Ok, what would you guys have done???
My husband and I were walking our two shepherds, one is 3 and one is 6 months. This lady comes walking down the street with some poodle/terrier cross and her leash breaks, this dog comes running towards us teeth bared and barking its head off. I didn't think this dog would actually go for my dogs but it did. My husband was walking the older dog (with a prong) and since my older dog is dog aggressive he knew that if he got ahold of this small dog he would really hurt it, so (unfortunately) he held him very tight so as not to injure the small dog. This small dog was going for him, biting his butt and legs. Meanwhile I'm still in a daze, but made sure that this dog didn't get to my puppy. I did manage to yell "no" and smacked the dog (not very hard unfortunatley) on the beak and gave it a little kick but this dog kept coming and biting. If the owner was not right there I would have really gave it a good boot, but I felt bad as this dog was half the size of my dogs. When this lady finally got her stupid dog, she said NOTHING, and kept walking. My poor husbund felt bad as he was basically holding the older guy so he couldn't even defend himself.
Anyhow, I was glad nothing happened to my puppy, but now that I had the chance to think about it, I should have really gave this dog a kick.
Normally I walk my dogs alone, and I don't know what I would do if I had both of them and a larger aggressive dog was the offender.
Do you guys carry a big stick, and how do you defend two dogs at once?????

So let me get this straight the dog comes running after you with its teeth showing clearly going to bite someone maybe you or your dogs,and you don't let your 3 year old dog defend you guys? What am I missing here?

You did the right thing, no sense in letting your dogs kill it just because they could.

Seems to me the lady did have a leash on her dog so she tried to control her dog but couldn't when the leash broke.

I think if the dog was an actual threat you have to put your dogs on it but not with a terrier type.

Unless thet terrier got ahold of my pup I would not have "booted" him; good call on that one. I do hope you made a call to animal control. What would have happened if that dog weighed 100lbs? That owner needs to be held accountable regardless of the size of her dog. JMO.

I live in a area where there is a lot of woods and a lot of stray dogs and I always have a walking stick with me and pepper spray when I walk her around the block, there are too many stray pitbulls around here and I will not hesitate to unload on them if they get to close and hit them with the stick if need be, before they have a chance to lock down on me or my GSD. I will be the person to take control of the situation and not let either dog do it before any escalation

thanx for the reply Joe. Yes, I agree that WE should be the ones to protect the dog(s), and not the other way around. I was trying to do this, I just did a poor job of it. Next time I think I will carry a stick as you mentioned.

This womans leash broke and thats not her fault, but it is her duty to grab up her dog and apologize and make sure every dog is okay. I would be embarrassed,but you have to be normal. My daughter was walking our 2 dogs the other day, and a neighbors dog came out into the street, barking and yiping at our dogs, she had all she could do to hang on to our dogs as they wanted to defend themselves, and she ended up on her butt in the street as she fell on the snow and ice, the people never came out to get their dog or see if my daughter was okay. Then the next house, their dog came out to the street a shreking at the dogs again, and bared its teeth. No one was outside to call this dog back. I am taking a stick next time, this has happened time and again and we are tired of it. We need to protect our dogs that are on prongs and leashes and are being restrained. I just would like neighbors to be neighborly and at least act like they care we are being terriorized.

With young or small dogs, pick them up. They must learn that you will always protect them. That also leaves you legs free for kicking if necessary.

I'm a stickler for rules so I would probably confront the lady and call animal control when I got home. If she had said something or been apologetic I would consider not calling animal control. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

In the city I live in, that would be considered "running at large" and subject to a $198 fine.