogs getting injured I would take the chance. Some dogs may not even care about the citronella but you should always keep it on hand. Even if if gets in your dogs eyes it would be ok in the long-term and better than your dog getting mauled. Mace is pepper spray. And is different. Also you should keep another leash on had for emergency situations…like loose dogs. I am not saying you should go near a strange dogo and try and leash him up….but you never know when you might need it if a dog is coming at you. Be careful and don’t forget some dogs have a lot of fight drive too. You don’t want to get into a situation where you’re trying to keep a dog at bay using certain techniques and you end up triggering fight drive and you’re in a loosing battle. That can be very dangerous. I would definitely carry spray shield and if at all possible, see if you can find out who the owners are and non confrontationaly talk to them about the safety concerns you have. Situations where you can only control your dogs and have no control over your outside environment are tricky and makes you wish that everyone were as responsible with their dogs. If I come up with any other suggestions I will ket you know! Most importantly you want to stay safe.

    Judy