Pepper spray for aggressive dogs?

My other half has reached the end of her patience, by being harassed by dogs when she goes out running.

A few months ago she was bitten on her leg by a dog whilst out running, more recently she’s had several large dogs run up to her barking and jumping up at her. All on public footpaths and bridleways. She’s shit scared she is going to get bitten again.

In most cases the owners generally don’t give a f&ck and seem to think that it’s totally acceptable if their dogs are allowed to run up to strangers barking and jumping up at them. Some even think it’s funny.

She’s now invested in a pepper spray dispenser and is going to take it out when running. Any dogs running up to her in an aggressive manner will get sprayed.

I’d prefer her not to do this, or be put in this position, but I’m at a loss on what to recommend. I know pepper spray is illegal in UK but so are dog owners letting their dogs attack people.

Views?

Goddamit it…I am about to go in a meeting 🙁

good luck with it. Let us know how you get on.

If she’s carrying pepper spray around with her then I hope she gets caught and locked up.

If she’s carrying pepper spray around with her then I hope she gets caught and locked up.

Have you a constructive suggestion to what she should do then?

Deep Heat spray is not illegal

She’s now invested in a pepper spray dispenser and is going to take it out when running. Any dogs running up to her in an aggressive manner will get sprayed.

Yeah… Thats illegal. Restricted under the firearms act:

Section 5(1)(b) any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid gas or other thing.

Not a lot she can do apart from report the owners to the police for having a dog off the lead. Potentially describe it as a dangerous dog out of control.

Deep Heat spray is not illegal

It would be if it was used as a weapon and not its intended purpose.

Have you a constructive suggestion to what she should do then?

Stop overreacting to dogs???

As you say it’s illegal and I foresee if she used it it’s not going to end well. Spray at work is classified as a firearm so not a trivial matter in the eyes of the law

This is a bad situation, but she could get in real trouble attacking dogs with pepper spray. don’t let her go out with pepper spray, a court will see that as premeditation.
Has she tried talking to the owners, or perhaps reporting them to the relevant authorities?
If dogs see someone running, their instinct is to chase them. I find that 9 times out of 10, ignoring them works, they soon get bored. If they get a bit frisky a couple of gentle nudges with my feet tend to do the trick.
I can’t emphasise enough how bad it will be to pepper spray dogs. THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER.
If it’s that bad, she’ll have to run somewhere else.

Stop overreacting to dogs???

Stop trolling, she’s not over-reacting, read the post, she’s been bitten.

I agree, it’s probably not going to end well when she uses it, hence asking if there are any constructive ideas.

The local dog warden has been contacted last the past few incidents, but they don’t seem to be able to do anything, given the owners are unknown.

f it’s that bad, she’ll have to run somewhere else.

I disagree, the dogs will have to move on.

If you’re going to carry something illegal to deal with dogs, you might as well go the whole hog…

Legally it’s the same as carrying a firearm. How about a sawn off shotgun instead?

I didn’t think Pepper spray worked on dogs – or is that CS Spray?

Totally illegal though

Steel toed running shoes. Hoof dog in slats.

I seem to be thinking like Binners. I may have to stop coming here.

Run with her or find others to run with. Try to talk to dog owners and be honest that their pooch is frightening her. If it’s a persistent problem in one place or particular dogs, gather some evidence…

Stop overreacting to dogs???

I still have the scars from my own over reaction to dogs.

I disagree, the dogs will have to move on.

Why start a war you can’t win? You might not like it, but you can’t control every environment to suit your needs/wishes.

If she’s been bitten, perhaps the trauma associated with that is clouding her judgement and making her interpret behaviours in a more extreme way, also her anxiety around dogs triggering certain behaviours in the dogs, a vicious circle, if you like.

Has she tried talking to the owners

IME this is completely fruitless. my MIL gets frightened when dogs jump up on her, but if she asks an owner to call their dog back, 90% of the time the owner just chuckles indulgently at what a sociable and fun-loving mutt they have. It’s infuriating to see. and I like dogs!

(one wonders if these are the same people who get wound up when kids are causing a nuisance in a café or wherever…)

As you suggest, probably best to just run somewhere else. Round here, trying to fight off a dog that’s attacking someone has led to a stabbing more than once. Not worth the risk 🙁

Has anyone tried using an ultrasonic dog repeller like this https://www.primrose.co.uk/advanced-portable-sonic-dog-repeller-p-1271.html

Do they work?

I have no problem hoofing a dog in the slats and talking about it afterwards…

Lame:
He’s only playing
Just being friendly
Only a puppy
First time he’s done that
You upset him
He doesn’t like the running noise

are statements of failure in someone who is unable to train, manage or be responsible for their dog.

don’t take anything that you wouldn’t naturally take running. OJ in a water bottle should do? anti bark collars use citrus spray, and my dog didn’t like that very much, although it is concentrated of course. OJ should have a similar effect, and it would seem reasonable to take a drink with you?

as others have said, she doesn’t want to go effectively armed and with intent.

similarly at home, don’t keep a baseball bat to ‘deal with intruders’, keep a large torch. if someone was creeping around your house at night it would be quite reasonable to have a torch at hand, and if you were surprised and lashed out with what came to hand it’s going to go a whole lot better for you than if you club someone with a baseball, however nefarious their motives.

oh – and a knee to the chest of a jumping dog is very effective and mostly harmless to both parties.

Pick up the phone to Battersea, Dogs Trust, RSPCA etc – ask for professional advice rather than on a MTB forum!

If she sprays an aggressive dog and misses (which is really easy to do in the heat of the moment) then she will have made the situation 10 times worse and made the dog really want to take a chunk out of her.

Secondly if she successfully sprays the dog it will be in a world of pain, running around headlessly and if children are around then they could bear the brunt of an out of control dog. She will then have some serious questions to answer to.

Six months plus in womens prison eh?

Has your mrs been watching ‘Orange is the New Black’ a lot? been humming ‘he used to give me roses’ theme from cell block H?

do you think she’s looking for an excuse to go over to the other side?

skydragon, feel for your missus, I’ve had the same happen to me, and I just try to talk to the owners about it. I think carrying “weaponry” or getting into arguments is pretty fruitless. Dogs are part of our communities, for better or worse. Most owners are pretty aware and in public places; behave responsibly. The others…you just have to deal with on a individual basis I’m afraid.

Woman enjoys exercising.
Woman gets bitten by uncontrolled dog while exercising.
Dog owner thinks it’s “funny”.
Woman decides to protect herself with a non-lethal means.
Woman goes to jail.
Dog owner claims comp.

Modern life in a nutshell.

If you ring any of the Animal Charities, especially the RSPCA don’t mention you are even thinking of taking pepper spray.

First thing they do is ask for your contact details.

How about using a personal alarm type thing ? The loud noise may scare the Dog off ?

ok, so we all seem to agree using Pepper Spay isn’t going to solve the problem in a constructive way.

Let’s now presume she doesn’t use it.

What can she do?

I like the idea of a sound/sonic repeller but don’t know if they work?

How about one of those small travel deodorants to spray as a deterrent – I can’t imagine one of the really sickly sweet ones would be particularly attractive to a dog, and not too cumbersome to carry in the hand.
That or one of those trigger activated rape alarms – a quick squeal from one of those would probably make them think twice…?

if she successfully sprays the dog it will be in a world of pain, running around headlessly and if children are around then they could bear the brunt of an out of control dog. She will then have some serious questions to answer to

this is a good point…

I like the idea of a sound/sonic repeller but don’t know if they work?

I’ll say it again – speak to a professional. Someone whose job it is to work with dogs & understands canine behaviour.

I thought I understood dogs & after 7 of them I felt pretty confident. That is until I started a studying canine behaviour, by which I mean a bona fide academic course at Bristol University, did I realise how little did I know!!!

kick the dog, hard.

As a dog owner and with a wife who’s a runner I’ve consistently noticed that many of the runners in our local running club actually create the issues with dogs they then complain about – albeit the original poster’s wife may have already tried this and may just be dealing with stupid owners and badly trained dogs.

Our local runners constantly sprint right at dogs being walked on leads and make no effort whatsoever to slow down, make a human like noise, slow down or do anything that would help an animal understand that the person running at it isn’t a threat. Most people wouldn’t do this with a horse or a cow but for some reason think all dogs will know they aren’t a threat.

It’s often made worse by runners trying for personal bests or listening to music as this results in them being completely oblivious to what’s going on around them – to the point where a friend carrying a baby in a sling was recently knocked over by a runner barging straight past her from behind and effectively elbow barging her out of the way. Rather than checking if she and the baby we’re OK he gave her a mouthful of abuse for getting in his way and walking in the middle of the path.

I’m pretty sure running clubs use to train runners on how to handle dogs I.e. Let them know you’re coming, move to the side, slow down and talk to it if necessary – but judging by the local runners the clubs don’t do this anymore.

Would a dog training whistle work? Do they cause discomfort to dogs?

The problem you have is there is a big difference between an aggressive dog and a bouncy, barky, jumpy dog who thinks its playing. The problem is a lot of people can’t tell the difference and if you are not a dog person you shouldn’t have to.

Shop bought sound repellers will not work on a aggressive dog who is solely focused on you. They will probably antagonise the animal.

You need to distract the animal and the easiest way to do that is to run with a camelbak water bottle or equivalent which can spray a jet of water. Spray it at the dogs feet at first and this can distract them to lose their focus on you.

If you see a dog off its lead just slow down, ignore the dog if it’s noisy and walk past. Try not to run between a dog and its owner. Have been running for more than ten years and encounter dogs off their leads pretty much on every run and these strategies have served me well. Sorry l don’t have a more dramatic/violent solution.

Last year a sat next to a police dog trainer while on a three hour flight. Had a really good chat about biking (he was a rider also)

He said there was a totally legal dog repellant that they use. It’s available to the public and super effective.

I need to have a search for the stuff. Back in a mo.

Edit – it’s called bite back