Non-motoring > Dealing with loose dogs Miscellaneous
Thread Author: smokie Replies: 31

 Dealing with loose dogs - smokie
So I'm doing a reasonable amount of countryside walking in Portugal at the moment. Weather is pleasant enough for it.

Many of the more isolated villas have dogs running loose in their garden, presumably for security as some of them are quite fierce looking beasts.

Today I came across two different sets of dogs which were outside their fence, and were on the path along which I wanted to go, and barking wildly at us.

I picked up a couple of hefty stones to try to crush a skull if need be (though I'd have probably ultimately lost that one) and SWMBO was waving at them in mild panic shouting Go Away.

As it happened only one dog came right up to us, and we strode on without staring at it and it left us alone. But I don't think these dogs are well trained.

What's the proper way to deal with them? I didn't really want to turn round and retrace my steps.
 Dealing with loose dogs - No FM2R
Water pistol. At least, that's what works with the strays here
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 02:27
 Dealing with loose dogs - Duncan
www.amazon.co.uk/K-II-Enterprises-Dog-Dazer-II/dp/B000IBRI2Y

It generates a sound that they don't like. Doesn't hurt them. I have got one here you can borrow if you want.

Edit
I thought it rang a bell
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=12445&m=280920
Last edited by: Duncan on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 06:50
 Dealing with loose dogs - Duncan
Reading that thread was a trip down memory lane!
 Dealing with loose dogs - Dog
Auld lang syne!
 Dealing with loose dogs - Lygonos
When I worked as a postie in my student days, a colleague who had been bitten a couple of times carried a spray can of Ralgex.

Apparently a quick scoot up the hooter and the dog would never come near you again.

I just avoided any house with a dog at large.

Dog in garden? No giro for you mate.
 Dealing with loose dogs - martin aston
i was bitten by a dog as a student. I was doing a door to door survey for a project. A friendly looking setter bounded up to me and bit my thigh, leaving four small canine puncture wounds.

I reported it to the local police beat officer who just said "You daft (mild expletive) why didn't you just miss that house out?"

In defence of police standards I should say that said officer was my dad but these were harsher times!

My anecdote aside I think loose guard dogs are a different proposition and that there is a risk of serious injury.
Last edited by: martin aston on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 08:34
 Dealing with loose dogs - R.P.
Reading that thread was a trip down memory lane!

Any dogs on it..
 Dealing with loose dogs - smokie
Duncan's device is a bit expensive (interestingly up by about 50% since he posted it in 2012, but good memory Duncan!) and the reviews suggest it is only patchy in it's efficaciousness. And there is no Amazon here in Portugal - served from Spain apparently

So I suppose a water pistol should be easy and cheap enough to obtain, though I don't weally want to be walking round with a loaded sper soaker - do you mean just an ordinary hand sized water pistol?

Think I may get myself a telescopic walking pole too, there were some in the local pound (Euro) shop.Could be useful for many things.
 Dealing with loose dogs - Zero
FFS, just ignore the thing, don't make eye contact and just calmly and confidently walk on by, and you won't get bit by a wild dog.


Silly little terriers on leads however is a different ball game
 Dealing with loose dogs - smokie
That's all very well and that's the advice I'd recalled and have been using, but some of these dogs are big beasts and seem pretty angry. I'm not the panicky type but I find them quite intimidating, as I think most would.

Yesterday a couple of hounds followed us along the path a bit and SWMBO wanted to look back to see if they were still with us (and about to jump on our backs) but I persuaded her not to. It was quite unnerving.
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 7 Mar 20 at 09:30
 Dealing with loose dogs - CGNorwich
Do as Zero says but carry a stout stick or walking pole. It gives you a degree of confidence. Only been bitten by a dog once and that was on a farm where I was staying . The farmer shot it.
 Dealing with loose dogs - Zero
>> www.amazon.co.uk/K-II-Enterprises-Dog-Dazer-II/dp/B000IBRI2Y
>>
>> It generates a sound that they don't like. Doesn't hurt them. I have got one
>> here you can borrow if you want.
>>
>> Edit
>> I thought it rang a bell
>> www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=12445&m=280920
>>

Did I tell you the first time they don't work?
 Dealing with loose dogs - Duncan
>> Did I tell you the first time they don't work?
>>

I told you they do.

That tripehound of yours would turn round.

You haven't improved in over 7 years, have you?

On another tack. Nice to come across a post from Armel Coussine?
 Dealing with loose dogs - Zero
>> >> Did I tell you the first time they don't work?
>> >>
>>
>> I told you they do.
>>

You still dont listen after all these years
 Dealing with loose dogs - Dog
When I lived in Tenerife I used to go walking well orf the beaten track, sometimes walking through peoples farmsteads.

I well remember once being lunged at by a Canarian Mastiff … fortunately he was on the end of a mega-heavy chain!!

Being as I've owned breeds such as GSD, Doberman, and now a Beauceron (French Shepherd) most dogs don't worry me but - I'm always wary of Rottweilers, Dobermans GSD's and other large breeds that are used as guard dogs.

Peops I've known deliberately do their best not to socialise their dogs .. I'm talking here of car repair garages in sowf lunden which I used to visit plus of course these 'ere fincas I mentioned ..best to keep ya hands in your pockets and don't look 'em in the eye!
 Dealing with loose dogs - Ambo
Someone on this forum directed me to this a while back:

www.wikihow.com/Handle-a-Dog-Attack
 Dealing with loose dogs - smokie
Useful, thanks.
 Dealing with loose dogs - R.P.
Reminds me of a walking holiday in 2001 around the island of Gozo - we were followed for miles by a small, non threatening, dog...nothing we could do could shake him off !
 Dealing with loose dogs - Robin O'Reliant
As posted here before, I'm minus a finger tip courtesy of a dog on the other side of a letterbox early last year.

During fourteen years spent calling on customers I was bitten about half a dozen times, all bar the above without injury. Yet a seven year spell working with German Shepherds back in the day I was never bitten, though everyone else I worked with was.
 Dealing with loose dogs - henry k
Even Crufts cannot control them all.

One out of control.
A judge was bitten on his nose by a bull terrier he was examining.
The " over exited " dog was disqualified.

A loose dog and out of control?
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8090657/Maisie-wire-haired-dachshund-Crufts-champion-let-victory-lap.html
 Dealing with loose dogs - VxFan
>> A judge was bitten on his nose by a bull terrier he was examining.
>> The " over exited " dog was disqualified.

Had no chance of winning by a nose then.
 Dealing with loose dogs - Dog
>>A judge was bitten on his nose by a bull terrier

Bull Terrier - say n'more!
 Dealing with loose dogs - Haywain
When I was surveying power-lines, I was confronted at one time or another by an extensive range of dog breeds. I carried dog biscuits in my left pocket, and a lock-knife in my right pocket. I never had to go into my right pocket.

I recall going through the gate to a farm, and one dog appeared from behind the barn - then another, then another. In the end, there were eight of them - various 'breeds', but by the time the rottweiller appeared, I had vaulted back over the gate. The only dog that ever nipped me was a miserable-looking greyhound as it walked down the road with its owner; it went for my arm but mostly got my sleeve.
 Dealing with loose dogs - Dog
>> by the time the rottweiller appeared, I had vaulted back over the gate.

LOL
 Dealing with loose dogs - CGNorwich
>> When I was surveying power-lines

The line man for the County?
 Dealing with loose dogs - Haywain
"The line man for the County?"

I was indeed, and when I was pacing through a field in the middle of Norfolk-nowhere, I used to sing it at the top of my voice. Happy daze.
 Dealing with loose dogs - smokie
We were shopping earlier and when I went to get some dog biscuits SWMBO stopped me cos she said they will smell them in my pocket and won't leave us alone. Does she have a point?

Also found one shop with telescopic walking canes but they only telescoped to half size so a bit big. I'd like one which fits in my pocket till required.

We walked 7+ miles up and down and up and down what felt like a small mountain today and didn't come across any loose dogs.
 Dealing with loose dogs - Robin O'Reliant
Dogs are not the only hazard. Calling on a farm one day I was confronted by three large and rather angry geese who made it very plain my presence wasn't welcome. I only just made it back to the car before they got to me.
 Dealing with loose dogs - Bromptonaut
>> Dogs are not the only hazard. Calling on a farm one day I was confronted
>> by three large and rather angry geese who made it very plain my presence wasn't
>> welcome. I only just made it back to the car before they got to me.

I thought about geese at start of this thread. Remember as a kid of 10 staying at High Tilberthwaite, a National Trust farm near Coniston, where an aggressive Gander made getting from car to house hazardous.

For many years the membership card stamp for Edale Youth Hostel featured the resident Goose.

I've a longer and dimmer memory of a Turkey at High Skellghyll farm who's patch we had to cross to access Catbells from our lodgings at Low Skellgyll.

In fact, to this day, I still think of a gate on the farm track under Catbells as 'The Turkey Gate'.
 Dealing with loose dogs - bathtub tom
SWMBO used to cycle pass a farm that had loose geese - she was terrified of them. One got its comeuppance when it attacked the owner, he was seen to swing it around his head holding on to its neck. Don't know if it cured it.
 Dealing with loose dogs - henry k
When I was at junior school and living at Twickenham in a terraced house we had a tame goose.
My school friends of course did not believe me.
My mother used to let it loose to greet me when I was almost home from school.
It would charge down the road and of course scared the life of my then friends.
A goose was a rare sight in those urban days and caused me much mirth.
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