I live out in the country and we do have a problem with dogs. Both strays and one of our neighbors who for some reason can't get a fence or keep their dogs in the yard.
It's about 10:45 pm, I'm taking my trash out for the night. I have to walk about 35 yards up to the road to take out the trash. About 7 yards from my front porch, I hear running and see a big black dog (about 85 pounds if I had to guess) run right in front of me. Luckily, it ended up just running off my property.... what it usually does. It's like it knows it's not supposed to be on my property, but doesn't bother running away until I come outside. It usually hangs out where there is a blind spot so I can't see out the window.
Anyway, my main point, is I wasn't expecting anything. It's sunday night, light rain.... I've got my flashlight to help me see and my hi-power on my hip. When the dog bolts across, the only thing my subconscious can think to do is get in a defensive posture (right foot back, 45 degrees, right hand going to hip for weapon, left hand up to block) and then I shout out "Ahhh *expletive*". Shouted it in a long and drawn out fashion. I don't know why, when I get surprised I just yell and go into Judo mode. It worked, dog ran off.
The only reason I bring this up is because I've been struggling about carry weapons. What safeties I want on them, if I prefer DA to SA, etc. Personally, tonight helped me get some perspective.
Without getting into the this gun is better than that gun debate, all I want to say.... is that when caught by surprise, I had a split second of panic.... before I could cognitively evaluate the situation and react (other than screaming and going into a defensive posture, which I guess is a step up above doing nothing). Had the dog attacked me, every nano-second would have counted and my brain's response already wasted one of them for me.
There are times in parking lots where I can see someone shady and avoid them or prepare myself, I've even engaged in verbal judo with a shady panhandler in a dark wal-mart parking lot once (told him firmly he needs to go back in the store and maintained control while keeping my back to the car and a defensive posture, the command voice works well on humans and even animals).
But, rather than go on and on.... I'll just say. It's the weirdest thing to get caught by surprise. I can imagine it would be similar to hearing someone break in the house while you are in a deep sleep. I don't know how you react. I just start screaming. I guess subconsciously my Viking battlecry helps to get my adrenaline going while hopefully off-balancing the other person. Weird.
But if the dog had come straight at me at the speed it was going, I probably wouldn't of even had time to get my gun out, it seemed like the blink of an eye. It's crazy how fast things can happen when you get caught by surprise. And it's crazy how dogs run away when you yell really loudly at them. I hope I didn't freak out the neighbors.
It's about 10:45 pm, I'm taking my trash out for the night. I have to walk about 35 yards up to the road to take out the trash. About 7 yards from my front porch, I hear running and see a big black dog (about 85 pounds if I had to guess) run right in front of me. Luckily, it ended up just running off my property.... what it usually does. It's like it knows it's not supposed to be on my property, but doesn't bother running away until I come outside. It usually hangs out where there is a blind spot so I can't see out the window.
Anyway, my main point, is I wasn't expecting anything. It's sunday night, light rain.... I've got my flashlight to help me see and my hi-power on my hip. When the dog bolts across, the only thing my subconscious can think to do is get in a defensive posture (right foot back, 45 degrees, right hand going to hip for weapon, left hand up to block) and then I shout out "Ahhh *expletive*". Shouted it in a long and drawn out fashion. I don't know why, when I get surprised I just yell and go into Judo mode. It worked, dog ran off.
The only reason I bring this up is because I've been struggling about carry weapons. What safeties I want on them, if I prefer DA to SA, etc. Personally, tonight helped me get some perspective.
Without getting into the this gun is better than that gun debate, all I want to say.... is that when caught by surprise, I had a split second of panic.... before I could cognitively evaluate the situation and react (other than screaming and going into a defensive posture, which I guess is a step up above doing nothing). Had the dog attacked me, every nano-second would have counted and my brain's response already wasted one of them for me.
There are times in parking lots where I can see someone shady and avoid them or prepare myself, I've even engaged in verbal judo with a shady panhandler in a dark wal-mart parking lot once (told him firmly he needs to go back in the store and maintained control while keeping my back to the car and a defensive posture, the command voice works well on humans and even animals).
But, rather than go on and on.... I'll just say. It's the weirdest thing to get caught by surprise. I can imagine it would be similar to hearing someone break in the house while you are in a deep sleep. I don't know how you react. I just start screaming. I guess subconsciously my Viking battlecry helps to get my adrenaline going while hopefully off-balancing the other person. Weird.
But if the dog had come straight at me at the speed it was going, I probably wouldn't of even had time to get my gun out, it seemed like the blink of an eye. It's crazy how fast things can happen when you get caught by surprise. And it's crazy how dogs run away when you yell really loudly at them. I hope I didn't freak out the neighbors.