Quote: Betty Landercasp

Just a few times of stepping between the strange dog and mine seemed to make my guy think that these odd dogs were my problem, not his.

Yes, me too, Betty.

Thank you all for the tips. They alll sound very good.

From the 3 dogs who came running with bodysigns of aggression two of them disappeared as I told, The third one came threateningly near. I think I once wrote about this. I managed somehow to keep my Pit behind me and I stamped against the other dog, so that he too went off. But it could have happened differently, Inimaginable, if my Pit had attacked. Awful to think about a dog fight.

The walking stick, Mike and recommend, makes lot of sense, but I never used one until now, though I heard about it from Ed too. I didn't use it, because I quite often have to be prepared to hold the leash with both hands in case a bugaboo turns unexpectedly up. People here let all kinds of animals roam, horses, asses, pigs, sheep etc. Then my dogs want to run towards them and the frightful ones try to run away. With my 40kg Pit we once met a huge swine. I thought she would pull against it and prepared myself leaning back with both hands on the leash. But she did the contrary, she tried to flee with all force and speed and nearly knocked me down. A stick would have hindered me to hold her and calm her down. Nevertheless a stick as an extended arm would probably be of great use. In an encounter with a horrorfigure (for the dogs) I could if necessary throw it away.

The umbrella Betty sounds good too. I think it would frighten away most dogs. But wouldn't i frighten my own dogs too? Well, I probably would first to desensitize them at home.
A pepperspray or something like that we are not allowed to use here. Apart from this I wouldn't want to hurt another animal, unless I had no other choice.

With all of those of you who speak about leadership I have to agree fully. In "normal" cases I think I have it, but again: far from 100%.