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bullsi1911
ModeratorPosts: 11,247 Senior Member
Dog attack- defensive gun ‘use’
bullsi1911
ModeratorPosts: 11,247 Senior Member
Enough time has elapsed now with no further developments that I guess I can relate this story that happened last week.
I work from home every day- not just during the pandemic. Part of my ‘routine’ is to take one or both dogs for a walk in the afternoon to get away from the desk and enjoy the neighborhood. Last Monday, I was going to hook up the young dog when the old dog decided he wanted to go as well. Our older dog is very elderly, half blind, mostly deaf, slightly senile, and cant go very far. When he gets out on a walk, we usually just go a few hundred yards, then drop him back at the house while I take the other idiot... i mean dog... for a mile or two.
So- its still cold outside. I have a gun on my belt, but when I throw on a jacket, I just drop a small gun in the jacket pocket as well.
I get out, and get not even two houses down the street when I see two Pitt Bulls turbo out of a house about 2 doors further down the street, and visually lock on to us. They start snarling and barrel down the sidewalk direct at us. The younger dog sees this, his back hair goes up, he puffs up and starts barking at these two dogs. So- of course, the Pitts just start barreling at us faster.
Old dog- has no clue what’s going on. Sniffing at a bush, checking pee-mail.
When I walk the dogs, I’m in the habit of keeping both leashes in my left hand to keep the right free for any ‘social work’ that might be needed. It’s just part of the normal- I also don't carry grocery bags in my right hand.
I get the command voice on and start shouting commands at the dogs. Don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something along the lines of “get back” “stop,” etc... all this is going on in just mere seconds.
Well, the dogs all meet. Our younger dog meets the charge like a champ (15 pound rat terrier versus a probably 50 lb Pitt), turning the larger of the two attackers and spinning him into the bush. Old dog just gets clobbered and bowled over. Thats when that attacking dog dog meets a size 14 boot up close and personal to his chest. I then kick the hell out of the first dog, when I see the second one going for my old dog again. I make the conscious decision “This is not how his story ends. If that dog latches on to Old Dog, things are going to get loud.” Thats when the pocket gun comes out. Young dog and first attacker are getting at it again, so that Pitt gets another dose of “boot to the chest”.
Right about here, one of the neighbors (a good friend of the wife) is driving by, sees what’s going on, and lays on the horn trying to scare off the attacking dogs. It’s just chaos, yelling, snarling barking dogs, horns blaring, some dumbass with gun in hand....
I land a couple more kicks on the Pitts, and a lady that I assume is the owner (Never seen her before, but the house they all came out of is a rental) comes out to the sidewalk and starts yelling for the dogs. I finally create enough room with a few more kicks for me to yank my young dog back by the leash. The one Pitt that is attacking the old dog goes trotting back to the lady, while the bigger one steps back a few feet, lifts his leg, marks a bush, and trots back home.
I talk for a few seconds with the neighbor that stopped her car (I later find out from my wife she is a super liberal NJ transplant- but she never said anything about the gun), then go back home.
So- aftermath. Not much. No shots fired. I bruised the heck out of the top of my right foot kicking the dogs. Couple of odd conversations with next door neighbors. “Did your cameras catch anything odd Monday at about 2:30?” Found out from one neighbor that the dogs and the lady that called them were just visiting with the people in the rental house. So- hopefully no long term issues with “You kicked my dogs!” My dogs were not injured, and aside from some slobber on them were no worse for the wear
Lessons-
1) Non lethal options. I misplaced my can of pepper spray a few weeks ago. More has been ordered and is back in the daily load out. It sure would have been easier to give them a squirt of hot sauce at 10 feet then to go through all that.
2) Hardware- the gun on my belt (under a shirt, under a buttoned jacket) is a gun I have 100% faith in. A CZ P-10C that I have competed with, trained with, and won some contests with. The gun in my pocket that I had when the balloon went up? A gun that was specifically bought for the purpose of “If I need to throw this in a dumpster in Vegas, I won’t care!”—an SCCY CPX2. While it did exactly what I needed it to, I have much better choices for a gun that I may be defending my life or the life of dogs/ family with.
3) As with other defense encounters, I am very gad I did not have to shoot. I knew my ‘line in the sand’, and was able to work/ fight to make sure it was not crossed.
All in all, it was a terrifying few moments.
I work from home every day- not just during the pandemic. Part of my ‘routine’ is to take one or both dogs for a walk in the afternoon to get away from the desk and enjoy the neighborhood. Last Monday, I was going to hook up the young dog when the old dog decided he wanted to go as well. Our older dog is very elderly, half blind, mostly deaf, slightly senile, and cant go very far. When he gets out on a walk, we usually just go a few hundred yards, then drop him back at the house while I take the other idiot... i mean dog... for a mile or two.
So- its still cold outside. I have a gun on my belt, but when I throw on a jacket, I just drop a small gun in the jacket pocket as well.
I get out, and get not even two houses down the street when I see two Pitt Bulls turbo out of a house about 2 doors further down the street, and visually lock on to us. They start snarling and barrel down the sidewalk direct at us. The younger dog sees this, his back hair goes up, he puffs up and starts barking at these two dogs. So- of course, the Pitts just start barreling at us faster.
Old dog- has no clue what’s going on. Sniffing at a bush, checking pee-mail.
When I walk the dogs, I’m in the habit of keeping both leashes in my left hand to keep the right free for any ‘social work’ that might be needed. It’s just part of the normal- I also don't carry grocery bags in my right hand.
I get the command voice on and start shouting commands at the dogs. Don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something along the lines of “get back” “stop,” etc... all this is going on in just mere seconds.
Well, the dogs all meet. Our younger dog meets the charge like a champ (15 pound rat terrier versus a probably 50 lb Pitt), turning the larger of the two attackers and spinning him into the bush. Old dog just gets clobbered and bowled over. Thats when that attacking dog dog meets a size 14 boot up close and personal to his chest. I then kick the hell out of the first dog, when I see the second one going for my old dog again. I make the conscious decision “This is not how his story ends. If that dog latches on to Old Dog, things are going to get loud.” Thats when the pocket gun comes out. Young dog and first attacker are getting at it again, so that Pitt gets another dose of “boot to the chest”.
Right about here, one of the neighbors (a good friend of the wife) is driving by, sees what’s going on, and lays on the horn trying to scare off the attacking dogs. It’s just chaos, yelling, snarling barking dogs, horns blaring, some dumbass with gun in hand....
I land a couple more kicks on the Pitts, and a lady that I assume is the owner (Never seen her before, but the house they all came out of is a rental) comes out to the sidewalk and starts yelling for the dogs. I finally create enough room with a few more kicks for me to yank my young dog back by the leash. The one Pitt that is attacking the old dog goes trotting back to the lady, while the bigger one steps back a few feet, lifts his leg, marks a bush, and trots back home.
I talk for a few seconds with the neighbor that stopped her car (I later find out from my wife she is a super liberal NJ transplant- but she never said anything about the gun), then go back home.
So- aftermath. Not much. No shots fired. I bruised the heck out of the top of my right foot kicking the dogs. Couple of odd conversations with next door neighbors. “Did your cameras catch anything odd Monday at about 2:30?” Found out from one neighbor that the dogs and the lady that called them were just visiting with the people in the rental house. So- hopefully no long term issues with “You kicked my dogs!” My dogs were not injured, and aside from some slobber on them were no worse for the wear
Lessons-
1) Non lethal options. I misplaced my can of pepper spray a few weeks ago. More has been ordered and is back in the daily load out. It sure would have been easier to give them a squirt of hot sauce at 10 feet then to go through all that.
2) Hardware- the gun on my belt (under a shirt, under a buttoned jacket) is a gun I have 100% faith in. A CZ P-10C that I have competed with, trained with, and won some contests with. The gun in my pocket that I had when the balloon went up? A gun that was specifically bought for the purpose of “If I need to throw this in a dumpster in Vegas, I won’t care!”—an SCCY CPX2. While it did exactly what I needed it to, I have much better choices for a gun that I may be defending my life or the life of dogs/ family with.
3) As with other defense encounters, I am very gad I did not have to shoot. I knew my ‘line in the sand’, and was able to work/ fight to make sure it was not crossed.
All in all, it was a terrifying few moments.
To make something simple is a thousand times more difficult than to make something complex.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
Replies
Many years back, while living in the sticks, I got home from work around dusk, parked my truck by the backyard deck, and a mangy looking German Shepard mix kind of thing launched itself from under the deck and quickly treed me onto the hood of my truck. After a minute or two he trotted off into the nearby woodsline.
I didn't really think that much about it at the time...just one of those things. But, it happened again the next evening. On the third evening, he caught a .357 Mag Glaser Blue center of chest. The only dog I enjoyed putting down.
Mike
N454casull
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
Though you knew that your "attackers" belonged to someone instead of being part of a roaming pack MIGHT have made a difference in my cases...
SSS
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
Interestingly enough down here an unsecured dog on public or private property that attacks or even gives you reason to believe it may attack i.e running toward you is allowed to be killed by any means available, its considered to be the owners burden to control their animal.
Private property, shooting unknown dogs on sight is common and legal.
I figure to use a knife after teeth are sunk into my hide. Images of injury matter in the aftermath.
Kicking sounds good also.
Winston Churchill