When would you shoot a dog in self defense?

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Ah, war stories!

Last summer my boss and I were on an island in the Tennessee River that is maintained as a primitive campground. Our job was to maintain the campground, which we normally did on Monday and Friday mornings when the island was usually deserted. One day while returning to our tied-up boat, a huge pit bull came over the top of the hill and stood and stared at us. We had no way of knowing if the dog was there with people (we had seen no people or boats as we walked around the island) or had been dropped off on the island. I stopped putting on my life jacket and just stood and watched him. He started running towards us from about 75 yards away and I pulled my .380 out of my back pocket holster and assumed a ready position, fully intending to shoot the dog if necessary. When the dog got about 30 feet from us, he stopped, smiled and wagged his tail. My boss shooed him and he turned and loped back over the hill. We got our jackets on, untied the boat and got out of Dodge. Never saw him again, so I guess a boat had pulled up on the far side of the island while we were packing up and the owner had let Marmaduke out for a run. :rolleyes:
 
My wife and I usually take the dog along on our walk/jogs. (Only one can go at a time since we have small kids.) I was trotting along when two medium-size Maillots charged from their house out toward the cheap wire fence the owner had put up around his acre lot after building his new home.

The dogs had dug a hole on one side, but the guy had left his gate open, too. Both dogs came out with full attack display. One nailed my dog with his snout on the shoulder to try to roll him, but my Brittany shrugged him off and took up a defensive posture by me; ready to take both of them on. I had my P22 out and was about to fire, but the dogs all froze in pre-attack crouch about 4' away from me and my dog. I figured if either one moved, I would start shooting, since I had a good backstop (the hill/incline up toward the guy's house.)

The owner came running out and grabbed his dogs. He started in on me for having the gun and getting ready to shoot the dogs, but I quickly disabused him of that idea.
I explained that my dog was on a leash. His were out on the public thoroughfare ROW, unrestrained. I went on to explain that I was glad that he showed up when he did because I really loved dogs and it would be traumatic for me to have to shoot such fine animals who were owned by such an obviously careless owner. It would be a shame for me to have to shoot his dogs, sue him, and be living in his new house due to the psychlogical trauma his failure to shut his gate, train his dogs, and exercise due diligence in monitoring his dogs. I also told him that it was fortunate I had come along instead of my wife and kids - or any other small children - who might have run and set off the dogs' predatory instincts.

I advised him (as a good neighbor) that it was only because of my training and familiarity with canine behavior that he didn't have two dead dogs and a major lawsuit on his hands. I told him that I would be reporting this incident to the S/O and that he had better get a good fence and gate, as well as some form of restraint on the dogs.

He got the "hint" and we're real friendly now, too. Hell, his gate and fence are nicer than mine...
 
A couple years ago, I was out for my morning run when 2 dogs attacked me. I was able to kick one hard on the nose but #2 got my right leg. I would have shot both :cuss: :fire:
I would shoot to protect me or mine
 
Have before and probably will again

I have no problem killing a dog- If it's loose and charges me it's dead meat. End of story.
 
all the dogs I have shot have been in defense of livestock. I am lucky that no dog has ever tried to attack me or my family. I would kill then, too.
 
Love dogs,
currently have 7 of them. Spent 5 years as a military dog handler and have been bit so many time it is not funny. Won't tolerate being bittne by a stray though.
Livestock killers eliminated this year 7.
Eliminated while riding my bike 2

Around here if you call animal control and ask them to come get a stray they ask if you live in the city limits or not. If you are in the city, they come, if you live outside the city the response is shoot em. Feral dogs were a big problem here and the community won't tolerate it any more. Fine for failure to contro your dog: $500.

Sam
 
Use pepper spray and you'll never have to shoot a dog. I have fogged dozens aggressive attacking dogs with OC10 and only had to administer a second dose to 2 of them. Fogging them with the shotgun type spray stream has never failed me. Never.

If I had to make a rule of thumb it would be, if the dog comes through the fogging and latches on to me it will be easy and justifible to put a bullet through the top of its head or neck.

OK, nows where we can discuss the hazards of your auto going out of battery when you press the muzzle to its head. It would never happen with a revolver you know. :evil:
 
Our neighbor has a shepard who has nipped two kids. The first was my daughter, didn't break the skin. The dog was on a leash and she got too close, she was 10 and had been told not to go near the dog. They paid for the ER trip to have her leg checked. However I have told the owner the next time, no matter if the dog is tied, the dog is dead in his yard.

I walk the neighborhood early mornings and carry a 6 ft stave, pepper spray and a M1911A1. That is probably the order of use. Not so worried about dogs at 5:00 AM as I am of coyotes or skunks.
 
I would shoot a dog in a heartbeat if I felt that the intent and the ability to carry out the intent to harm me was there. Just like a human.

The breed du' jour in my neighborhood seems to be pit bulls, so I always have either a Remington 870 with slugs and buck or a Marlin 1894 in .44mag loaded with 300gr. softpoints handy. I don't have a particular problem with the "pit" breeds in particular, but A- I don't know the lineage of these dogs and knowing what I do about our area, they probably come from fighting stock and B- I don't trust most of the owners to be able to raise and train a breed like this in such a way that they will be as close to 100% stable as a dog can get.


W
 
What about the little ol' lady walking that route the next day, who doesn't have pepper spray?

Shoot 'em.
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My feelings exactly. It's not like OC will teach them that their behavior is wrong. It MAY teach them to stay away from YOU, but it doesn't correct their behavior.
 
Quote:
"I walk the neighborhood early mornings and carry a 6 ft stave, pepper spray and a M1911A1. That is probably the order of use. Not so worried about dogs at 5:00 AM as I am of coyotes or skunks."

Skunks? Lol! Dude, thanks for putting that picture in my head! :eek:
 
I have fogged dozens aggressive attacking dogs with OC10 and only had to administer a second dose to 2 of them. Fogging them with the shotgun type spray stream has never failed me. Never.
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Which make and model of pepper spray do you use? (I had to spray a dog with Mace Pepper Gard one time. I was underwhelmed by its effectiveness.)
 
The MSDS says Halt is 0.35% Capsaicin. Halt II is 1% Capsaicin. What % Capsaicin is the Fox pepper spray?
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I just read up on this. Percent capsaicin doesn't mean much -- it depends on the quality and purity of the capsaicin.

The strength of hot peppers is measured in Scoville Heat Units. A good pepper spray will be rated at 2 million SHU or better. The Fox Labs stuff runs about 2.5 to 3 million.

Amazingly, some states limit how many ounces of the stuff you can carry, and some limit the percent of capsaicin they can hold. As far as I know, so far none of them limits the SHU rating.

For this reason, you might be much better off with Fox's 2% capsaicin at 3,000,000 SHU than 10% of some poor quality pepper juice.

(I don't work for Fox, but they are consistently rated highly by people who seem to know).

SelfDefenseGear.com, part of selfdefenseforums.com, has a free e-book at http://www.selfdefensegear.com/Downloads/MDS1.exe (I know -- it's an EXE -- scary -- but it's just a self-extracting ZIP of a PDF) called "MODERN DEFENSE SPRAYS" that goes over this stuff.

See my post here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=1383099&postcount=8
 
Gordy

Use pepper spray and you'll never have to shoot a dog.
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Um,not really. There was a few cases in the Bay area where LEO's used pepper spray on pitbulls with no affect at all,they had to shoot.
I've used tons of spray on the vagrants of Frisco,so far the dogs are much nicer.
 
I've had to shoot several dogs, both duty related and non duty related. My old dept's policy was to shoot any dog that was attacking, we didn't HAVE to pepper spray them. The area also had a problem with marauding packs of pittbulls for about a year. I've sprayed 2 pitts that were totally unaffected, after the 2nd experience I quit trying the spray on them. My worst experience was while hiking in rural part of my hometown. Me and my fiance were hiking and we were following some old railroad tracks that ran thru a small tunnel. We walked thru the tunnel and I saw a large shepard-looking dog milling around about 100yrds out. We weren't heading towards it, but once it saw us, it started growling and ran flat out at me. I managed to clear my sidearm, a P220 at the time and I fired at the dog, missed, and the shot fell a bit short of the dog. The dog latched onto my left arm. I was wearing a bulky parka and it tore into it pretty good. The dog was up on its hind legs at this point and I emptied the P220 into it's midsection, it was still latched onto my arm and I clubbed it in the head with the empty gun, at this point it let go and tried to run away but collapsed and died. I suffered minor abrasions to my arm and my sleeve was chewed up pretty good. After that experience I pretty much don't want anything to do with dogs anymore.
 
If you're a responsible dog owner you'll keep it under control. Otherwise you have no right to complain when the dog does not return home.
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Amen Shooter973.

I have absolutely no problem whatsoever whackin' a dog in defense of myself, someone else, or dogs that are running loose and being a nuisance. If they are found on my property they get turned inside out. No warnings. No hesitation. No apologies. I wouldn't let my animals loose to harrass the neighbors and I expect the same courtesy.
Some years ago a friend's son was mauled by a dog. He was two at the time and was nearly killed. He's a teenager now and still carries the scars.
I recently responded to dog bite complaint. The victim was a four year old boy who was bitten in the face and received puncture wounds to his lip and chin. He still has and always will have the scars from that one. Needless to say the dog was destroyed. What I couldn't understand was the owner acting like the dog had done nothing wrong. Over the years I've responded to several dog bite and owner response is typical. They deny their dog could have bitten anyone. They're animals fer crissake incapable of reason and knowing right from wrong.
I do not understand the relationship people have with animals, but for those in those relationships, need keep their animals under control.
Sorry if this took on the character of a rant, but loose, uncontrolled dogs and irresponsible owners are a sore spot with me.
So to answer your original question "When would you shoot a dog in self-defense"?
The answer is.............At the first opportunity.
 
i went to a military school

run by the benedictine brothers
one day in study hall brother jerome startled us all. He wa outside the classroom blasting 2 stray dogs that had wondered onto the property
whoa very disturbing. The first shot blew the dogs left rear leg off. He went up and stuck the muzzle at the dogs neck and blew its head off second shot.
sisnt see the other dog get shot.
the thing is the way he looked and the way he was moving it looked like he was doing combat or some kinda execution.
Sorry i wont whack a dog for just being on my property
I might shoot a cat though. 8)
 
If there's a dog that poses a real, immediate threat to me or a member of my family, I will shoot it.
Period.

(Caveat - just because a dog is running loose, that doesn't make it a threat . . . most dogs, even strays, are friendly. And you've got to be a little bit reasonable . . . a threatening Rottweiler is very different than a snarling Chihuahua!)
 
If you are confronted by an agressive dog and it tries to attack you, you should shoot it. The state police and a dog catcher were down yesterday to deal with a situation like this with our ex-neighbors. There have been numerous complaints about a violent dog that they have but nothing was ever done about it. About six weeks ago they moved out and about a month ago they stopped feeding the dogs. My sister fed the german shepard they had because it is friendly and you can get close enough to feed it.
No one has been feeding the agressive one though (it is a tchao). It got loose a few days ago and started terrorizing people, then got injured (probably by a car but it wouldn't suprise me if someone beat the hell out of him). Anyhow, there we are with this agressive, hungry, injured dog. It is literally right next to a bus stop and the bus was just about due to be there.
After we got the kids off the bus the dog catcher showed up and everyone not wearing a uniform got the hell out of their way. They tried to catch the dog but that didn't work. At one point they pepper sprayed him but that just made him mad. Then they chased it everywhere until it got away and ran into the woods above our house. I could have shot it safely at that point. My SMLE is in the corner and the mag is loaded in my hunting vest. But I let them go figuring that they knew what they were doing.
Just then, they gave up and set a live trap for it.

It would have been alot easier for them to just shoot it and go drink some coffee.
I will say that the responding officers were not what I expected. Despite the outcome, they were very courteous and professional and they even seemed grateful for our assistance.
 
If I shot every dog that chased after me on a 40 mile ride on my bike. That would be four a day, 4-5 days a week in the summer. Four a week in the winter. I would not be able to afford it. Most all dogs will stop if you just yell and charge them. I would have to be bit before I shot one dog. A pack of dogs is a different story. When I am riding in Richmond it is not a problem. Out in Hanover or New kent. There are dogs all over the place. Hell they run deer with dogs that then find a road and chase the funny looking deer( me). They are nice walker hounds. Think about what you are doing. Shooting rounds at something when a yell would most likely do the job. Not every problem is a nail just because you have a hammer. Patrick :confused:
 
A chihuahua can rip a man's sock clean off.. I wouldn't call it non dangerous.
 
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