Saturday afternoon I was at a family "thing" at a local park. Keep in mind that we live in a small town, about 6500 people. I took my pup over to get a drink at the shelter. One of my family members hollars at me, and I turned around. Coming right at us was the biggest friggin' dog I've ever seen and every hair on his back was standing straight up. I had no weapon, nothing to throw. So, I remembered what Ed said, took one step toward the dog (intact male, btw) and pointed at him. In my most fearless voice said, "NO". I had to do it again, but he did back off. The dog's temperament was pretty much summed up by the fact that his collar was a log chain held on by a padlock. When he started chasing the little kids around,hair still standing, my mother called the police. The most I can say for what they did was show up. Yes, we're required to have rabies tags and license tags on our pets, I was foolishly optomistic that the police would actually DO something, because he had neither. What's a person to do?

I forgot to mention that the owners were at the park. They were very young, with a couple of small children, under the age of 2. The cops called him over and talked to him, but, but didn't do anything. Then the couple casually got their stuff together, ie strollers, baby bag, etc. and walked off somewhere.

So the cops came, talked with them and they went away. As they are not equipped to transort dogs, this seems reasonable to me. A warning served all well, hopefully the handlers learned something too.
They don't license handlers, or parents for that matter. If a community did though, I was thinking that might eliminate the rush to BSL (breed specific law) as seems to be a growing concern.
Be glad there was no blood.

oops, transport, (as in no kennels in squad car)

Unfortunately I had a similar Saturday afternoon as yours. My husband and I went to our local park which we go to very frequently but we did have our pepper spray. My husband carries it on his belt and we headed into the park. When we first entered we passed a young couple with two dogs, both were big dogs and they were on those flexi leads. I could hear the husband talking to his dogs, so they wouldn’t start to react to our dog but they were on leads so we didn’t think anything of it. We were at the end of our walk and almost right to our car and these same people were sitting across from our car where there is the picnic area and I was standing in front of my husband and our dog and I hear my husband yell, “Call your dog NOW, call your dog or it’s gonna get sprayed!” I looked to my right and I could see one of their dogs running at me. I don’t know if it was actually coming at me or my dog but since I was in front it looked like it was coming at me. I yelled to it like you did but it didn’t stop and before I knew it my dog was coming in front of me and intercepted the loose dog. My dog came at it from the side so this other dog ended up bouncing off of my dog but then they started to fight! Meanwhile the other dog’s owners said nothing and made no attempt to either verbally or physically get control of their dog. Also their second dog was running loose and right at us. My husband yanked my dog back and sprayed their dog right in the face. The second dog was coming up right behind the other dog but stopped because I think it ran right into the cloud of spray. Only then did the people speak up and the woman was yelling at us, “Oh my God, what did you spray on my dog!” Both of their dogs at this point had backed up and they were able to grab onto them and my husband yelled to them, “It’s pepper spray, there is a reason there are leash laws, this is a state park and it’s a $75.00 fine for your dog to be unleashed!” The woman said again, “What did you spray on my dog!” He yelled back to her, “It’s pepper spray and I’ll be more than happy to call the cops right now if you want?!” They said nothing and as we got our dog into our truck, their second dog got loose again and ran at us but it did stop when I yelled, “NO!” and pointed at it. But it was me that had to yell at it all the women said when it got loose was, “Aaah, stupid dog!” (Yeah lady it’s the dog that’s stupid).

I am so thankful that we had our pepper spray because I can’t even imagine what would have happened if we didn’t. Oh and our dog was not hurt during the fight thankfully but that’s because it was stopped very quickly by my husband and the spray. Who knows what would have happened if both of their dogs had the chance to get at my dog.

I learned two very good lessons from this. 1) Is that even if the loose dog coming at you has owners near them, you can still very much be on your own as far as having to control the situation and in fact it can be worse because then you have to deal with the person yelling at you about what you sprayed on their dog and 2) is that pepper spray burns like something I don’t ever want to feel again because I don’t know if it got on our leash and I touched my face or what but I ended up having it under my nose and a little part on my lip and it was hell for about 20 minutes.

I guess the best thing to do is to handle the situation the best you can, which you did, and to always make sure to have something with you. In your instance your voice and posture worked, mine didn't. Thankfully neither of our dogs were hurt!

Once again, I think that Pepper Foam would be more effective here - it has less of a tendency to blow back against the user and is more visable on the dog/ perp.
http://www.tbotech.com/pepperfoam.htm
http://www.safetygearhq.com/pepperfoam.htm
http://www.chiefsupply.com/pepper_spray.phtml

Thanks Will, I will check that out the foam.

You can buy the pads that make it stop burning and tape a couple somewhere around the spray canister. Helps if you happen to get some on yourself or your dog.

QUOTE (Will): I think that Pepper Foam would be more effective here END

QUOTE (Cathy): You can buy the pads that make it stop burning and tape a couple somewhere END

Thanks, Danielle, Tim, and above. I am buying both ASAP.

And peoplle like that REPRODUCE, too! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />