Dog Attack

Last night I was on my way to the library at about 8:30, darkness had fallen. Typically I drive to the library since I live off campus, but I was feeling like taking a good walk. About 100 yards into my walk, I came across a stray dog that was barking at some other dogs. The stray was out in the front yard of a house, and the other dogs were in the backyard behind a tall fence. The stray was a good-sized black dog. I couldn’t make out the breed, but needless to say he was a force to be reckoned with. I saw the altercation going on between the dogs and figured I’d get over onto the other side of the rode-make it clear I was minding my own business. As I was doing so, the large stray turned his attention to me, apparently feeling threatened by my presence. He began to growl and approach slowly. I remained calm; decided I would head off in the direction opposite him in order to make it clear I wanted no trouble.

This technique didn’t work; the dog became even more infuriated! I peeked over my shoulder to see that he was only a few feet behind me, and not stopping for anything. He seemed to be in a frantic state and I no longer had a plan of attack. So what did I do? Probably the dumbest thing you could do; I ran. There was a pickup truck about 50 feet in the distance and I figured I could beat the beast to the bed of the pickup and recalculate from there, hoping he would eventually just turn back to the barking dogs. What I didn’t calculate was that a dog of this size could potentially jump itself into the same bed of the truck. I made it into the bed feeling like Benny “the Jet” Rodriquez in Sandlot.

This dog was foaming at the mouth trying to get up into the bed of the truck to do who knows what to me. At this point I was beyond freaked out and ready to call animal control. All of a sudden, a passing car with its lights on drove by the scene and noticed I was in a little bit of a jam. The motorist beeped his horn several times until the dog took off. I didn’t get a chance to thank her for what she did before she sped off but I was truly grateful. I jumped out of the bed and continued on to the library, laughing off what could have been a horrible situation.

This got me to thinking, what is the best technique when a dog or other animal approaches you like that? I didn’t think running away was the best, so I did some research, and here’s what I found:

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