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Originally Posted by erinmarie I don't know where you live, but I would get a can of pepper spray and take it with you when you walk. Practice spraying it in a safe outside place, so that you will know how it works if you ever need it again. I hope you don't ever need it again, but it's better to be prepared. |
This is good advice. I actually have some myself for the same reason. Like I said, we have a lot of big dogs in our area & I'm not able to protect myself against them, much less myself and Sadie. Even if I picked her up, we're both still at a level to be seriously hurt. So I do have some pepper spray that I carry, but admit that I don't carry it all the time. I'd never want to have to spray another animal, but if it came down to me & my dog vs. the other dog, there'd be no decision to make.
I had a neighbor that never has her dog on a leash. One day the dog came up to us quickly. It wasn't really being aggressive, but was wanting to sniff Sadie & stuff (but how did I know it WASN'T going to be aggressive). Sadie was scared & so was I. She kept moving, so I couldn't reel her leash in enough to pick her up. The neighbor wasn't even trying to get her dog away from us. I said, "Can you please get your dog so I can pick mine up?" She said, "God, you act like it's hurting you or something." That really p***** me off. Big time. Some people have no consideration for others. I mean, even though I'm a dog person, I don't like big dogs if I don't know them. Because of a medical condition, I am small and if a big dog even bumped into me hard enough, it would knock me down & that could cause big problems for me.
It's not all big dogs...just ones I don't know. My brother has a 90lb Lab and she's the SWEETEST thing you could ever meet. However, I don't let Sadie near her. When Sadie was small, Sissy kicked her accidentally & it hurt her. She would never intentionally hurt her, but she doesn't realize her size.