What to do when a dog starts chasing you?

Bushman wrote:

I"ll weigh in with you and malmo. The raised arm set to throw stones has never failed to deflect an aggressive dog. Back out of their turf and only begin to run once they've clearly given up the chase.

I'm surprised the self-described professional dog trainer recommended not making eye contact. Yes sometimes the best thing to do is to feign indifference at a barking or aggressive dog, but when one is running towards you, absolutely not. Bend over in the three point stance, act like you are picking up a stone, and make direct eye contact with a stern facial expression. Once the dog backs down, that's the time to shift the eye contact by looking at his yard and pointing, and in a very commanding voice hollow "GO HOME"

First, I never said professional. This is a full-time hobby for me.

Think about what malmo says from a dog's perspective...this thing I'm chasing has turned around, come down to my level (three point stance) and is now making eye contact with me...hmmm...fight or flight and I'm already pissed.

Malmo's method is exactly what we use in civil agitation to make the dog angrier. If you don't know what civil agitation is, google it.

If you challenge the wrong dog, you're going to get f'ed up.

I have used the rock method for 30 years and it always works. I have read from 'dog experts" before the idea of not making eye contact. It is bullshit. Dogs are basically cowards and love to attack from behind when you are not looking. The combo of eye contact and the rock will back down almost any dog. Especially if you are out of their territory you want to dominate the dog. The worse thing you can do is to look away because that it when they will attack.

Cesar. It's a tried and true method. Done it hundreds of times and others have done the same thing.

You are NOT looking at it form the dog's point of view, you are looking at it from an anthropomorphic point of view.

You are not challenging the dog by touching the ground and looking at him, you are establishing control. You needn't be anywhere near a rock, all dogs assume that you've picked one up. They don't like rocks.

I've been attacked by 100's of dogs, all which backed down when confronted, except for a couple of them.

All the others I could yell at, wave my arms, chase, look at them, whatever.

But the angry pitbulls, rotts and great danes, you don't mess with them. An angry rott was about to rip me apart, after I had stopped, yelled and waved my arms. It veered off instantly, came right back more pissed, stood right by my leg glaring up at me daring me to make a move. I did not glower back at it but stood there and looked calmly off in the distance, keeping it in my peripheral vision. It soon got distracted and ran off to chase someone else.

Also the situation is changing. It used to be that people didn't have crazy dogs, but now there are many nut cases around that raise pitbulls. Probably a primary reason for this is the animal shelters see them as a money maker. They sell the pitbulls, people buy them then return them when they realize how vicious they are, then the shelter sells the same dogs to somebody else. The situation is much worse now than it used to be.

malmo wrote:

Cesar. It's a tried and true method. Done it hundreds of times and others have done the same thing.

You are NOT looking at it form the dog's point of view, you are looking at it from an anthropomorphic point of view.

You are not challenging the dog by touching the ground and looking at him, you are establishing control. You needn't be anywhere near a rock, all dogs assume that you've picked one up. They don't like rocks.

Anthropomorphic huh? Have you ever watched a cow dog or a sheep dog work?

A good dog will control the herd with eye contact only. As soon as one of those animals (sheep or cow) makes eye contact with the dog, it is perceived as a challenge and the dog will do what it was trained to do...us its teeth. When you say you are establishing control by getting down on their level and making eye contact, no, you are ATTEMPTING to establish control. For most dogs, you will probably run them off. But, for a serious dog, you are only going to escalate the situation. This is the fight a serious dog wants and you just gave it to him.

People who have reading comprehension skills will benefit from this conversation by analyzing what has been written and using their best judgement. They will also hopefully see you are only arguing against only what you want to hear. Read my posts again, there are some differences and similarities. My suggestions will help with the dog that is going to kill you, which is where I have my experience. Most dogs are not this serious, but they do exist.

I'm done with the messageboard games. Good luck out there.

You kind of answered your own question when you said they turned away when the chase was over.

I've been chased by dogs a few times. When it has happened, I stopped moving, and each time they lost interest and turned around. Even if you start moving after that, they (in my cases) won't pursue.

Jeez, calm down everybody. If a dog is off leash, pretend you're its friend, i.e. stop, face the dog and call it to you. If you have something in your hand (water bottle), hide it so they don't think you are going to hit it. It's been a long time since I had to confront a dog that was loose and mad at me but in those cases, I faced the dog with my hands in fists and pointed at the dogs and walked slowly away. No yelling or throwing rocks required. This includes pit bulls which I've found to be pretty nice dogs. Just last night I was running home from work (22 miles - mistake) and met a young couple on bikes with 5 dogs (on an abandoned railway bed), 4 of them off leash. Actually I met the dogs first. One of the small ones started barking at me. I just stopped, put the water bottle behind me and started calling him (despite the owners calling him back to them). One of the others (maybe a chow mix) came up and watched me for a bit, then sniffed my hand, then eventually sidled up to me to let me know we were friends and I started petting it. Then the big one (named Oso) showed up and was friendly from the get go. The fifth one was on a leash and ignored me. Come on folks, be a little considerate of the little buddies.

Well, I remember when I ran past old woman and her dog (some breed of german shepperd dog) literally jumped to my throat. Old lady was all like "oh, bad dog, bad dog" while f'er tried to eat me alive. As I trained martial arts I was able to pick up fight and actually tried to find position for some kind of choke or clean kick (one that won't end in being bite in my balls), but dog retreated, maybe after few attempts to bite when he found out that it's barely possible to do and I'm about to counterattack.

Worst scenario with dog ever was when this GIANT dog ran toward me, it was midnight and like 3 km from closest building. It was literally giant one, at first I though it's parked car, then young cow. Doubt I could do anything in case of fight, but playing "friendly" distracted. Owner reaction? "Sorry"? No way, just arogant "Ha, you are lucky you know how to treat dog". Sure pal, next time I will treat him (and you) with bullet....

Anyway, usually I just slow down a bit and let the dog sniff my hand, with very friendly emotions in my mind and kissing sound. Maybe I'm so ugly that vision of being kissed by me scare them away, dunno.

I usually carry a little 3 inch blade when I run. I've only had to use it once on a dog. A quick stab made it back away pretty quickly. Sometimes when I see a big dog barking behind a fence, I secretly hope to myself it'll attack me so I can tear it apart.

Stop the problem before it starts. I spray myself with urine from an alpha male wolf before every run, and I have never gotten chased. Make no mistake - the urine has to be fresh (no more than a few hours old), otherwise the pheromones will not be effective.

Just reach down and rip out the dog's trachea.

First of all bro when you run scared from a dog it just kicks in their natural instinct to chase you like prey and I don't care how fast you think you are you will not out run a healthy dog in a sprint. If you turn towards them and get big and angry and yell at them they will back down. 99.9% of dogs fear humans and will take their role in the pack as second to us if you make it clear you are in charge.

There are a very small percentage of dogs that have been trained by humans to be attack dogs. These dogs are dangerous but still very manageable. If you really think this is what you are dealing with, carry a weapon of some sort. A broom handle cut about 3 ft long with a lanyard makes a fairly effective club to hit a dog but you can still run with it. They also make a type of pepper spray designed for dogs so it can be shot at them from a distance. Good luck bro and remember be the ALPHA male.

Caution wrote:

Step 1. Is the dog's tail wagging? If it is don't worry, the dog just wants to play, just ignore it.

Step 2. If it's tail isn't wagging, sprint directly toward the dog, screaming. This will scare 95% of dogs away

Step 3. If the dog is still coming at you, you're f***ed, try and kick it.

This. More than 90% of the time the dog will be friendly, or will only actually attack if threatened. If it's obvious the dog is going to attack you, do two. I don't know about you, but I can get myself pretty f***ing jacked up almost instantly if I need to, like I feel as if I can kill anything. Stand your ground. Most dogs will not attack you head on. If it does attack you, aim for the eyes and nose especially. If it's a smaller dog you should be okay. If it's a large dog, you're probably kind of f***ed. I would still aim for the nose and then maybe try and choke it to death. Worked for that one guy in Florida.

You could also contact animal control and/or the police every time an unfriendly dog is not on a leesh to let owners know it's not okay to let their viscious dogs run freely.

I think Malmo and Zatopek have it about right. never let a dog get behind you. Get your back to a tree, wall, tree etc. Either throw or pretend to throw a rock or tree branch etc. Yell a lot, this sometimes will attract help or even the owners attention. Dont attempt to keep running away because that puts the dog behind you and makes you vulnerable.

Empty your pistol into him. How much more obvious can it get.

Eight shots ought to do it. Better believe he'll never going chasing a runner again.

Maybe I should have tried this today 🤔